Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

LEIPZIG, Germany, April 28–Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival moved a step closer to their first individual world championship with a convincing Grand Prix victory of more than 80 per cent Thursday, leading the lineup for the musical freestyle that will determine the 2011 World Cup title on Saturday night.

Denmark’s Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein on her Olympic mount Digby was the surprising runnerup with a personal best Grand Prix score of 76.884 per cent, beating top Germans Ulla Salzgeber and Isabell Werth who each have two World Cup titles on their resumes. The princess has been balancing motherhood and horses since she gave birth to a boy last summer.

Defending champion Edward Gal of The Netherlands struggled with a very tense Sisther de Jeu and finished in the middle of the field behind countryman Hans Peter Minderhoud on Exquis Nadine and Sweden’s Patrik Kittel on Watermill Scandic H.B.C.

Jan Ebeling of Moorpark, California, led a trio of U.S. riders with a 10th place finish on Rafalca, one slot ahead of German-based Catherine Haddad-Staller on Winyamaro while Shawna Harding of Aiken, South Carolina, and Come on III finished in the 15th spot. All three made it to the freestyle of the top 15 horses and riders, a marked difference from 2010 when no North Americans competed in the World Cup Final for the first time in its 26-year history.

“Redemption!” was the one-word exclamation from Jan after the result was announced, even though it showed a high score of 71.383 per cent from judge Gary Rockwell and a low of 65.319 per cent from Italy’s Vincenzo Truppa.

Jan was referring to the last World Cup the pair competed in, at Las Vegas in 2009 when the arena walls were covered in black material and when Rafalca came into the arena to begin their freestyle the judge at “C” dressed in white stood up to accept the salute from Jan and spooked the horse. Whenever Rafalca passed by the judge’s location the mare spooked.

Shawna Harding said of her first ever World Cup competition, “I’m very happy with my horse in this huge atmosphere. He was tense in the walk and we had mistakes in the canter zig zag, otherwise he was super and ready to do his job. I’m excited for the freestyle.”

Concerns were expressed at a post-competition news conference about the bottom half of the start list not being in the same global championship league as the combinations that finished in the top half. And although Adelinde and Parzival have routinely scored above 80 per cent in the Grand Prix, breaking that level with her score of 80.957 per cent maintained the standard of the most recent years. Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas were beaten by Adelinde and Parzival in the Final Grand Prix at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, last year, but the superstar black stallion went on to become champion in the freestyle.

And the results for Adelinde and Parzival in the hotly contested Western European League of 10 qualifying events this year were outstanding by any standard–capturing all five of the competitions they entered.

The second section of the competition had several highlights aside from the winning pair, with a lovely test from up-and-coming German star Helen Langehanenberg who steered Damon Hill NRW into a temporary lead with a mark of 73.480 per cent.

However, Adelinde, drawn fifth from the end, broke new ground when Parzival earned 80.957 per cent, a world of difference from just a year ago when the 14-year-old KWPN gelding by Jazz was still spooky despite the years the two have been partnered.

“He is more and more relaxed,” she began, and quickly added, “He really loves it. He likes to go in the ring now and he just goes for it.”

Isabell Werth and Satchmo, who became the center of debate over judging when they were awarded medals at the 2008 Olympics despite serious disobedience that led to an overhaul of dressage, started strongly but their score of 74.818 per cent was never going to challenge for the lead.

Then, Adelinde’s Dutch team mate, Hans Peter Minderhoud, was two marks further in arrears with Exquis Nadine. Ulla Salzgeber on Herzruf’s Erbe was second last into the arena and awarded 76.216 per cent to move into runner-up spot with only Princess Nathalie and Digby to go.

“I’m rather speechless, actually,” the Danish rider said. “If someone had told me four years ago that this little horse would, even once in his life, produce a score of 76 I would have said yes, well, really… but he tries his heart out and I’m really thankful to him for how hard he tries”.

She feels he has improved rapidly.

“There is now a lot of expression in his trot,” she said, “this has developed over the winter months, and after Den Bosch I can ask more now in the arena and he gives it to me willingly.” She talked about the challenge of managing her baby and her competitive career.

“The child comes first, of course” she said, “but I have found a way to balance things between my child and the horses–I have fantastic girls and a fantastic husband so it is working very well” she added.

The new dressage Supervisory Panel that is like a watchdog over the judges–and there were seven of those as it was, instead of the five there were up until a year ago–was in action here, and was active.

International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Dressage Director Trond Asmyr said: “They changed four marks–one mark for four different riders–and this information is not confidential in any way. We want to have the system completely open, so the riders will get a copy of their test sheet to show exactly what has been done and how the marks were altered.”

The order-of-go for Saturday’s Freestyle was then drawn and is as follows : 1, Winyamaro (Catherine Haddad-Staller) USA; 2, Come On lll (Shawna Harding) USA; 3, Weinzauber (Robert Acs) HUN; 4, Artemis (Richard Davison) GBR; 5, Edwador (Katarzyna Milczarek) POL; 6, Rafalca (Jan Ebeling) USA; 7, Sisther de Jeu (Edward Gal) NED; 8, Exquis Nadine (Hans Peter Minderhoud) NED; 9, Apollo van het Vijverhof (Jeroen Devroe) BEL; 10, Watermill Scandic HBC (Patrik Kittel) SWE; 11, Damon Hill NRW (Helen Langehanenberg) GER; 12, Digby (Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein) DEN; 13, Jerich Parzival (Adelinde Cornelissen) NED; 14, Herzruf’s Erbe (Ulla Salzgeber) GER; 15, Satchmo 78 (Isabell Werth) GER.

Complete Grand Prix results:

Judge K : Gary Rockwell (USA)
Judge E : Katrina Wüst (GER)
Judge H : Stephen Clarke (GBR)
Judge C : Ghislain Fouarge (NED)
Judge M : Vincenzo Truppa (ITA)
Judge B : Wojtek Markowski (POL)
Judge F : Leif Törnblad (DEN)

		HORSE – Breeding sex\colour\born\sire x siredam\		€	K	E	H	C	M	B	F	%
		RIDER owner			Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank
1		Jerich Parzival – KWPN G \ Chestnut \ 1997 \ Jazz x Ulft		7000	84.681	81.277	80.000	81.489	79.043	80.532	79.681	80.957
		Adelinde  Cornelissen (NED) W.P.J. & M.A. Cornelissen, H. Jerich			( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )
2		Digby – DWB G \ DarkBay \ 1997 \ Donnerhall x Sandro		5500	76.170	76.596	77.234	77.553	77.128	77.234	76.277	76.884
		Nathalie zu  Sayn-Wittgenstein (DEN) Nathalie Sayn-Wittgenstein			( 3 )	( 3 )	( 2 )	( 2 )	( 2 )	( 2 )	( 3 )
3		Herzruf´s Erbe – RHEIN G \ Chestnut \ 1999 \ Herzruf x Caletto I		4250	76.809	76.809	75.745	75.957	75.426	75.532	77.234	76.216
		Ulla  Salzgeber (GER) Ulla Salzgeber			( 2 )	( 2 )	( 3 )	( 4 )	( 4 )	( 3 )	( 2 )
4		Satchmo – HANN G \ Bay \ 1994 \ Sao Paulo x Legat		3250	74.574	73.830	74.574	76.064	76.915	72.660	75.106	74.818
		Isabell  Werth (GER) Madeleine Winter-Schulze, Birgitte Werth			( 4 )	( 4 )	( 4 )	( 3 )	( 3 )	( 6 )	( 4 )
5		Damon Hill NRW – WESTF S \ DarkChestnut \ 2000 \ Donnerhall x Rubinstein I		2000	74.149	73.617	73.617	73.404	72.234	74.043	73.298	73.480
		Helen  Langehanenberg (GER) Christian Becks			( 5 )	( 5 )	( 6 )	( 5 )	( 5 )	( 4 )	( 6 )
6		Exquis Nadine – KWPN M \ Chestnut \ 1995 \ TCN Partout x Roemer		1500	72.553	71.702	73.723	73.298	70.532	72.766	74.043	72.660
		Hans Peter  Minderhoud (NED) Team Exquis			( 6 )	( 6 )	( 5 )	( 6 )	( 6 )	( 5 )	( 5 )
7		Watermill Scandic H.B.C – KWPN S \ Chestnut \ 1999 \ Solos Carex DVH 609 x Amiral ZW.P.S.		1000	70.851	70.638	71.383	69.468	69.255	70.000	71.277	70.410
		Patrik  Kittel (SWE) J.W. Greve & HBC Stal			( 8 )	( 7 )	( 7 )	( 7 )	( 7 )	( 8 )	( 7 )
8		Sisther de Jeu – KWPN M \ Bay \ 1999 \ Gribaldi x Amor		500	71.809	69.681	70.106	69.149	69.043	70.213	70.851	70.122
		Edward  Gal (NED) Emma de Jeu			( 7 )	( 8 )	( 8 )	( 8 )	( 8 )	( 7 )	( 8 )
9		Apollo van het Vijverhof – BWP G \ Bay \ 2000 \ Welt Hit II x Rittmeister			70.000	68.723	67.872	68.085	68.404	67.447	68.830	68.480
		Jeroen  Devroe (BEL) bvba Dressage Devroe			( 9 )	( 9 )	( 11 )	( 10 )	( 9 )	( 12 )	( 12 )
10		Rafalca – OLDBG M \ Bay \ 1997 \ Argentinus x Rubinstein			68.085	68.298	68.191	66.596	65.319	68.085	69.468	68.191
		Jan  Ebeling (USA) Amy Roberts Ebeling			( 11 )	( 10 )	( 10 )	( 12 )	( 13 )	( 9 )	( 10 )
11		Winyamaro – HANN G \ Chestnut \ 2000 \ Walt Disney I x Trapper			69.255	65.957	65.000	68.617	64.787	67.979	69.787	67.340
		Catherine  Haddad-Staller (USA) Catherine Haddad			( 10 )	( 13 )	( 13 )	( 9 )	( 15 )	( 10 )	( 9 )
12		Ekwador – PHBA S \ Grey \ 2000 \ Heraldik xx x Corofino			67.660	66.383	66.170	66.809	66.702	67.766	69.255	67.249
		Katarzyna  Milczarek (POL) Katarzyna Milczarek			( 12 )	( 12 )	( 12 )	( 11 )	( 10 )	( 11 )	( 11 )
13		Artemis – WESTF G \ Bay \ 1999 \ Florestan x Delphi			65.532	67.872	68.617	66.170	66.170	65.851	66.064	66.611
		Richard  Davison (GBR) Countess of Derby, Clemens Warmers			( 15 )	( 11 )	( 9 )	( 13 )	( 11 )	( 13 )	( 14 )
14		Weinzauber – WESTF G \ Bay \ 1997 \ Weinberg x Upan la Jarthe AA			65.745	63.298	64.149	64.681	66.064	65.745	63.617	64.757
		Robert  Acs (HUN) Robert Acs, Aniko Losonczy			( 14 )	( 17 )	( 17 )	( 14 )	( 12 )	( 14 )	( 16 )
15		Come on III – DWB G \ Bay \ 1999 \ Come Back II x Lantaan			66.383	65.638	64.574	62.553	64.894	62.766	66.064	64.696
		Shawna  Harding (USA) Shawana Harding			( 13 )	( 14 )	( 16 )	( 15 )	( 14 )	( 16 )	( 14 )
16		Leo Af Magnushöj – DWB G \ DarkBay \ 1995 \ Rohdiamant x Leonardo			62.979	65.213	64.894	62.340	63.511	63.298	67.872	64.301
		Nina  Hoffmann (SWE) Ann Hofmann			( 16 )	( 15 )	( 14 )	( 16 )	( 16 )	( 15 )	( 13 )
17		Skovlunds Mas Guapo – DWB G \ Black \ 1998 \ Master x Cannon Row xx			61.489	65.106	64.894	62.128	61.064	59.787	61.915	62.903
		Mikaela  Lindh (FIN) Dressurstald Solyst & Mikaela Lindh, Dressurstald Solyst			( 17 )	( 16 )	( 14 )	( 17 )	( 17 )	( 17 )	( 17 )

nA surprising