Dressage-News

BALVE, Germany, June 19–Totilas performed his first competition Freestyle with Matthias Alexander Rath to music specially written for the pair and was the clear winning combination Sunday to cap their first German championship.

A huge crowd ignored chilly, rainy weather to pack this historic venue for the Freestyle debut by Matthias and the 11-year-old black stallion which received a score of 85.550 per cent from the all-German panel of five judges.

The World Equestrian Games team combination of Christoph Koschel and Donnperignon riding to their popular “Roxanne” music by The Police placed second with 82.450 per cent, with Isabell Werth and El Santo NRW, at 10 years old the youngest horse in the field, in third place on 82.400 per cent. The WEG team combination of Anabel Balkenhol on Dablino was fourth on 80.100 per cent.

This show decided the German team that will be one of nine countries competing for the Nations Cup at the CHIO in Aachen in mid-July which in turn will determine the squad for the European Championships in Rotterdam a month later. At the 2009 European Championships, Germany was third behind a Totilas-led Dutch team and Great Britain won silver.

In their third straight week of shows–this week was not an international competition, although Munich and Wiesbaden earlier this month were–Matthias and Totilas has become the dominant celebrity couple in German horse sports, similar to when the son of Gribaldi was trained and ridden by Edward Gal of The Netherlands through the WEG in Kentucky last year where they won all three gold medals up for grabs.

The pair began the six-minute Freestyle capitalizing on the horse’s extravagant passage and piaffe.

However, they had a mistake in the tempi changes, as they have in their competitions so far though it is less than six months since the partnership was formed after Totilas was bought by Paul Schockemöhle of Performance Sales International and Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, the stepmother of Matthias and a German team gold medalist.

The orchestral music for the Freestyle by Matthias and Totilas was composed by world famous DJ and music producer, Paul van Dyk, a friend of the Rath-Linsenhoff family. It was the first freestyle produced and composed by Paul, who lives in Berlin and whose wife is a dressage rider.

Grand Prix Freestyle results:
1.	664	Totilas	Rath, Matthias Alexander	GER		4700 EUR	85.550 Punkte
	R 11-j.H v.Gribaldi/M.v.Glendale/KWPN/NED08021/B: Linsenhoff u.Paul Schockemöhle,			Frankf.Turnierst.Schw.Gelb e.V
2.	304	Donnperignon	Koschel, Christoph	GER		4000 EUR	82.450 Punkte
	DF 12-j.W v.Donnerhall/M.v.Mozart II 79/FIN.WB./GER25410/B: Hof Beckerode GmbH,			RSC Osnabrücker Land e.V.
3.	313	El Santo NRW	Werth, Isabell	GER		3200 EUR	82.400 Punkte
	B 10-j.W v.Ehrentusch/M.v.Rhythmus/RHLD/GER44504/B: Winter-Schulze,Madeleine			RFV Graf v.Schmettow Eversael
4.	273	Dablino	Balkenhol, Anabel	GER		2500 EUR	80.100 Punkte
	DF 11-j.W v.De Niro/M.v.Wanderbursch II/HANN/GER41335/B: Balkenhol,Klaus			RV St.Georg Münster e.V.
5.	275	Damon Hill NRW	Langehanenberg, Helen	GER		1600 EUR	78.950 Punkte
	DF 11-j.H v.Donnerhall/M.v.Rubinstein I/WESTF/GER26971/B: Becks,Christian			RV St.Georg Münster e.V.
6.	704	Whisper	Theodorescu, Monica	GER		1200 EUR	76.800 Punkte
	F 13-j.W v.Welt Hit I O/M.v.Weltstar/WÜRTT/GER26878/B: Linsenhoff,Ann Kathrin			RFV Warendorf e.V.
7.	315	Elvis VA	Capellmann, Nadine	GER		800 EUR	75.500 Punkte
	F 15-j.W v.Espri/M.v.Garibaldi II/HANN/GER27120/B: Capellmann,Nadine			RV Würselen 1925 e.V.
8.	442	Le Noir	Gräf, Uta	GER		600 EUR	73.250 Punkte
	R 11-j.H v.Leandro/M.v.Caletto I/HOLST/GER46057/B: Herzog,Christiane			RFV Weisenheim am Sand e.V.
9.	397	Kaiserkult TSF	Schneider, Dorothee	GER		400 EUR	73.000 Punkte
	DB 13-j.H v.Van Deyk/M.v.Gajus/TRAK./GER28230/B: Schneider,Dorothee			Frankf.Turnierst.Schw.Gelb e.V
10.	768	Le Bo	Koppelmann, Carola	GER		400 EUR	72.850 Punkte
	F 18-j.W /HANN./GER17584/B: Koppelmann, Carola			Kehdinger Reitclub e.V.
11.	53	Baldessarini	Capellmann-Lütkemeier, Gina	GER		300 EUR	70.200 Punkte
	DB 12-j.S v.Breitling W/M.v.Diego xx/OLD/GER27523/B: Capellmann-Lütkemeier,Gina			RFV Paderborn e.V.