Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

AACHEN, Germany, July 14–Led by Totilas ridden by Matthias Alexander Rath, Germany overcame the loss of one of their team combinations Thursday to capture the CDIO Nations Cup for the first time in three years at what is their hometown show.

Great Britain produced their best ever performance to claim silver while The Netherlands, minus Totilas who had led them to the top of medals podium the past two years, were relegated to third place this year. The U.S. was fourth, Sweden fifth, Denmark sixth, Spain seventh and Belgium eighth.

The German team of Matthias and Totilas, Olympic gold medalist Isabell Werth on El Santo NRW and Christoph Koschel and Donnperignon, suffered a setback at the start of competition when the fourth combination, Anabel Balkenol and Dablino, had to withdraw when the horse became lame after an early morning schooling. The cause was not yet known, but with no room for a score to be discarded the pressure was on all three to produce their best to win the Nations Cup that has been Germany’s every year since it was inaugurated 34 years ago, except for victories by The Netherlands in 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Totilas was the star of the show.

Unseasonably cold and blustery weather with occasional light sprinkles of rain did not dampen the crowd’s love affair with the global celebrity.

His winning score of 82.149 per cent–it did not include any 10s but eight 9.5s from the five judges–was the highest since Matthias began competing the 11-year-old black stallion in two international competitions in Germany and the German championships.

And the score is moving closer to the world record at Grand Prix of 84.085 per cent posted on Totilas by Edward Gal of The Netherlands at the 2009 European Championships.

And for the first time, the Thursday dressage competition in the 5,000-seat Deutsche Bank Stadium was sold out as it is for the rest of the show through Sunday.

“I’m extremely happy,” Matthias said after the competition. “It is really special to win here in Aachen.”

Isabell Werth, whose third place score of 77.830 per cent on El Santo , said the absence of championships for Germany since the 2008 Beijing Olympics was a result of waiting for the relatively young and inexperienced team horses to mature. Plus the addition of Totilas the KWPN stallion bought by Paul Schockemöhle of Performance Sales International and Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff, a former German dressage star who is stepmother to Matthias.

“We needed time to improve and bring Germany back to the top levels,” she said.

The main challenge aside from Holland, was a strong Britain which did not start its best horses except for Laura Beahctolsheimer, the No. 2 rider in the world and who finished second on Mistral Hojris with a score of 80.596 per cent.

For Britain, it was  their best result and only their second time on the medals podium. They won bronze here in 2009.

“I’m a little disappointed in myself,” Laura said. “Alf (Mistral Hojris) felt as good if not better than ever.”

The biggest surprise was the fourth place by Adelinde Cornelissen on Jerich Parzival, the world’s top ranked combination and winners of this year’s Word Cup Final. Mistakes kept their score to 77.340 per cent, slightly ahead of Steffen Peters and Ravel of the United States on 77.191 per cent.

“I don’t know why it happened,” Adelinde said. “He had never felt so easy–he’s usually spooky at something–and I probably forgot to ride him. I was just sitting there doing nothing.”

Edward Gal who rode Sisther de Jeu for 71.489 per cent and a 10th place finish was still feeling the pain of the loss of the ride on Totilas.

Asked how he felt being in the same competition with Totilas for the first time, said: “The question should be addressed to the new rider.” When the questioner said the interest was in his reaction, he said: “It still hurts but I will get used to it.”
Grand Prix CDIO

Judge E : Ghislain Fouarge (NED)
Judge H : Maribel Alonso (MEX)
Judge C : Wojtek Markowski (POL)
Judge M : Evi Eisenhardt (GER)
Judge B : Mary Seefried (AUS)

Rk		HORSE – Breeding sex\colour\born\sire x siredam\		EUR	E	H	C	M	B	%
		RIDER owner			Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank
1		Totilas – KWPN S \ Black \ 2000 \ Gribaldi x Glendale		6500	80.851	80.106	85.000	82.340	82.447	82.149
		Matthias Alexander  Rath (GER) Ann-Katrin & Schockemöhle, Paul Linsenhof			( 1 )	( 2 )	( 1 )	( 1 )	( 1 )
2		Mistral Hojris – DWB G \ Chestnut \ 1995 \ Michellino x Ibsen		4000	80.000	83.085	80.213	80.000	79.681	80.596
		Laura  Bechtolsheimer (GBR) Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer, U. & L. Bechtolsheimer			( 2 )	( 1 )	( 2 )	( 2 )	( 2 )
3		El Santo NRW – RHEIN G \ Bay \ 2001 \ Ehrentusch x Rhythmus		3000	79.362	78.085	75.532	78.191	77.979	77.830
		Isabell  Werth (GER) Madeleine Winter-Schulze, Isabell Werth			( 4 )	( 3 )	( 5 )	( 3 )	( 4 )
4		Jerich Parzival – KWPN G \ Chestnut \ 1997 \ Jazz x Ulft		2000	78.085	77.021	76.702	77.979	76.915	77.340
		Adelinde  Cornelissen (NED) W.P.J. Cornelissen & M.A. Cornelissen & H. Jerich			( 5 )	( 4 )	( 3 )	( 4 )	( 5 )
5		Ravel – KWPN G \ Bay \ 1998 \ Contango x Democraat		1000	79.894	74.255	76.702	76.915	78.191	77.191
		Steffen  Peters (USA) Akiko Four Winds Farm\Yamazaki			( 3 )	( 5 )	( 3 )	( 5 )	( 3 )
6		Donnperignon – FWB G \ DarkChestnut \ 1999 \ Donnerhall x Mozart II79		500	72.872	73.085	74.255	74.255	72.340	73.362
		Christoph  Koschel (GER) Hof Beckerode GmbH			( 8 )	( 6 )	( 6 )	( 6 )	( 6 )
7		Favourit – RHEIN G \ Chestnut \ 1999 \ Fidermark x Worldchamp		500	74.681	71.170	72.766	73.085	72.021	72.745
		Tinne  Vilhelmson-Silfven (SWE) Antonia Axson Johnson, Göran Ennerfelt			( 6 )	( 9 )	( 7 )	( 8 )	( 8 )
8		Fuego de Cardenas – PRE S \ Grey \ 1998 \ Utrerano VII x Elegido III		500	73.085	72.128	71.596	72.553	71.170	72.106
		Juan Manuel  Muñoz Diaz (ESP) Miguel A.de. Cardenas			( 7 )	( 8 )	( 9 )	( 10 )	( 11 )
9		Digby – DWB G \ DarkBay \ 1997 \ Donnerhall x Sandro		500	71.170	72.660	71.702	72.979	71.064	71.915
		Nathalie zu  Sayn-Wittgenstein (DEN) Nathalie Sayn-Wittgenstein, Dr. Michael Siebert			( 11 )	( 7 )	( 8 )	( 9 )	( 12 )
10		Sisther de Jeu – KWPN M \ Bay \ 1999 \ Gribaldi x Amor		500	71.809	69.681	69.894	73.830	72.234	71.489
		Edward  Gal (NED) Emma de Jeu			( 9 )	( 12 )	( 12 )	( 7 )	( 7 )
11		Fernandez – WESTF G \ Chestnut \ 2000 \ Florestan x Weinburg		500	71.702	69.681	71.383	72.553	71.596	71.383
		Charlotte  Du Jardin (GBR) Miss C & Mrs J Dujardin			( 10 )	( 12 )	( 10 )	( 10 )	( 10 )
12		I.P.S. Tango – KWPN S \ Chestnut \ 2000 \ Jazz x Contango		500	70.319	68.936	68.511	70.851	72.021	70.128
		Hans Peter  Minderhoud (NED) J.M. Uytert, A.Valk			( 13 )	( 16 )	( 14 )	( 12 )	( 8 )
13		Coryolano – BAY G \ Bay \ 1996 \ Coriolan x GAJUS			70.851	69.787	68.191	68.617	68.511	69.191
		Anna  Merveldt (IRL) A Merveldt			( 12 )	( 10 )	( 15 )	( 17 )	( 14 )
14		Hiscox Artemis – WESTF G \ Bay \ 1999 \ Florestan x Delphi			69.149	69.787	67.979	70.106	67.447	68.894
		Richard  Davison (GBR) Countess of Derby, J., E. & G. Davison			( 16 )	( 10 )	( 16 )	( 13 )	( 22 )
15		Eremo del Castegno – SI G \ Bay \ 2001 \ Rohdiamant x Weltmeyer			70.319	69.362	67.553	68.511	67.872	68.723
		Valentina  Truppa (ITA) Gavan s.r.l.			( 13 )	( 14 )	( 18 )	( 18 )	( 16 )
16		Faberge – HANN G \ Black \ 1996 \ Falkland x Akzent I			68.085	69.043	68.617	68.085	68.936	68.553
		Beatriz  Ferrer-Salat (ESP) Deliber S.L.			( 20 )	( 15 )	( 13 )	( 22 )	( 13 )
17		U II – KWPN G \ Chestnut \ 2001 \ Jazz x Rohdiamant			67.128	68.830	70.106	68.830	67.766	68.532
		Günter  Seidel (USA) Jane & Richard Brown			( 26 )	( 18 )	( 11 )	( 15 )	( 18 )
18		Apollo van het Vijverhof – BWP G \ Bay \ 2000 \ Welt Hit II x Rittmeister			67.234	68.404	67.340	70.106	67.872	68.191
		Jeroen  Devroe (BEL) bvba Dressage Devroe			( 23 )	( 20 )	( 20 )	( 13 )	( 16 )
19		Toy Story – SWB G \ Bay \ 2000 \ Come Back II x Concorde			67.234	67.553	67.766	68.298	67.553	67.681
		Patrik  Kittel (SWE) Carol u. Sandy Oatley			( 23 )	( 24 )	( 17 )	( 20 )	( 21 )