Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

AACHEN, Germany, July 5–Kristina Sprehe, who just a year ago rode Desperados in the Under-25 division at this World Equestrian Festival, on Thursday led Germany to victory in the Nations Cup in her first team appearance with less than a month to the Olympics.

Kristina and the 11-year-old Hanoverian stallion (De Niro x Wie Musik x Wolkenstein II) scored 79.702 per cent and her coach, Jürgen Koschel, said the pair could improve from the performance that brought the sold-out stadium of 8,500 spectators to huge applause.

Her team mate, Helen Langehanenberg on Damon Hill NRW rode through heavy rain accompanied by rumbling thunder to second place individually on 78.426 per cent despite a leap by the horse in the final centerline passage tour.

Austria’s Victoria Max-Theurer on Augustin OLD broke up a German sweep of the top three places with her result of 77.894 per cent, while Anabel Balkenhol on Dablino finished fourth on 75.426 per cent. For Anabel the result was achieved with the help of some sport psychology counseling that helped to banish some anxiety about competing at Aachen. Two years ago she was hospitalized after falling ill here and last year on her way to the show a car ran into her truck and Dablino fell to the floor.

This show, which drew 49,000 spectators Thursday with Nations Cups for both dressage and jumping, will be the deciding event for the selection of the German team at the Olympics openng in London later this month that had added drama with the withdrawal of Totilas from consideration.

The Nations Cup result was overshadowed by news about Totilas that resulted from the stallion’s rider, Matthias Alexander Rath, being “still very ill” from mononucleosis that forced himto drop out of the Aachen show.

The placings in the Nations Cup:

1. Germany 233.554
2. Denmark 221.000
3. The Netherlands 214.192
4. Sweden 211.574
5. Spain 208.851
6. Australia 206.745
7. Great Britain 206.574

Kristina Sprehe said that her result on Desperados was “like a dream that came true two times”–being on her first German team and performing so well before a home crowd.

Denmark displayed depth in their drive to repeat as bronze medal winners from the 2008 Beijing Games.

The three top Danes all scored well above 70 per cent, and included two combinations from the team that won the 2008 bronze, Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby scoring 74.936 per cent and Anne van Olst and Exquis Clearwater 72.538 per cent.

Anna Kasprzak, a newcomer to the international scene, rode Donnperignon for a score of 73.426 per cent.

This was only the fourth CDI for the 22-year-old Anna and the 13-year-old Finnish warmblood gelding (Donnerhall x Montserrat x Mozart 1179) whose family bought the horse from Germany’s Christoph Koschel after the European Championships last year.

The Australian team was closely watched as Hayley Beresford on Belissimo NRW was left off their Olympic squad as selectors overlooked her results to choose veterans.

Hayley and the stallion was the highest placed of the Australian combinations with a score of 69.426 per cent while Kristy Oatley and Clive wh were selected ahead of her scored 68.383 per cent in a ride that was penalized for going off course.

Hayley was so overcome with emotion after her ride that tears were streaming down her face as she left the packed arena.

Hayley has taken her complaint over the Australian selection process to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Lyndal Oatley and Sandro Boy who automatically qualified for the Olympic team as the highest scoring pair in two European selection trials scored 68.936 per cent. Her warmup routine was disrupted when her husband, Sweden’s Patrik Kittel, was unable to coach her as he rode immediately after and the groom they share and knows Sandro Boy was concentrating on Patrik and Toy Story.

Results of the Grand Prix: