Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

STUTTGART, Germany, Nov. 16–Damon Hill NRW did not break a sweat when Helen Langehanenberg rode the stallion to a personal best Grand Prix score of 82.766 per cent Friday in the first show for the pair since winning Olympic team silver for Germany in London three months ago.

Kristina Sprehe and Desperados, their team mates at the London Games, were second on 77.255 per cent while Italy’s individual Olympic combination of Valentina Truppa and Eremo del Castegno were third on 75.362 per cent.

The German Masters at Stuttgart is the third of eight legs for the Western European League that will lead to the Reem Acra World Cup Final of the indoor circuit in Gothenburg, Sweden, next April. The WEL is one of four leagues–Central Europe, North America and the Pacific leagues are the others–that make up qualifying for the only annual global championship in dressage.

Helen said that after the London Games where the score for the combination was 81.140 per cent, their previous best, and third place individually in the Grand Prix that with the Olympic Grand Prix Special counted for the team competition, Damon Hill was hacked out and had a lot of down time until three weeks.

Then, she said, he was put back into work with no change in training regimen that led to them being selected for the all-woman German team.

“Everything is easier for him,” she said. “He knows what’s coming.

“He did not even sweat in the test so you can see how easy it is for him. I had the feeling he was just playing. We have changed nothing. He is fresh again.”

She plans to compete at the Amsterdam and Neumünster, Germany, World Cup qualifiers next year.

The ride for Helen and the 12-year-old Westfalen stallion (Donnerhall x Romanze x Rubinstein I) who is a popular sire, earned the pair seven 10s from the ground jury of five members with some wide disparities in the scoring. Poland’s Woijciech Markowski awarded the pair 87.234 per cent while Great Britain’s Andrew-Ralph Gardner gave them 79.468 per cent.

Peter Holler of Germany, president of the ground jury, said that at this high level of the sport, the score differences were “not a big problem.”

Three of the five judges scored 82-plus per cent which was close to the final result.

That one judge was more enthusiastic about the ride and another not but the final result is where most judges scored the pair “shows the system really works well.”

Kristina described Desperados as “tense,” though he did not appear so to observers at ring side.

“He was too fresh,” she said. “I couldn’t always ride him like I wanted.

RESULTS

Grand Prix							(E)	(H)	(C)	(M)	(B)	Total
1.		Damon Hill NRW	Langehanenberg, Helen	GER		2700 EUR	410.0	373.5	387.0	386.5	388.0	1945.0 points
	dchst 12-j.S v.Donnerhall/M.v.Rubinstein I/WESTF/GER26971/B: Christian Becks						87.234 %	79.468 %	82.340 %	82.234 %	82.553 %	82.766 %
							1.	1.	1.	1.	1.
2.		Desperados FRH	Sprehe, Kristina	GER		2000 EUR	359.0	354.0	374.0	353.5	375.0	1815.5 points
	black 11-j.S v.De Niro/M.v.Wolkenstein II/HANN/GER45347/B: Gestüt Sprehe GmbH						76.383 %	75.319 %	79.574 %	75.212 %	79.787 %	77.255 %
							3.	2.	2.	2.	2.
3.		Eremo del Castegno	Truppa, Valentina	ITA		1300 EUR	362.5	354.0	360.5	343.0	351.0	1771.0 points
	bay 11-j.G v.Rohdiamant/M.v.Weltmeyer/SI/ITA42367/B: Centro Equestre Monferrato						77.128 %	75.319 %	76.702 %	72.979 %	74.681 %	75.362 %
							2.	2.	3.	3.	3.
4.		Toots	Schellekens-Bartels, Imke	NED		1000 EUR	351.5	333.0	353.5	342.0	340.0	1720.0 points
	black 12-j.G v.Jazz/M.v.Havidoff/KWPN/102UD15/B: T. Bartels						74.787 %	70.851 %	75.212 %	72.765 %	72.340 %	73.191 %
							4.	5.	4.	4.	5.
5.		Schianto	Johansen, Sidsel	DEN		900 EUR	333.5	332.0	345.5	340.5	326.0	1677.5 points
	dbay 13-j.G v.Gribaldi/M.v.Schwadroneur/DWB/DEN02780/B: Jorgen Rosbog						70.957 %	70.638 %	73.511 %	72.447 %	69.362 %	71.383 %
							6.	7.	5.	5.	9.
6.		Uzzo	Meer, Patrick van der	NED		800 EUR	338.5	320.0	341.5	324.5	349.5	1674.0 points
	bay 11-j.G v.Lancet/M.v.Indoctro/KWPN/NED40460/B: Trainingsstal de hoeve						72.021 %	68.085 %	72.660 %	69.043 %	74.362 %	71.234 %
							5.	9.	6.	11.	4.
7.		Le Noir	Gräf, Uta	GER		700 EUR	329.5	334.0	332.0	335.5	326.5	1657.5 points
	black 12-j.S v.Leandro/M.v.Caletto I/HOLST/GER46057/B: Herzog,Christiane						70.106 %	71.064 %	70.638 %	71.383 %	69.468 %	70.532 %
							8.	4.	8.	6.	8.
8.		Akeem Foldager	Thomsen, Joachim	DEN		600 EUR	332.5	325.5	329.0	332.5	331.5	1651.0 points
	bay 10-j.G v.Akinos/M.v.Loran/DWB/103MU71/B: Patricia Florin						70.744 %	69.255 %	70.000 %	70.744 %	70.532 %	70.255 %
							7.	8.	9.	8.	6.
Other, non-placed competitors
9.		Don Auriello	Vilhelmson-Silfven, Tinne	SWE			321.5	333.0	336.5	334.0	322.0	1647.0 points
	bay 10-j.G v.Don Davidoff/M.v.White Star/HANN/GER43436/B: Lövsta Stuteri						68.404 %	70.851 %	71.596 %	71.064 %	68.511 %	70.085 %
							11.	5.	7.	7.	11.
10.		Riwera de Hus	Michel, Jessica	FRA			315.0	319.5	314.5	325.5	331.5	1606.0 points
	bay 11-j.M v.Welt Hit II/OLDBG/FRA44461/B: Haras de Hus						67.021 %	67.978 %	66.914 %	69.255 %	70.531 %	68.340 %
							15.	10.	15.	9.	6.
11.		Lento	Schmidt, Hubertus	GER			323.0	316.0	321.0	310.5	320.5	1591.0 points
	bay 12-j.S v.Lorentin I/M.v.Caletto II/HOLST/GER42971/B: Nagel-Tornau,Peter						68.723 %	67.234 %	68.298 %	66.064 %	68.191 %	67.702 %
							10.	12.	10.	14.	12.
12.		Axis TSF	Stegars, Terhi	FIN			329.5	308.5	321.0	319.5	312.0	1590.5 points
	black 13-j.S v.Sixtus/M.v.Angard/TRAK/GER44244/B: Terhi Stegars						70.107 %	65.638 %	68.298 %	67.979 %	66.383 %	67.681 %
							8.	16.	10.	12.	14.
13.		Orion	Fortmüller, Pia	CAN			318.5	318.0	318.0	325.5	306.0	1586.0 points
	chest 16-j.G v.Jazz/M.v.Consul/KWPN/CAN02511/B: Fortmüller,Pia						67.766 %	67.659 %	67.659 %	69.255 %	65.106 %	67.489 %
							13.	11.	13.	9.	16.
14.		Ekwador	Milczarek, Katarzyna	POL			321.0	316.0	320.5	309.0	307.5	1574.0 points
	grey 12-j.S v.Heraldik xx/M.v.Corofino/PHBA/POL01855/B: Katarzyna Milczarek & Jar						68.298 %	67.234 %	68.192 %	65.745 %	65.426 %	66.979 %
							12.	12.	12.	15.	15.
15.		Smeyers Molberg	Krinke Susmelj, Marcela	SUI			316.0	311.5	318.0	304.5	323.5	1573.5 points
	bay 11-j.G v.Michellino/M.v.Rambo/DWB/DEN40115/B: Irene Meyer						67.234 %	66.276 %	67.659 %	64.787 %	68.829 %	66.957 %
							14.	15.	13.	16.	10.
16.		Sini Spirit	Kanerva, Emma	FIN			315.0	314.0	312.5	316.0	313.5	1571.0 points
	chest 15-j.G v.Espri/M.v.Gluecksgriff/HANN/FIN40045/B: Oy,Sinituote						67.021 %	66.808 %	66.489 %	67.234 %	66.702 %	66.851 %
							15.	14.	16.	13.	13.