Andreas Helgstrand & Akeem Foldager Win 1st Grand Prix Together, at Hagen CDI4*

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

HAGEN, Germany, April 20–Andreas Helgstrand riding Akeem Foldager in their first Grand Prix just three weeks after buying the horse won the Horse and Dreams CDI4* Saturday, edging out Steffen Peters and Legolas in their first outing in Europe.

The extravagant gaits of the 11-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding earned the pair a score of 75.574 per cent and launched them on the campaign to win a place on Denmark’s team at this year’s European Championships and then for the World Equestrian Games in Normandy next year, eight years after the rider became an international star with the gray mare Matiné at the 2006 WEG.

Steffen Peters of the United States and the 11-year-old Westfalen gelding were scored at 74.128 per cent with the five judges awarding marks less than one percent between the highest and lowest.

German Olympic rider Dorothee Schneider and Forward Looking were third on 72.034 per cent.

The competition of 25 starting combinations drew a good crowd to see first hand the much talked about Danish partnership and the American pair returning home to the Performance Sales International show grounds where Legolas was trained by partner Ullrich Kasselmann though it began at 8:30 a.m. when the temperature was an unseasonable freezing (32F/0C).

Andreas tried out the gelding (Akinos x Lobelia Foldager x Loran) at the Danish stallion championships three weeks ago and a partnership of Patricia Florin, the previous owner; Hanni Toosbuy Kasprzak, whose daughter, Anna, rode Donnperignon for Denmark in last year’s Olympics, and Adreas bought the horse.

“I’ve never had a horse like this,” Andreas said, adding that “he has no weakness. This is fun.”

Akeem Foldager was so powerful but gentle with “crazy good” piaffe and passage,” a good walk but needing a little more control in the canter for the pirouettes and the changes that he could ride him less than 100 per cent of his power and still perform well in the show ring.

The horse had been on the market “very, very expensive” for a long time but was not sold so the three-way partnership meant he could get a “cheap superstar.”

Now that Andreas’s horse dealing business is established with up to 120 horses under saddle, he wants to return to competition riding, to “have fun.”

The aim initially was to go to a national show first but decided to go straight to Hagen for the CDI4*. He chose the Grand Prix for the Freestyle only because he couldn’t make it to Hagen in time for the Grand Prix for the Special which was held Friday.

The pair will compete at another show before the Danish Championships in June that will decide teams for the Rotterdam and Aachen Nations Cup at the end of June when the Danish squad for the Europeans in Denmark will be decided.

“I’m ready to come back to where it all started,” he said. “It’s not only business and money but the fun of riding a good horse.

“We have already turned down offers, and he was not a cheap horse. It’s good for me. I want to keep him.”

A succession of horses for Andreas after the 2006 WEG did not produce a star to match that of Matiné, owned by Blue Hors, and in recent years he has focused his efforts on his own sales and training business which was the center of controversy for hefty commissions, knowledge of which was alleged to have been withheld from some of the parties involved.

Akeem Foldager was trained and competed to Grand Prix by Denmark’s Joachim Thomsen.

If Andreas and Akeem Foldager stays healthy and continues to develop, Danish coach Rudolf Zeilinger of Germany will have a strong lineup to choose a team for the WEG, including Anna Kasprzak and Donnperignon; Nathalie zu Sayn Wittgenstein who competed here with a still green Fabienne to succeed her star, Digby; the Florida-based Lars Petersen and Mariett and Mikala Gundersen and My Lady, as well as others.

However, America’s Steffen Peters and Legolas were the closest in scores to Andreas Saturday.

“Super happy!” was the comment of the San Diego, California-based rider to owner Akiko Yamazaki who flew in for the performance. (See accompanying story)

RESULTS:

Grand Prix for Freestyle