Dressage-News

NEUMÜNSTER, Germany, Feb. 16, 2014–Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill NRW scored 90.375 per cent for the first career mark above 90 per cent when the pair won the World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday less than two months before defending the title Germany’s top combination captured a year ago.

Denmark’s Anna Kasprzak and Don Perrignon placed second on 83.575 per cent with Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Unee BB in third on 82.425 per cent, both personal best results, as was the 80.050 per cent–the first score above 80 per cent–for Fabienne Lütkemeier of Germany on D’Agostino in fifth place behind Isabell Werth and Don Johnson with  80.250 per cent.

Helen and the 13-year-old Westfalen stallion (Donnerhall x Rubinstein I) received 11 marks of 10 and only one below 8, a 7.5 from Dr. Evi Eisenhardt of Germany for the trot half pass left in the result that surpassed the pair’s previous best of 89.775 per cent received at the World Cup event at the German Masters in Stuttgart, Germany last November.

As the defending champion, Helen and Damon Hill received no points but fulfilled the requirement of competing in two qualifiers to go to the Final in Lyon, France April 17-21.

Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén remained atop the Western European League with 74 points and is spending the winter on the Florida circuit before returnng home while Isabell Werth moved up to second place with 63 points, Anna Kasprzak third on 55 points, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Edward Gal tied for fourth on 51.

The Final of the annual dressage individual championship is shaping up to be a major clash as Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, the top ranked partnership and holder of all three Grand Prix records, intends to go to France.

Helen said after her ride, “He is so much with me and working with me and he wants to present himself to the crowd. The arena here is only as big as a dressage arena with no extra space so the audience is very, very close. That’s not easy for every horse, although most of them seemed to manage it really well today, but it surely suits Dami because he just can’t get close enough to his fans–he loves it.”

Jessica von Bredow-Werndl comes from a family with a real sporting tradition–her father, Klaus, is a former German sailing champion and her mother, Micaela, was a member of the German junior national ski team for seven years. Her brother, Benjamin, also competes for Germany in dressage and her parents run a dressage center.

“This is the best result my horse and I have had,” Jessica said. “We really enjoyed it and we had a great ride I think, we had a lot of fun. I didn’t have to change anything for today. Having said that, the warm-up arena is cold and the main arena itself is extremely warm so it feels like you’re entering into a sauna.  My horse really enjoyed it though, and I think the crowd did as well.”

Anna Kasprzak, said she was “super happy” with the performance of Donnperignon. “I knew yesterday (after the Grand Prix in which he also finished second to Damon Hill NRW) that he would be better today. For every competition that we have together we keep learning so much from each other. It is such an amazing feeling to become even better every time, every performance.”

The next WEL qualifier is scheduled for Göteborg, Sweden at the end of February.

Results:

GRAND PRIX FREESTYLE