Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

FRITZENS, Austria, July 6, 2014–Victoria Max-Theurer, Austria’s three-time Olympian, rode Blind Date to victory in the Schindlhof CDI4* Grand Prix Special Sunday, but outstanding performances by a group of Americans filled second, fourth, fifth and seventh places.

Victoria and the 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding scored 74.725 per cent after winning the Grand Prix.

The newest American star partnership of Laura Graves of Geneva, Florida and Verdades put on a personal best scoring performance of 73.706 per cent for second, as they were in the Grand Prix, with German Olympic rider Dorothee Schneider on UllrichEquine’s St. Emilion third on 73.039 per cent in the first Special for the nine-year-old gelding.

American Caroline Roffman of Wellington, Florida and Her Highness O performing only their third ever Grand Prix Special posted a personal best score of 72.716 per cent for fourth place.

Shelly Francis of Loxahatchee, Florida and Doktor were placed fifth on 71.922 per cent and Lisa Wilcox also of Wellington and Denzello were seventh on 70.059 per cent, for personal best results for all of the American vying for a place on the United States team for the world championships in Normandy, France next month.

Laura, at 26 years old competing for the first time in Europe, joked she had a “mini heat stroke” and coupled with a lack of counting skills in the one-tempi changes Verdades performed 13 instead of 15 changes.

Laura said that with a week before the Nations Cup at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany “hopefully we have a little more time to put some polish on things and add some volume to the one-tempis.”

The team for Aachen at this stage is Steffen Peters of San Diego, California and Legolas; Laura and Verdades; Jan Ebeling of Moorpark, California and Rafalca and Arienne Lyle of Ketchum, Idaho and Wizard. However, with the condition of Rafalca uncertain as the mare had to be pulled out of this show, Caroline Roffman and Her Highness O are first reserves.

Although Laura is the rookie on the American team she has not been intimidated at her first show in Europe.

“You can only ride the best you can ride,” she said. “What I tell myself when I’m feeling overwhelmed by these great riders is that I’m going to go in there and ride the best I can.

“I have to be okay with that.”

Caroline Roffman was performing only her third Grand Prix Special on Her Highness that was competing small tour a year ago, as the air did at Aachen.

She admits “I didn’t ride well” in the Grand Prix, “it was not my ride.”

She rode in the Special as if “we have nothing to lose.”

The pair performed their one-tempis that has been the weakest link and, Caroline said, Her Highness “showed a lot of quality and potential for the future.”

Results:

GRAND PRIX SPECIAL

Placed competitors							(E)	(H)	(C)	(M)	(B)	Total
1.	5	Blind Date	Max-Theurer, Victoria	AUT		3300.00 EUR	384.5	382.0	386.5	373.0	379.5	1905.5 points
	F 12-j.S v.Breitling W/M.v.Donnerhall/HANN/GER43435/B: Gestüt Vorwerk, Elisabeth						75.392 %	74.901 %	75.784 %	73.137 %	74.411 %	74.725 %
							1.	1.	1.	3.	1.
2.	72	Verdades	Graves, Laura	USA		2300.00 EUR	379.5	370.0	383.0	382.0	365.0	1879.5 points
	B 12-j.W v.Florett As/M.v.Goya/KWPN/103CK84/B: Laura Graves						74.412 %	72.549 %	75.098 %	74.902 %	71.569 %	73.706 %
							3.	3.	2.	1.	3.
3.	69	UllrichEquine’s St. Emilion	Schneider, Dorothee	GER		1600.00 EUR	383.0	372.0	369.5	381.5	356.5	1862.5 points
	R 9-j.H v.Sandro Hit/M.v.Ehrenwort/WESTF/103HL99/B: Ullrich,Christina						75.098 %	72.941 %	72.451 %	74.804 %	69.902 %	73.039 %
							2.	2.	6.	2.	5.
4.	30	Her Highness O	Roffman, Caroline	USA		1100.00 EUR	373.0	353.0	381.0	363.0	370.5	1840.5 points
	R 11-j.S v.Hohenstein/M.v.Weltmeyer/HANN/103VF01/B: Caroline Roffman						73.137 %	69.215 %	74.705 %	71.176 %	72.647 %	72.176 %
							5.	10.	3.	4.	2.
5.	17	Doktor	Francis, Shelly	USA		800.00 EUR	374.5	362.0	376.0	358.5	363.0	1834.0 points
	B 11-j.W v.Diamond Hit/M.v.Renoir I/OLD/103DA58/B: Patricia A. Stempel						73.432 %	70.981 %	73.726 %	70.295 %	71.177 %	71.922 %
							4.	4.	4.	5.	4.
6.	80	Wunderkind	Weihermüller, Stefanie	GER		600.00 EUR	362.5	360.5	374.5	356.0	348.0	1801.5 points
	B 11-j.W v.Sydney/M.v.Elcaro/KWPN/103DC80/B: Weihermüller Dr.,Michael						71.078 %	70.686 %	73.431 %	69.804 %	68.235 %	70.647 %
							6.	5.	5.	6.	7.
7.	14	Denzello	Wilcox, Lisa	USA		500.00 EUR	357.0	355.5	367.0	356.0	351.0	1786.5 points
	B 11-j.W v.de Niro/M.v.Rohdiamant/HANN/103XJ85/B: Betty Wells						70.000 %	69.706 %	71.961 %	69.804 %	68.824 %	70.059 %
							7.	9.	7.	6.	6.
8.	48	Riccoletto	Kempkes, Matthias	GER		500.00 EUR	352.0	356.5	346.5	346.5	340.0	1741.5 points
	F 12-j.W v.Rivero II/M.v.Alcatraz/BAY/103CG45/B: Kempkes,Matthias						69.019 %	69.902 %	67.941 %	67.941 %	66.667 %	68.294 %
							8.	8.	9.	9.	11.
9.	82	Zidhane	van Olst, Anne	DEN		400.00 EUR	352.0	357.5	351.0	338.5	341.5	1740.5 points
	SCH 10-j.W v.Don Ruto/M.v.Negro/KWPN/103IB08/B: van Olst Horses						69.020 %	70.098 %	68.824 %	66.373 %	66.961 %	68.255 %
							8.	7.	8.	11.	10.
10.	57	Rubicon D	Stremler, Beata	POL		400.00 EUR	352.0	360.0	339.0	334.0	348.0	1733.0 points
	R 11-j.W v.Rubin-Royal/M.v.Larome/RHLD/103CO27/B: BG Loose u.Büttner-Loose						69.020 %	70.588 %	66.471 %	65.490 %	68.236 %	67.961 %
							8.	6.	11.	12.	7.
11.	51	Ronan	Oatley, Kristy	AUS		200.00 EUR	351.5	337.0	343.5	352.5	343.5	1728.0 points
	B 14-j.H v.Riccione/M.v.Contender/OLD/GER26673/B: BG Oatley,Robert u.Rosalind						68.922 %	66.079 %	67.353 %	69.118 %	67.353 %	67.765 %
							11.	11.	10.	8.	9.
12.	35	la Scala	Burgess, Briana	AUS		200.00 EUR	348.5	335.0	338.5	341.0	325.5	1688.5 points
	B 16-j.W v.Lancer II/M.v.Rembrandt/RHLD/GER41622/B: Burgess, Briana						68.334 %	65.687 %	66.373 %	66.863 %	63.824 %	66.216 %
							12.	12.	12.	10.	13.
13.	73	Warbeau	Staub, Hans	SUI		200.00 EUR	334.5	335.0	331.5	326.5	330.5	1658.0 points
	R 13-j.W v.Wolkenstein II/M.v.Matcho/HANN/103EE09/B: Ros Isabelle						65.589 %	65.687 %	65.000 %	64.020 %	64.804 %	65.020 %
							13.	12.	14.	14.	12.
14.	71	Vancouver	Merveldt, Anna	IRL		200.00 EUR	327.5	329.0	332.0	327.0	325.5	1641.0 points
	B 12-j.W v.Quite Easy/M.v.Ahorn/KWPN/102VA05/B: Zanella Eva						64.216 %	64.510 %	65.098 %	64.118 %	63.824 %	64.353 %
							14.	14.	13.	13.	13.
15.	56	Royal Rubinstein	Engelen, David	BEL		200.00 EUR	318.5	327.5	314.0	326.0	314.5	1600.5 points
	B 9-j.H v.Rubin-Royal/M.v.Sao Paulo/HANN/103ZK84/B: David Engelen						62.451 %	64.216 %	61.569 %	63.922 %	61.667 %	62.765 %
							15.	15.	15.	15.	15.