Netherlands Wins European Championship Gold, Valegro Leads Great Britain to Silver, Irregular Totilas Leaves Germany With Bronze

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

AACHEN, Germany, Aug. 13, 2015–A mistake-free ride by Edward Gal on Glock’s Undercover led a strong Netherlands’ team to the gold medal in the Nations Cup at the European Championships Thursday while Valegro was ridden by Charlotte Dujardin to first place to insure silver for Great Britain while an irregular Totilas scored too low to keep Germany from the bronze medal.

Spain, Sweden and France placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, joining the top three placegetters here who had earned their ticket to South America at the World Games a year ago. Australia, too, won an Olympic start in Normandy while the United States claimed a team starting slot at the Pan American Games in Toronto last month.

The result of 75.971 per cent was the second lowest Grand Prix score ever for Totilas ridden by Matthias Alexander Rath for Germany in only their second international competition in a year. Team coach Monica Theodorescu said the 15-year-old KWPN black stallion will be examined by a veterinarian Friday and a decision made then to decide whether the horse will move on to the Grand Prix Special on Saturday.

Both Britain’s Carl Hester on Nip Tuck as well as Totilas and Matthias were victims of erratic judging–as much as nine percentage points difference between high and low scores–that the ground jury defended but spectators were vocal with boos and jeers.

There was widespread speculation that these championships may be the last for Totilas as a succession of injuries since Matthias took over the ride at the end of 2010 kept the horse out of the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

The controversy over the performance by Totilas and some of the scoring by the seven members of the championship ground jury that awarded the pair marks that ranged from a high of two marks of 80.100 per cent and a low of 71.600 per cent along did not appear to have an affect on any of the other riders who joked their way through a post-competition news conference.

Edward Gal, the rider of Totilas when the pair won team and individual gold medals at the 2010 World Games in Kentucky then saw the horse go to Matthias when it was bought by Ann-Katrin Linsenhof and Paul Schockemöhle for Germany, quipped: “I think we are the happiest team here.”

His ride on Glock’s Undercover was virtually mistake-free for a score of 82.229 per cent that came Hans Peter Minderhoud on Glock’s Johnson TN had stood at the top of the leaderboard for most of the day with a personal best score of 77.586 per cent. Diederik van Silfhout on Arlando on Wednesday was the overnight leader on 75.814 per cent posted Wednesday.

Carl Hester whose ride on Nip Tuck was placed ninth individually was with a mark of 74.900 per cent that included a low score of 71.300 per cent from judge Eduard de Wolff van Westerrode of the Netherlands at C and a high of 77.300 per cent from Annette Fransén-Iacobaeus of Sweden at H. Eduard de Wolff van Westerrode, defended the widely disparate scores because of different positions around the arena–but C and H are just a few yards/meters apart on the short side of the arena.

Carl didn’t join the controversy, though, noting that Nip Tuck was in only his second championship at the age of 11 and has never scored under 70 per cent.

“I’m delighted; his impression is so just so great, with his size and his look he has great presence in the arena,” he said. “There’s not a rider who comes out and doesn’t think ‘if only…’ and yes I could have pushed for more.’ But I ride for rhythm so I’d rather keep the rhythm with less power than push and break.”

Charlotte and Valegro, the world’s No. 1 combination, placed first individually and enough to clinch the silver medal for Great Britain with a score of 83.029 per cent that was below their best with mistakes inthe zig and the one-tempi changes.

“I had a problem on the zig-zag, that was completely my fault and then I think I still had that on my mind when I went into the changes, so then I had a mistake in the changes, a little bit disappointed with that but the beginning felt really good,” she said. “I don’t think there’s many horses that have gone in and not had a mistake. We all went in to try our best and enjoy it.”

Isabell Werth, the most experienced and honored rider on the German team, joined in the bantering:

“We have achieved our goal. We wanted to claim the bronze medal because it is too boring winning gold all the time and since we are good hosts and horsey people, we wanted to make the two other teams really happy.”

On a more serious note,  the 14-time European Champion added: “We simply weren’t as good as we can be, so it was a fair result that the others won. But watch out, we will try to come back again next year.”

Kristina Bröring-Sprehe on Desperados FRH was the most successful German combination finishing on a score of 79.743 percent that was lower than expected.

“I thought Desperados would pull forward more,” Kristina said, “I had to push him on more than expected, but apart from that he was super to ride. On Saturday, we will be ready and raring to go again.”

The Grand Prix Special will be held Saturday in the 40,000-seat Main Stadium which also hosted the Nations Cup.

Frank Kemperman who manages the Aachen show, reported 15,000 spectators the first day of the Nations Cup and 17,500 Thursday, about twice as many as can be accommodated in the Deutsche Bank Stadium, the usual dressage venue here.

Many more are expected for the Grand Prix Special and perhaps a sellout for the Freestyle on Sunday.

Individual Grand Prix

Judges – K: Susanne Baarup (DEN) E: Katrina Wuest (GER) H: Annette Fransén-Iacobaeus (SWE) C: Eduard de Wolff van Westerrode (NED) M: Jean-Michel Roudier (FRA) B: Anne Gribbons (USA) F: Andrew Ralph Gardner (GBR)