USA’s Günter Seidel & Zero Gravity, Charlotte Jorst & Nintendo Likely World Cup Finalists
9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on USA’s Günter Seidel & Zero Gravity, Charlotte Jorst & Nintendo Likely World Cup Finalists
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
America’s three-time Olympic medalist Günter Seidel and senior championship rookie Charlotte Jorst are almost definite to represent the United States at the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden in three weeks.
Günter will ride Zero Gravity, a 12-year-old KWPN gelding that he has competed at Big Tour for a year, while Charlotte will take Kastel’s Nintendo, 13-year-old KWPN stallion she began competing in CDIs two years ago.
Both are foreign-born, Günter was German and Charlotte was Danish.
Although the last World Cup event for the 2015/16 North American League circuit is scheduled for Wellington, Florida this week, the decisions by Laura Graves on Verdades and Steffen Peters on Legolas to forego the annual individual championship to focus on the Olympics took the top two combinations from the rankings. Other horses and riders that could challenge for a start are not entered in the Adequan Global Dressage Festival Grand Prix Freestyle.
Mikala Gundersen, a Danish team rider based in Wellington and ranked second in North America but is not a North American citizen, is also likely to be invited with My Lady as “an extra starting place.”
Günter, at the age of 55 has a resume that makes him one of America’s most accomplished riders.
He competed on U.S. teams that won bronze medals at the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004.
Günter and Nikolaus 7, a Westfalen gelding, were on the American team that won silver at the World Games in Spain in 2002 and he was also on World Games teams at Rome in 1998 and in Aachen, Germany in 2006.
In his career, Günter has been to four World Cup Finals, including on Nikolaus 7 in two of them.
At Gothenburg in 2003, the pair finished third the same year that Debbie McDonald on Brentina became the first American to capture the annual individual world championship, and the Final in 2004.
Charlotte Jorst, born in Denmark but an American citizen, bought Nintendo at the end of 2013 and has competed on both sides of Atlantic including on three U.S. Nations Cup teams in Europe.
At 51 years of age Charlotte is relatively new to international dressage–her first shows were in 2012.
But she has a big budget from the sale of a designer watch company she and her husband sold for a quarter billion dollars. Charlotte lives in Reno, Nevada but is refurbishing a home in San Diego, California and is developing a new international business, Kastel sportswear.
Charlotte’s sole championship was when she rode Vitalis in the World Young Horse six-year-old final in Verden, Germany in 2013.
