Dressage-News

Isabell took in stride jokes about the fact the combined ages of Sönke, 22, and Cathrine, 25, at 47 is lower than her 48 years. She won the first ever Grand Prix Special at a Europeans, in 1991 on Gigolo.

Her two gold medals so far here brought Isabell’s total since her first Europeans in 1989 to 18, plus three silver and one bronze. Her last victory in the Grand Prix Special was 10 years ago.

Isabell is also a six-time Olympic and seven-time world champion and is in the top 10 of the world rankings on three different horses.

The competition following the Grand Prix in this stadium–famous for having to be reinforced after an enthusiastic crowd at a Bruce Springsteen concert weakened the structure–where the German team won gold, Denmark silver and Sweden bronze was closer at the top of the leaderboard of 30 starting combinations and than a total of 66 rides over two days in the Grand Prix.

The crowd clapping in time that was directed exclusively at Isabell and Weihegold, a 12-year-old Oldenburg mare, in the last half of the final centerline in the Grand Prix was enlivened to extend the same salute to the entire last group of horses and riders and the Swedish riders on Friday

The score of 82.479 per cent for Sönke and the 10-year-old KWPN gelding whose movements he described as being “like a spring” and converted him to dressage from jumping was within 1.134 per cent of the result for Isabell and on some movements threatened to take the lead.

However, her score sheet included 26 marks of 10, the maximum, especially for the final centerline of piaffe and passage and for rider’s position and effectiveness of aids.

“Weihe is in the best form ever,” Isabell declared after her ride. “It was a clear test without mistakes and with a lot of precision, so I’m completely happy. For me the challenge was to take enough risk but not too much because I knew the rest behind me want to make me angry. It worked.”

“For me it was the best feeling in the trot and passage that I’ve ever had with her. It was like a metronome in passage.”

One of those behind her was Sönke on Cosmo who was awarded 12 10s by the ground jury of seven judges, including two 10s in both the one and two-tempi lines of changes.

“I know my horse (Cosmo) can do it, and I never doubted from the first day I sat on him that he could beat anybody if things work out the way I would want,” he said. “But it’s always a different story to bring it on the day, which is what Isabell is so good at….doing it on the day, on the spot when you need it and that’s what we try to work on, and that’s what we train for every day. We are getting closer and closer, but we are not quite there yet.”

On his family’s equestrian successes–both parents were Olympic medalists and two sisters are highly competitive–he said: “We can’t think of a life without horses. I always thought when you have a jumping horse and you jump a 1.60-meter obstacle you get goosebumps and the feeling of being on a roller-coaster that you can’t have that on a dressage horse–until I sat on Cosmo, and then I realized he gives me that feeling as well.”

Cathrine Dufour looked ready to burst into tears with happiness and mentioned the journey of her riding career on Cassidy, a 14-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding that she has ridden through juniors seven years ago, to young riders, under-25 then the Olympics in 2016 and her first Europeans here.

Therese Nilshagen gave the home crowd a reason to celebrate when she placed fourth on Dante Weltino OLD on a score of 78.585 per cent, that was a personal best for her and the 10-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare and was the highest placed Swedish duo.

Results:

European Championships Grand Prix Special