Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Aug. 26, 2017–Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD swept the European Championships with victory in the Grand Prix Freestyle Saturday to become the first rider to take the gold in all three competitions.

Isabell and the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare on which she is ranked No. 1 in the world with team gold and individual silver at last year’s Olympics and the World Cup title this year, scored  90.982 per cent, just 0.368 ahead of Sönke Rothenberger on Cosmo taking silver on 90.614 per cent with Cathrine Dufour on Cassidy caputring bronze on 84.561 per cent.

Already the most decorated equestrian in history at the age of 48, Isabell was winning gold medals (the first at the Europeans in 1989) before Sönke, 22, and Cathrine, 25, were born.

Isabell captured team gold, individual gold and freestyle gold for the first time by any combination since the first time three medals were awarded in 2007, an accomplishment that brought the rider to tears standing on the medals podium.

The top three combinations posted personal best scores in the freestyle but the European Championship freestyle record score of 91.250 per cent belongs to Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro from 2013.

“We all pushed each other today. When I went in, both Weihe and me knew there was no little mini-mistake allowed, and that made it very exciting.

“Today was her best test because there were no mistakes so at the end that was the difference,” Isabell said of Weihegold. “Weihe from the first step was loose. I really felt today I could ask for what I wanted–all the transitions, the extensions, extended canter back to pirouettes, piaffe-passage… today it was really brilliant.”

Sönke, like Cathrine in the first European championship, came so close to victory that he joked after the ride: “From so far away you can’t see (the medal), but if you look really close you’ll see it’s silver with a golden edge.”

The ride by the young German and Cosmo came right after Cathrine Dufour who moved to the top of the leaderboard guaranteeing her at a least a bronze medal with only two more pairs to go.

From the very first note of their musical performance, expectations were high as Sönke and Cosmo had clinched team gold for Germany even before Isabell and Weihegold rode in the Grand Prix and then was awarded silver medal in the Grand Prix Special.

“I don’t go into a test thinking of what others can do and try to do better,” Sönke explained. “I’m just going into the test trying to show in the ring everything we practice outside. Today was really the day. Together with my trainers, (Monica Theodorescu and Jonny Hilberath) we made a plan before and we trained outside in the warmup.

“Today was the day where we went into the ring and he gave me back exactly what I was asking for, and that’s just what I do it for: to see the horse give back what we’re training for.”

The music clearly mesmerized and silenced the spectators until the final centerline when the pair wrapped up their performance with a spectacular extended trot that led the audience of thousands to break into clapping in time that previously had been to passage by all other riders.

The music was composed by Cees Slings, who created musical performances for Anky van Grunsven and Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén among others, that he described to dressage-news.com as an unfinished freestyle as “a kind of experiment… just wait until it’s completely finished the way I finish my productions.”

Cathrine, the top fiishing Dane who was on the silver medal team and won individual bronze in the Grand Prix Special, admitted, “I didn’t expect to be sitting here, not at all. I hoped I could be in the fight if all went well. Cassidy was even better in the arena today, more calm. He really did evrything he could.

“I knew I had to be number one when I left the arena because these two were coming. I knew these two would really ride for their life so I’m so thrilled and super proud of Cassidy.

Results:

European Championships Grand Prix Freestyle