Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

LAMPRECHTSHAUSEN, Austria, SEPT. 2, 2017–Lisa-Maria Klossinger of Germany on FBW Daktari won the European Under-25 Championships individual gold medal Saturday to add to her team gold with the Netherlands’ Anne Meulendijks on MDH Avanti taking silver and Juan Matute, Jr., the Florida-based Spanish teenage star, capturing bronze on Quantico Ymas.

The scores for Lisa-Marie on Daktari, Anne on Avanti and Juan on Quantico were all personal bests for the individual competition that was at Under-25 Grand Prix despite chilly weather(as low as 50F/10C) with stready rain for the first half of the competition, the second year for the under-25 Europeans.

Lisa-Maria and the 12-year-old German Sport Horse gelding scored 76.837 per cent, following their score of 76.500 per cent Friday that helped Germany to the team gold.

The 24-year-old Lisa-Maria and Daktari began international under-25 in December 2015 after competing at young riders since 2012, including the 2014 European Young Rider Championships where they won team gold and individual and freestyle silver.

After this competition, their world under-25 ranking of No. 26 will jump into the top group.

Anne Meulendijks with 74.698 per cent placed second individually with MDH Avanti that she has partnered in international competition since early 2013 rising to No. 1 on the world under-25 rankings.

Anne, 24 years old, competed in two European Young Rider Championships, with her Netherlands team taking silver in 2014 and Anne capturing both individual and freestyle gold. In the inaugural under-25 Europeans in 2016, she led her team to silver behind Germany.

Juan Matute, Jr., on Quantico Ymas was a star at 19 years old and a week after sweeping the Lövsta Future Challenge International Under-25 Grand Prix and Freestyle staged alongside the European Championships of dressage and jumping in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Juan and Don Diego Ymas won individual bronze in the inaugural under-25 championships in Germany last year.

The pair, who spend half the year in Wellington, Florida where he has established himself as not only a top rider in youth divisions but an outstanding ambassador for dressage, and half in Europe, turned in a score of 72.628 per cent. The result held up against the tail end of Grand Prix that included world No. 4 Bianca Nowag of Germany on Fair Play RB and the eighth ranked Dutch rider Jeanine Nieuwenhuis on TC Athene.

The ranking points for Juan, the son of three-time Spanish Olympian Juan Matute, had boosted him to world No. 5 based on results at Wellington this winter and success at Rotterdam and Aachen, the premier shows in Europe.

The family returns to Wellington in the next couple of weeks to take a break from competition and prepare for Wellington’s intense Adequan Global Dressage Festival of 12 straight weeks of shows, including seven CDIs.

The home crowd were rooting for a podium place for Karoline Valenta on Valenta’s Diego but scored 72.422 per cent, missed out by 0.206 per cent and placed fourth overall, a result that was loudly applauded by the crowd that displayed appreciation for all competitors.

The freestyle is scheduled for Sunday.

Results:

European U-25 Championships Grand Prix individual