Showtime Out of Aachen With Injury 2 Days After Return to Competition of Germany’s Olympic Team Gold Medal Mount

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Olympic team gold horse Showtime FRH in his return to competition ridden by Dorothee Schneider.two days ago after a lengthy injury timeout has been witjdrawn from the Aachen CDI4* with a swollen leg. © 2018 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

AACHEN, Germany, July 20, 2018–Showtime FRH, Dorothee Schndier’s Olympic team gold medal mount that returned to competition here two days ago after lengthy injury timeouts, was pulled out of the CDI4* Grand Prix Special with a swollen leg Friday.

Dorothee had said after the Grand Prix that Showtime, a 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding, had the better record than Sammy Davis Jr. she is competing in the Nations Cup to be selected for Germany for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina beginning Sept. 11.

The latest injury for Showtime comes after the horse’s return with only two competitions on record since the 2016 Rio Games.

It is the latest question mark for Germany’s team prospects for the world championships in light of the federation’s stated policy to seek recent performance records of horses for Olympics and championships that was implemented after the embarassment of the forced pullout of Totilas from the 2015 European Championships here.

World No. 1 Weihegold OLD ridden by Isabell Werth, No. 5 Cosmo ridden by Sönke Rothenberger and Desperados FRH ridden by Kristina Bröring-Sprehe at two Olympics and returned in April after an injury break were all withdrawn after being entered for this premier German show.

Bella Rose, Isabell’s personal favorite, also returned to competition here after an injury absence of 3 1/2 years to win the CDI4* Grand Prix Thursday.

Bella Rose and Showtime placed one-two but both had mistakes in the one and two-tempi changes.