Dressage-News

By ILSE SCHWARZ

ERMELO, Netherlands, Sept. 10, 2022–As hoped, Saturday’s final was a complete turnaround from the preliminary competition. Everyone got the memo that this is the World Championships. The horses were settled, perhaps the riders also benefitted from a couple of extra days here. From the very first rider, to the last, it was clear that we were in for good competition, good riding, fair judging and well presented horses. They didn’t all suddenly develop extraordinary gaits but the tests were, almost, without fail, well ridden . The overall scores, with the exception of the top three who all deservedly received scores of 9.0 and above, were all in the same realm as in the preliminaries, and were justified. We already knew from the preliminary final that there was unlikely to be a standout winner.

The champion could have been anyone from the top 10 of the preliminary final, which kept the spectators guessing until literally the final horse: the Danish mare Lyngbjergs St. Paris (Blue Hors St. Schufro x Blue Hors Rockefeller), ridden by Victoria E. Vallentin.

There was definitely the expectation that either the Hof Kasselmann-owned Fashion Prinz, OLD (Fuerst Romancier x Sarkozy), winner of the preliminaries, or the runner-up, Vitalos (Vitalis x De Niro), owned by Helgstrand/Schockemöhle would take top honors. So much so that after Frederic Wandres finished his ride on Fashion Prinz, leaving Vitalos and Leonie Richter lying in first place, a surprising number of people got up to leave, assuming it was all decided.

I arrived too late Thursday to see Victoria’s ride on her mare. She had finished third in the rankings, and there was definitely room for her to take the lead. What fun her ride was. So consistent across the board. I happened to be placed exactly on the diagonal for the walk tour, so I couldn’t watch her long rein walk. The judges wanted to see a bit more freedom of the shoulders and overtrack, 8.5. But her walk pirouette was one of the best executed over all 16 rides. The trot was elegant, engaged, elastic, light footed and showed a good difference from the working gait to collection to medium trot., even though the judges felt the medium trot was slightly hurried. They felt the transitions were really beautiful, 9.5. The canter was uphill and engaged, good ability to collect. Every now and then she came behind the vertical, but 9.3.

The connection was quiet and steady, there were no big mistakes, although the judges wanted more fluid simple changes. They also appreciated how much the mare was willing to work for her rider, 8.8. There was no question it was going to be close.

As Monique Peutz-Vegter of the Netherlands gave the judges’ report with the marks for each gait I gave up on my mental arithmetic but knew it all came down to the mark for perspective, essentially how strongly does the judges’ panel believe there is a future in the sport for the horse. Lyngbjergs St. Paris received 9.5, the highest in the class. Overall score 9.12

Yes, the little mare, owned by Victoria herself had won. You could see on her face that it took a moment to sink in, and then the smile!

What a wonderful moment. At the press conference she was asked, a little cheekily, I think, “Did you expect to win?” Victoria’s grin split her face as she said, “Well no, but I certainly hoped it was possible.”

She continued with: “When the crowd started cheering on our last line, I thought to myself “this might have been a good test. But I really didn’t expect it, it feels like a dream. She is so easy to ride, I am not even sweating.”

The Danish rider purchased her out of the field as a two-year-old and has always ridden Lyngbjergs St. Paris herself. It was very clear that she has secured the ride with her for a very long time.

I confess that when Vitalos entered the arena, I was sure we were seeing the winner. The trot had an elasticity and power combined with a softness and suppleness that none of the other horses possessed. It was uphill and engaged and Leonie Richter is such a beautiful, quietly effective rider and the stallion looked confident and willing. Their trot scored 9.8, the highest mark given over the entire class. I knew that the walk had been the weakest gait in the preliminary class…and of course I couldn’t really see it, but the rhythm looked good and Vitalos was nicely relaxed. The judges wanted it a little more suppleness over the back and rewarded it with an 8.5. In the canter, it’s uphill and active but watching the counter canter I was holding my breath a little that he wouldn’t change. The hindlegs lost a little of their reach under the body and the judges noted this too, 8.6. He received 9.0 for submission due to the counter canters and some tilting evident in the corners. But the contact was always quiet and steady and he was uphill throughout the test. Perspective 9.4. Overall score 9.06

Fashion Prinz OLD went directly after Vitalos and he has an extraordinary walk, so the tension in the canter we saw with Vitalos left the door a little open. Even though Fashion Prinz does not have the same balance and suppleness in the trot, he still presents an uphill willing and powerful picture, 9.3. The stallion is an enormous horse, already standing at 18.7 hands/190cm which, although the perfect size for the very tall Frederic, means he still has to develop a lot more strength to truly be able to carry good self-carriage all the time. The canter has very good jump and ground cover, but gets a little croup high and crooked in the counter canters, 8.4. So today the high mark for the walk , 9.7, was not enough to propel him to the lead. They finish in third place with an overall score of 9.0

Another favorite from the previous day was the light-footed elegant Dutch mare, My Precious (Ferguson x Vivaldi) ridden and owned by Kirsten Brouwer. The trot showed beautiful uphill tendency with good hindleg activity and lovely freedom of the shoulder with a clear ability to collect. There was some unsteadiness in the contact on the circles but still good enough for 9.3. The walk had good activity and rhythm, but the judges wanted to see more overtrack, 8.8. The canter was nicely uphill with a good ability to collect but the counter canter left got quite crooked, almost to half pass, with Kirsten having to help the mare a lot to maintain the movement, 8.6. Submission 8.5 and then 9.2 for perspective as the judges feel (and I am pretty sure every one agrees) the mare is beautiful, light footed with a lot of talent. An overall score of 8.88 was good enough for fourth place.

The ride of the Belgian Warmblood stallion, Racoon (Hero x De Niro) by Franka Loos provided me with perhaps my favorite line from the judges… and it had nothing to do with dressage. Monique declared “You showed your Racoon in a very nice frame today.” In that moment, all I could picture was myself capturing a raccoon, tacking it up and starting to work in the frame. I think I was the only one who laughed; probably don’t have raccoons in Europe, I guess. (Editor: It is native to North America). Franka did have a lovely ride. Much more convincing than in the qualification round. They took the lead right after the break and held it for the next four horses, when My Precious took it. This was such a harmonious ride resulting in 9.0 for the trot, submission and the perspective. He maintained an elegant easy contact with the nose always just in front of the vertical. There was some difference between the left and right canter which was otherwise uphill with good reach, 8.6. Walk 8.5 and overall 8.82.

The stretching circle doesn’t get much said about it, unless it is poorly executed and all of the horses, literally all, showed a clear effort. Some could have stretched down a little more, some could have stretched out a little more. But it was a good indicator of the high level of self carriage that these horses were in for this competition.