Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald Rides Blue Hors Zepter to Another Personal Best Score to Win Neumünster World Cup
2 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald Rides Blue Hors Zepter to Another Personal Best Score to Win Neumünster World Cup
NEUMÜNSTER, Germany, Feb. 19, 2023–Nanna Skodborg Merrald and Blue Hors Zepter posted a personal best score for the second day to win the World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday while Ingrid Klimke of Germany on Franziskus FRH improved her chances of joining the Danish rider for the Final in Omaha in seven weeks.
The musical performance by Nanna and the 15-year-old Oldenburg gelding scored 86.060% for the rider’s first Freestyle victory this season and moved the pair up to third place with 69 points in the intensely competitive Western European League. The pair won the Grand Prix Saturday on a personal best in only their second Big Tour competition.
Nanna, on Denmark’s world championship gold medal team last summer and the Tokyo Olympic team, rode four different horses in six qualifying events for which the top four results count in earning what appear likely to be her second World Cup Final. The first was in Leipzig, Germany last year.
Ingrid Klimke’s ride on the 15-year-old Hanoverian stallion Franziskus was enough to keep her in second place behind German team mate Isabell Werth in Western Europe.
Kirsten Brouwer of the Netherlands on Foundation, 13-year-old KWPN stallion, was third on a personal high in the Freestyle of 82.050%. The pair were third in Saturday’s Grand Prix.
One of the three places that can go to a single nation is already taken up for Germany by defending champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB.
Two more qualifiers remain in Western Europe to earn a start in Omaha; the next is in Gothenburg, Sweden this coming weekend.
Results:
World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle
| Judges: | Clive Halsall | Elke Ebert | Magnus Ringmark | Susanne Baarup | Katrina Wüst | ||||||||
| Place | Score | Nation | Athlete | Horse | E | H | C | M | B | Spectators | |||
| 1. | 86.060 | DEN | Nanna Skodborg Merrald | Blue Hors Zepter | 86.450 | 85.600 | 85.200 | 85.450 | 87.600 | 80.952 (2) | |||
| 2. | 84.710 | GER | Ingrid Klimke | Franziskus FRH | 86.125 | 84.875 | 83.500 | 85.500 | 83.550 | 83.046 (1) | |||
| 3. | 82.050 | NED | Kirsten Brouwer | Foundation | 84.975 | 80.400 | 81.725 | 81.775 | 81.375 | 80.044 (3) | |||
| 4. | 80.580 | NED | Marieke van der Putten | Tørveslettens Titanium RS2 | 82.000 | 78.900 | 81.375 | 80.475 | 80.150 | 79.475 (4) | |||
| 5. | 79.065 | DEN | Daniel Bachmann Andersen | Zippo M.I. | 78.475 | 76.825 | 80.225 | 81.875 | 77.925 | 78.365 (5) | |||
| 6. | 78.540 | FIN | Emma Kanerva | Greek Air | 79.475 | 77.100 | 78.150 | 79.350 | 78.625 | 76.360 (6) | |||
| 7. | 78.045 | AUS | Simone Pearce | Fiderdance | 78.600 | 79.650 | 75.850 | 77.525 | 78.600 | 76.270 (7) | |||
| 8. | 77.225 | GER | Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock | Florine OLD | 77.125 | 76.325 | 75.875 | 77.700 | 79.100 | 75.109 (8) | |||
| 9. | 76.645 | GER | Juliane Brunkhorst | Aperol | 76.625 | 76.050 | 76.725 | 76.875 | 76.950 | 74.520 (9) | |||
| 10. | 73.955 | NED | Denise Nekeman | Boston STH | 73.725 | 73.500 | 73.150 | 74.825 | 74.575 | 73.890 (11) | |||
| 11. | 73.540 | SUI | Estelle Wettstein | Quaterboy | 72.000 | 73.725 | 73.975 | 73.525 | 74.475 | 74.252 (10) | |||
| 12. | 72.095 | POR | Antonio Do Vale | Fine Fellow – H | 73.275 | 69.700 | 72.450 | 71.925 | 73.125 | 71.128 (13) | |||
| 13. | 71.715 | GER | Hendrik Lochthowe | Bricco Barone | 71.800 | 71.650 | 70.825 | 74.475 | 69.825 | 72.040 (12) | |||
| 14. | 69.925 | NED | Jeanine Nekeman | Ferrari | 70.150 | 71.825 | 65.900 | 70.525 | 71.225 | 70.057 (15) | |||
| 15. | 69.010 | RSA | Gretha Hausmann-Ferreira | Zidane | 68.350 | 69.600 | 67.775 | 70.300 | 69.025 | 70.477 (14) | |||
