Victory at Grand Prix Special

VWe haven’t seen him for many months, nine months to be precise, and the community missed him: Showtime, the beautiful dark bay Hanoverian owned by Dorothee Schneider. In August of last year he competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and contributed a strong performance to the team gold of the German dressage riders. At the individual final the gelding lost his strength. Barely home in Framersheim in the Palatinate, a long holiday began.

“He mostly chilled,” says Dorothee Schneider. In between, he was slightly injured. He enjoyed pasture and paddock and, according to his rider, gained new pride and self-confidence. This could be seen on the square at the German championships in Balve in Sauerland on Saturday. Dorothee Schneider won the first of two titles in the classic Grand Prix Special with a top score of 83.686 percentage points.

It was the third German championship title for the 53-year-old world-class rider. But a particularly touching one, as she said afterwards. “It was very emotional to feel that the horse is back,” she said. And he was. He still has his star qualities and his power seemed to be back on Saturday. “The whole test was unbelievable,” enthused head judge Evi Eisenhardt from Hesse.

However, on Sunday, when the second title was awarded in the freestyle, he was no longer on the starting list. He’s being spared again. At the beginning of July at the CHIO in Aachen, for the first time since the Olympics, a voice will start his freestyle music: “Ladies and Gentlemen: It’s Showtime!” In August, the horse will represent Germany at the World Championships in Herning.

Behind the surprise second Frederic Wandres from Hagen am Teutoburg Forest, the most successful dressage rider in history, Isabell Werth, only came third with the twelve-year-old stallion Quantaz. With her grade of 78.215 percentage points, she was even served well by the judges. Mistakes in the two-person canter changes and the jump-to-jump changes spoiled her performance. How annoyed she was about this was already reflected in her annoyed face in the line-up of greetings in front of the chief judge.

“It was very unfortunate,” she said. “I take credit for the mistakes myself.” For a year she has not ridden the task of the Grand Prix Special with Quantaz, always opting for the freestyle variant at tournaments. “He’s very sensitive,” she says of Quantaz, “and was irritated.” Because he hadn’t gotten used to it, he couldn’t see what was being asked of him. “I’m annoyed that my experience didn’t give me the idea of ​​completing the task at home,” she said.

All the more she should try to make up for the mistake in the freestyle on Sunday. The international judge Katarina Wüst gave Werth’s ride the best mark with more than 80 percentage points. The strengths in piaffe and passage, she explained, had partly made up for the mistakes in changing. “Maybe I was a little too kind to her,” she conceded. But she also put Werth and Quantaz in third place, which she thinks is okay.

The 35-year-old Fredric Wandres, rider at the tournament organizer and horse dealer Ulrich Kasselmann, made a strong recommendation for the World Championship team with his ride. The chestnut Duke of Britain was particularly brilliant in the piaffe, the lesson that shows, among other things, the world class in the horse. He would be lying, he explained, if he said he wasn’t focused on the World Cup. “I put a footnote.”

But the CHIO in Aachen is still coming at the end of June/beginning of July. “We have to show where we stand again.” Benjamin Werndl from Aubenhausen with Famoso and Ingrid Klimke from Münster, highly decorated as an eventing rider with Franziskus, also showed strong performances in fourth and fifth place in the Special. “It’s not even half-time yet,” said national coach Monica Theodorescu, looking at Herning.

While men and women compete against each other without distinction in dressage, the parallel German Show Jumping Championships have their own Amazon class. On Saturday, 32-year-old Katrin Eckermann from Sassenberg won the title in this category with the stallion Cascadello-Boy. After a total of three rounds with zero mistakes, she remained flawless in the jump-off, while the second pair in the deciding round, Tina Deuerer from Bretten with Clueso, had to accept a knockdown at the last obstacle. Third was Angelique Rüsen from Marl with Calvino.

Defending champion Sophie Hinners from Pfungstadt was tenth with the stallion Million Dollar. World champion Simone Blum was also at the start and took twelfth place with the stallion Diachacco. Her perfect horse, the mare Alice, has not been able to compete in a tournament for a year and a half because of an injury.