Rusty Will Lead Germany’s Charge One Last Time
The German team, as always the favorite, mixes old and new faces while aiming for their eighth straight Olympic gold medal, writes Birgit Popp.

Ulla Salzgeber and much of the rest of Germany breathed a huge sigh of relief when the German Olympic Committee, in agreement with the National Anti-Doping Agency, gave her the green light in June to take Rusty to Athens, despite their disqualification from the 2003 FEI World Cup Final for a positive drug test.

Salzgeber and Rusty were able to win their third national title with a convincing performance at the German Championships at Balve in early June, despite a four-month forced break from showing. Having won the European Championship in 2001 and 2003 and helped the team to its gold medals at the 1998 and 2002 World Championships and 2000 Olympics (winning the individual bronze at all three), Salzgeber and Rusty are the kingpins of this team.

When Anky van Grunsven’s Bonfire and Isabell Werth’s Gigolo retired after the 2000 Olympics, Rusty became the favorite in 2002. But Rusty reached Jerez, Spain, with shipping fever and couldn’t be worked until the day before the Grand Prix. His performance improved during the championships, culminating in a freestyle victory and the individual bronze medal.

This time, said Salzgeber, who has a law degree, “First, we’re looking forward to winning team gold, and then we want to make it very hard for any other combination to win the individual gold medal.”

In Athens they’ll once again perform their freestyle to the breath-taking music of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” music that has accompanied them ever since their first international championships, the 1997 Europeans. They’ve been members of every German championship team ever since. But Athens will be Rusty’s last team, said Salzgeber, and she hopes to finally achieve the individual gold medal that’s been so elusive.

The rest of the team wasn’t determined until after the CDIO Aachen, and the results from Aachen shuffled the team around quite a bit.

Heike Kemmer, on Bonaparte, secured their place on the team with credible consistent performances. Unfortunately for Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff, on Renoir-UNICEF, uncharacteristic lackluster scores took her completely out of the running, dashing her dreams of making it to her second Olympics. She rode in the 1988 Seoul Olympics on Courage and has had to wait 16 years before she found Renoir, whom she refers to as “the horse of my life.”

The biggest question of all for the German team at Aachen was Martin Schaudt and Weltall VA, and that pair atsonished everyone by finishing third in all three classes proving themselves worthy of belonging to the great German juggernaut. Hubertus Schmidt, whom many felt had been unfairly left off the original German short list, proved to the German selectors that they had made a mistake by winning open CDI classes on his mare, Wansuela Suerte.

He replaced Linsenhoff in the Athen’s lineup and she, on her mare Wahajama-UNICEF took over the reseve spot. Klaus Husenbeth, the only amateur rider with a chance for the team, had his Olympic hopes dashed when Piccolino when lame right before Aachen. The pair had had an unlucky season fraught with bad decisions and bad luck, which is truly a shame as the elegant Piccolino is a joy to watch.

Athens will be Kemmer’s first Olympic Games. She was on the German team for the 2001 European Championships with Albano, who is not an alternate on the Olympic squad, and in 2003 the extremely elegant Bonaparte made his championship debut by placing fourth individually in the European Championships. Over the indoor season he matured and improved in the piaffe, for which he has developed considerably more strength. After grabbing fourth in the 2004 World Cup Final, they were overall runners-up to Rusty and Salzgeber after placing second in both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special at the German Championships, scoring 75.25 and 77.28 percent.

Schaudt made his championship debut in 1995, winning team gold in the European Championships aboard Durgo, and he rode Durgo again in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics. Now he said that Weltall “is the best horse I ever had.” Nevertheless, bad luck has also been on his heels with this outstanding gelding. In March, on his way to CDI Dortmund (Germany), a truck crashed into his lorry, flinging Weltall and another horse onto the highway. Amazingly, they suffered no fractures or other serious injuries. But, after recovering from that accident, the blacksmith pricked Weltall with a nail and caused an abscess.

The German Championships on the second weekend of June was their first outdoor horse show of this season, but they achieved third place overall and the German title in the men’s division.

Schmidt and Wansuela Suerte were the best German combination at the World Cup Final, where they placed third, which is why it was surprising the German team selectors did not give him more consideration. Schmidt, who has trained more horses to Grand Prix than any other current German rider, and the chestnut mare were runners-up in the men’s division at the German Championships and Schmidt won his fifth national professional rider title this year, which underscores his elegant and understated talents.

Isabell Werth and Satchmo were also under consideration for the team and were members of the gold-medal team at the 2003 Europeans. But this year they have been rather unreliable. Satchmo likes to show resistance at least once per test and even rears occasionally, especially in the piaffe, and despite Werth’s considerable talent and experience as an Olympic competitor, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist will not get a chance to win her fourth Olympic team gold medal.

TEAM MEMBERS

Rusty: ch. g., 16, Latvian-bred by Letonia–Rebus.
Ulla Salzgeber: age 46, Bad Woerishofen.

Bonaparte: ch. g., 11, German-bred Hanoverian by Bon Bonaparte– Consul mare.
Heike Kemmer: age 42, Winsen.

Wansuela Suerte: ch. m., 11, German-bred Hanoverian by Warkant–Wachmann I.
Hubertus Schmidt: age 44, Borchen.

Weltall VA: br. g., 10, German-bred Hanoverian by Weltmeyer–Picard.
Martin Schaudt: age 58, Albstadt.

Reserve

Wahajama-Unicef: blk. m., 10, Hanoverian, by Warkant.
Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff: age 44, Kron