The news I received about Brentina`s minor injury while judging at `s-Hertogenbosch, the season-ending final World Cup qualifier in the Netherlands on the weekend before the final, really took some of the air out of the U.S. balloon. Fortunately, the injury was not catastrophic, and we still had two good horses to start`Nikolaus, with Guenter Seidel, and Kingston, with Leslie Morse.
And I was honored to be judging them and the rest of the field at the final in Dusseldorf (see April 19, p. 96).
The World Cup Grand Prix was doubly interesting for me, since I`d judged some of the horses the weekend before, some of whom delivered some surprises.
One was Barclay II, ridden by Sven Rothenberger. The stately chestnut, who happens to be a full brother to Brentina, was as steady as a rock in `s-Hertogenbosch. He had virtually faultless Grand Prix there and delivered an equally correct freestyle, consequently placing third and fifth. But at the finals he appeared cranky and listless and rarely in front of the leg in the Grand Prix, so he didn`t even qualify for the “A” division of freestyle.
By contrast, Anky van Grunsven`s Gestion Salinero and Edward Gal`s Gestion Lingh held true to form. The latter combination is a most encouraging addition to the dressage scene, and possibly a dangerous one for us Americans, who are looking forward to the Olympics.
Edward is rather new to the international level, but he and his beautiful bay stallion have certainly already made a big impression. This pair was one of my favorite combinations, because the horse has a lot of natural balance and self-carriage, and the rider sits quietly and gets a lot accomplished, while giving the impression that he simply allows the horse to “do his own thing,” which is mostly the right thing.
If you must pick on them, as we judges do, the horse has a slight tilt in his neck, which makes you wonder about his throughness, and their freestyle music, although it stirs the blood, is somewhat overwhelming and tends to “drown” this elegant horse.
In the World Cup Grand Prix, Edward and Lingh claimed third, but they moved up to second in the freestyle, right behind Salinero, who swept both classes.
Anky reigned supreme at both `s-Hertogenbosch and Dusseldorf, despite moments at each when her horse`s abundant energy became tension and almost got out of control. But Anky knows like no other rider how to urge her horse to the limit and still keep the lid on the pressure cooker.
Salinero has better basic gaits than Anky`s retired champion Bonfire, but he resembles Bonfire in the articulation of his knees and hocks and the air of electricity in his action.
Still, I placed another horse ahead of Salinero in the Grand Prix: Heike Kemmer`s Bonaparte. This chestnut has dressage conformation and gaits to die for, and his experienced rider guided him through a clean and supple performance that was comparable to Anky`s. Plus, Bonaparte got bonus points from me for having “gaits for a 9.”
Unfortunately, the freestyle didn`t work out as well, perhaps because of everyone`s great expectations. Heike really went for broke, and possibly Bonaparte was unable to deal with the pressure. He made a number of uncharacteristic technical mistakes and became irregular at the passage.
Hubertus Schmidt, who finished third, is an artist on horseback. I always enjoy and appreciate his skills, although I`m not totally enamored by his mare Wansuela Suerte, especially when I judge her from the side.
But Hubertus knows how to squeeze every point out of this fairly average mover. Her pirouettes, piaffe and passage are perfectly controlled, with prompt and smooth transitions. My impression is that she never really uses her back, though, especially in the extended work. And to me the rider has a great deal more quality than his horse.
Kingston and Leslie had some disagreements in the Grand Prix, and the stallion expressed his displeasure by occasionally flipping his head. This, of course, didn`t sell with us judges, and he didn`t make it to the “A” final.
In the “B” final, Kingston started out every bit as well as he did at our U.S. Freestyle Championships. He was magnificent throughout the extensive piaffe and passage tour and displayed great power and conviction in the trot work, but then proceeded to ruin the canter work by repeatedly shaking his head.
I didn`t judge this class, but we were all there watching, and for the first part of the performance Kingston had us at the edge of our seats, thinking he would certainly go to the head of the class.
Guenter produced the best Grand Prix I`ve ever seen him do on Nikolaus. The gelding remained cool and calm throughout, didn`t speed up in the piaffe, and even the canter work was happy and easy looking.
In the freestyle, our only remaining American combination had an inspiring go to great Latin music, which Guenter interpreted very well. Nikolaus was a tad more “on the muscle” than in the Grand Prix, and his mouth was not always closed, but there were no mistakes and they had a lot of brilliance.
Nikolaus drew the final starting position, which, in this case, was perhaps not ideal. It was difficult to raise the temperature of the audience and the judges after Anky`s performance.
We judges disagreed more on this ride than any of the others, placing Nikolaus from third to ninth, which put him sixth.
The biggest surprise, to me, was the totally enjoyable ride turned in by the youngest rider of the field, Marlies van Baalen, 23. This Dutch rider, on the American-owned and -trained Idocus (former mount of Lendon Gray`s), turned out a delightfully easy looking and technically correct performance. She even gave me the rare and delightful opportunity to award a 10 for one of her canter pirouettes as she finished seventh.
After the finals, Debbie was brought into the ring and honored with a bouquet of flowers as the defending champion. True to form, this classy lady took the opportunity to turn the spotlight from herself by thanking the retiring World Cup director, Joep Bartels, for his many years of service. And I`m sure Debbie McDonald will be back another year to receive the bouquet from the back of Brentina.