Anja Plonzke made her World Cup-qualifying debut at the Frankfurt CDI-W and sealed the victory with an impressive ride aboard Tannenhof’s Solero TSF.

Plonzkee, 37, was the last of the 15 competitors in the freestyle test, which was the fifth of eight qualifiers in the Western European League and the first one ever held at the Frankfurt Festhalle, Dec. 16-19 in Frankfurt, Germany.

The 12-year-old, Trakehner stallion, the runner-up in the Grand Prix, topped the freestyle with 74.67 percent, a short margin ahead of the Stockholm World Cup qualifier runners-up, Ellen Schulten-Baumer and Donatha S (74.62%).

Laurens van Lieren and Hexagon’s Ollright (74.32%) placed third, and Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, who was also part of the show organization, placed fourth (72.12%) aboard Wahajama-Unicef. The elegant Hanoverian mare was much better in the Grand Prix two days before, but had significant problems when going out of the canter pirouette in the freestyle.

Bad luck also plagued Grand Prix winner Hubertus Schmidt. His 10-year-old Forest Gump neighed throughout the test and placed ninth, but with 68.90 percent, which was still a good score.

The audience enthusiastically applauded local rider Plonzke for her victory. She was surprised about her win in the $27,406 class.

“I am extremely happy. I would not have dared to dream of this victory,” she said. “I hope I will be nominated to participate in further World Cup classes. But, it is very difficult for a national B team member, since many A team members have already announced their interest in a starting place.”

The win wasn’t as much of a surprise for Plonzke’s followers. In 2004 she earned the bronze medal in the German Ladies Dressage Championships and won the Grand Prix freestyle at CHIO Aachen (Germany). Last December she contested the Munich Indoors (Germany) and was runner-up in the freestyle behind Isabell Werth and Antony FRH, being the only one to threaten Werth’s top placing.

The CDI-W Frankfurt was also a World Cup debut for the 11-year-old, chestnut Maximus JSS, ridden by Catherine Haddad. The gelding is a son of May Sherif, the same sire of Kyra Kyrklund’s famous 1990 Vice World Champion and World Cup Champion Matador.

Haddad relocated from the United States to Germany 13 years ago to train with Willi Schultheis. She’s now running her own barn with 20 stalls at Vechta and has trained with Rudolph Zeilinger for the past three years.

With 11th in the Grand Prix (64.16%), Haddad was one of the 15 finalists for the freestyle. In the freestyle test Maximus JS was certainly one of the most classically trained horses of the competition, and music taken from the movie “Gladiator” was fitting and an allusion to the similarity of the names between the horse and the gladiator. Her first salute was very exact, but really surprising was the transition from extended canter on the diagonal into an immediately relaxed extended walk at the long rein. With a score of 70.97 percent, she achieved an excellent eighth place.

Haddad was pleased with their performances since Maximus had to take a break from May 2004 until August 2005.

In September the combination, which has been together for two years, was runners-up in the Grand Prix at Mainz after placing fourth in the Intermediaire II.

“Internationally, this was certainly the best result I have so far achieved with this horse,” said Haddad, who explained more about her music. “I use at the beginning two Maximus clips from the ‘Gladiator’ movie, from which also my music is taken. Maximus says in this clips, ‘I will win the crowd, I will give them something they have never seen before.’ And this is exactly what I want to do with my freestyle test.

“My ride came out exactly how I planned to ride it, with the highlights exactly in timing with the music, and I really had the feeling that the spirit of Willi Schultheis had been sitting on my left shoulder during this kuer ride.”

This year the title was mostly wishful thinking, but at least it’s a start. During this year’s Frankfurt Festhallen horse show young riders from all over the world congregated to contest the inaugural Young Riders World Cup Dressage Final.

While those who qualified from Australia, Japan and New Zealand couldn’t come due to quarantine measures, participants from Brazil, Canada and the United States attended.

Riders qualified based on their placings in the 2005 European Championships or as national champion or in the North American Young Riders Championships. How the qualifying procedure will be in the future is not determined yet, but shall be decided by the Federation Equestre International and the sponsor Schenker Deutschland before the outdoor season starts in Europe in March.

Valentina Truppa, 19, who rides as the first Italian woman ever in the Italian military uniform, won the freestyle and the title.

“Due to my successes in the sport the Italian army has asked me to join them and to ride for then,” she said. With the 14-year-old Baden-Wurttemberg gelding Don Rico, the individual bronze medalist of this year’s European Young Riders Championships showed an excellent ride to melodious Italian music (75.65%).

She placed ahead of Jessica Werndl (75.50%), the winner of the warm-up class as well as the qualifying class. Werndl, 19, is Germany’s 2005 individual and team European Champion who rides a 9-year-old, Hanoverian mare Duchess.

Third place (73.15%) went to 20-year-old Emma Kanerva of Finland who rode Atoftens Volanti, another May Sherif son, who was third individually in the 2004 European Young Riders Championships.

U.S. rider Kaitlyn Hamilton and Noviembre placed ninth (62.75%) of the 13 competitors in the qualifying Prix St. Georges after being 10th in the warm-up class. They missed qualifying for the freestyle final just by one place.