When Steffen Peters, on Floriano, took and held the lead in yesterday\’s Grand Prix team competition at the Aachen CDIO (Germany) and teammate George Williams earned fifth on Rocher, hopes ran high for the U.S. dressage team. For a brief moment the U.S. team led the pack by more than 2 percentage points and looked poised to earn a team medal better than bronze, but it was only a brief moment.
Today, Guenter Seidel, riding Aragon (68.79%), and Leslie Morse, on Kingston (69.16%), contested the Grand Prix and their scores couldn\’t stop the Dutch and the Germans from asserting their dominance yet again. Once more, the U.S. team had to settle for third-place bronze.
Anky van Grunsven, on her 2004 Olympic gold-medal mount, Keltec Salinero, won the Grand Prix (74.50%) over Swedish rider Jan Brink on Björsells Briar (73.37%) and led the Netherlands team to victory.
Teammates Edward Gal, on Geldnet Lingh, finished sixth (71.37%), Laurens van Lieren, on Hexagon´s Ollright, finished 17th (69.08%), and Kirsten Beckers, on Broere Jazz, finished 33rd (65.45%).
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The German team earned the silver medal with strong performances from Hubertus Schmidt on the mare Wansuela Suerte (third/73.08%) and Martin Schaudt on Weltall VA (fifth/72.08%). Teammates Ellen Schulten-Baumer, on Lesotho, were 14th and Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff was 31st with Sterntaler-Unicef.
American riders fared no better in the HAVENS Horsefeed Grand Prix either. Peters was ninth on Lombardi II (63.75%) and Morse was 15th on Tip Top (63.95%). Schmidt won the class for Germany on Forest Gump.
In show jumping action, American Jeffrey Welles won the Sparkassen Youngsters Cup class for young horses on Sampras. Germany\’s Heinrich Hermann Engemann was second.
Laura Kraut and Anthem were the best U.S. finishers in the RWE Prize of Nordhine-Westphalia Grand Prix, placing fourth in the jump-off.
