Anky van Grunsven and Keltec Salinero dominated the FEI World Cup freestyle at the D?orf CDI-W (Germany), held April 1-2, with an
impressive score of 84.42 percent.

But it was an outstanding ride by Isabell Werth aboard Satchmo that earned her second place (80.70%) in the freestyle and moved her to the top of the leaderboard for the Western European World Cup League.

This was Werth’s highest international score yet with Satchmo, an 11-year-old Hanoverian. The 1996 Olympic gold medalist proved with this ride that she has overcome the problems that surfaced after the 2003 European Championships, and that she and this gelding belong at the top.

Nevertheless, the competition didn’t lack for contro-versy, since it was unclear what justified the difference between Werth and van Grunsven’s scores. The artistic marks are, as always, open for discussion, but it was difficult to understand why German judge Volker Moritz and Swiss judge Beatrice B?r-Keller gave Werth and Satchmo 6.5 percent less than the Dutch rider in the technical score.

Both judges gave van Grunsven 82.50 percent in the technical marks but just 76.00 percent to Werth. Katarina W?so decided in favor of the Dutch title defender, but only placed van Grunsven ahead by a half percent.

Moritz, as chief judge present at the following press conference, justified the difference by attributing it to Salinero’s excellent transitions. He said each one would score a point higher than Satchmo’s. But these superior transitions weren’t apparent to the audience. Satchmo showed a light-footed, fluent, totally harmonic performance, in which all transitions appeared smooth and precise.

Werth’s double canter pirouette was slightly large, although otherwise excellent, and the third piaffe was slightly unbalanced. But the others were very well done, active and expressive, and it was only from the side that one could see the final halt wasn’t totally closed.

Some Technical Mistakes

Salinero’s technical weak points were much more obvious, though the gelding looked more relaxed than two weeks ago during his comeback at ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands) after van Grunsven’s time off to have a son.

He was throwing his croup up when he went into the first change of the one-tempis. The extended walk was hurried and started to falter when van Grunsven shortened the reins before starting the canter.

She also had a double canter pirouette that was too big, and the final halt wasn’t shown at all. Van Grunsven wanted to end her performance with a piaffe before transitioning into halt, but Salinero refused to stop doing the piaffe, so, finally, van Grunsven saluted as he continued the piaffe.

Even van Grunsven admitted that while she was satisfied with her ride, there was still room for improvements. When she was asked what scores might then be possible, she replied, “Everyone needs dreams to aim for. Mine would be the 90 percent.”

For van Grunsven, another victory on the heels of the one at ‘s-Hertogenbosch confirmed her claim for a repeat World Cup Final victory.

For Werth it meant she would win the Western European World Cup League with 67 points, ahead of Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff (65). Werth will not take Satchmo, with whom she won team gold in 2003 at the European Championships, to Las Vegas, but instead the 19-year-old Antony for what will be his last competition.

And Werth has high hopes for him there. “I suppose this will be a dignified goodbye for him,” she said. “He is still so fresh that I cannot imagine yet that this will be his last competition. I have ridden Antony for more than 15 years now.”

In February the combination won at Neumuenster (Germany) with a glorious performance in the freestyle test.

Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand and Swiss rider Silvia Iklè ¤id not compete at D?orf, nor did Linsenhoff. Helgstrand and Iklè ¨old places three (64) and four (63) in the Western European League.

Moving To The Melody

A harmonic performance for Hubertus Schmidt and Aramis ensured their trip to the World Cup Final. Their piaffes were excellent, and Schmidt scored 78.10 percent to take third place in the freestyle. That placing moved him up to fifth (61) in the Western European League.

The German Olympic team gold medalist isn’t planning to take his Olympic mount Wansuela Suerte to Las Vegas but rather the 13-year-old, elegant, black Oldenburg gelding, Aramis.

Aramis won’t be returning to Europe after his trip across the ocean. He arrived in Schmidt’s barn in Germany as a 7-year-old and was trained by the accomplished dressage instructor for two years before being sold to Suzanne Ericsson of the United States.

With Ericsson, Aramis achieved victories through Intermediaire I, but in 2002 he returned to Schmidt for more training. He worked on the Grand Prix movements and showed Aramis in two Grand Prix shows before he went back to his owner in Virginia. Ericsson continued to do well with him through Intermediaire II but again decided to give the gelding back to Schmidt for further training.

“Aramis returned to my place in October of 2004, and the plan was that I would ride him for one year, until he is more mature at the Grand Prix level, and then he will go back to his owner,” said Schmidt. “He is still missing experience in the Grand Prix classes and gets nervous easily, but he’s been improving tremendously over the last shows.”

At ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Aramis placed fourth in the freestyle (77.30%). “I was very satisfied with his performance at D?orf,” said Schmidt. “The piaffes could still have been better, but I decided not to risk too much and keep him in a good mood.”

Britain’s Carl Hester and last year’s final runner-up Edward Gal of the Netherlands share sixth place (60) in the Western European League. The latter did not show his top mount Lingh at D?orf but instead rode his 12-year-old, black Dutch Warmblood stallion I.P.S. Gribaldi (by Kostolany) to sixth place (74.75%).

Jan Brink and Bj?lls Briar had some bad luck in the freestyle. The 14-year-old stallion broke into canter twice as he was going into the trot half-passes.

But the piaffe-passage tour and the canter tempi-changes were the highlights of the test. He scored 77.70 percent to place fourth and move up to eighth place (57 points) in the league.

Normally, the top eight in the Western European League qualify for the final, but Ikl鬠who stands in fourth place, has decided not to go. That means that Denmark’s Lone J?nsen, who placed fifth (75.40%) at D?orf with Hardthof’s Ludewig G, and the Netherland’s Sven Rothenberger, who rode one of the best tests ever with Barclay II to finish seventh (74.52%), are also qualified for the final. They were tied for ninth place in the league.

Because two riders took the eighth starting place, the number of wild cards was reduced to three. Two went to the United States and one to the Swiss rider Marie-Line Wettstein with Le Primeur, who placed 11th in the Western European World Cup rankings.

Van Grunsven is automatically qualified as title defender from last year after participating in two qualifiers with the horse she is taking to the final.