Chester Weber moved into the lead on the second afternoon of dressage, scoring a 38.78 with his team of three Dutch Warmbloods and a Polish Warmblood.   His score was also good enough to boost the United States into first place.

Weber knew that Michael Freund of Germany, who took to the ring right after him, had the potential to better his score, but Freund’s score of 41.6 left him third behind Ysbrand Chardon of the Netherlands (41.22).

“[My horses] have a better score in them, but with the heavy going, it’s the best they could do,” said Weber.  “I was very pleased with my horses.”

The footing has been a difficulty for all the drivers, because heavy rain throughout the week has limited the areas where they could practice.  Many of the fields surrounding Aachen, including the land for the entire marathon course, belongs to local farmers who didn’t want their fields destroyed.

The competitors ended up signing a petition stating that they wouldn’t drive unless larger areas were made available for warm-up.  Three areas were hastily designated for drivers, but they’d already lost valuable time to get their horses accustomed to Aachen.

To improve the footing, 20 lorries full of sand and six full of shavings have been added to the show grounds over the last few days. The training areas and driving dressage area had large quantities of sand on top of the grass, and shavings were put in the drivers’ camp.

“The preparation was much more like cross-country training,” joked Weber.  “The warm-ups were not the right place for my horses to drive.  I’ve seen enough loops across the road to make me crazy.”

Weber bought his right wheeler, Senate, the Polish Warmblood, a year ago and hopes he will still be a core member of the team at the 2010 WEG in Kentucky. “I was really impressed with him,” he said of the 6-year-old. “One of my personal goals is to be one of the individual medalists if not the gold medalist [in 2010].”

But first, he has to get through this World Equestrian Games and the marathon tomorrow. He plans to use his two leaders from today in the back tomorrow, when Snoopy and Jamaica will be the leaders. “It’s very technical and difficult, and for me that’s good,” he said of the marathon. “My team is technically good but not as fast as the others.”

He said No. 1 is an especially difficult question. “The top 15 drivers in the world won’t have trouble there, but I’m a little anxious for some of the drivers from the smaller driving countries,” he said. “It’s going to cost a lot of power and be tough to get right.”

Chardon and Freund echoed Weber’s thoughts about the technicality of the course.
“I’m quite confident about my horses, in spite of having an older horse—19 years old.  I’m worried about the other drivers, especially Tomas Eriksson of Sweden, and I know I’ll have to speed up,” said Chardon.

It was a poignant final halt and salute for Freund as this was his last international dressage test.  He plans to retire after the World Equestrian Games and move on to coaching, training and competing young horses or clients’ horses at national competitions.

“I’ve been among the top drivers for the last decade,” said Freund, who has also stated that the drug controversy surrounding his win at the 2004 World Cup Final has motivated him to retire.  “I’m a little bit older now, and I want to leave the party while I’m at my best.”

But he intends to finish with a bang first.  He’ll be driving the same team of horses with which he’s won the marathon at Aachen before and hopes to repeat history.

U.S. driver Tucker Johnson stands in fifth place after dressage.  “There were moving well, round and fluid,” he said.  “It could’ve been a little smoother, but I’m very happy.  There were a few ragged edges that I would’ve liked to have lived without.”

Although most of the team has been together for three years, the right leader in dressage, Angelo, was actually a dressage horse last October.  “He’s come along very quickly,” said Johnson.  “He’ll come out for the marathon.  Eminenz will come in and my left leader will move over.”

The third U.S. driver, James Fairclough, fought with the heavy footing on the first day of competition.  He had two young horses in the wheel position, and at times they struggled to pull the carriage with enough power. 

“For your leaders to show off their movement, the wheel has to carry the weight,” Fairclough explained.  “If the leaders have to have help pull, they lose the movement.  I think the seasoned, bigger horses will do better today.”

But he still thought his horses went very well and was particularly pleased with his 15-meter circle at C.  “It was perfect,” he said.