At the Indoor Brabant ’s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands), March 22-24, Isabell Werth and Warum Nicht
FRH lived up to their role as favorites and continued their winning streak.
With 82.40 percent they performed a fluent and expressive ride, winning their third qualifier after Mastricht (the Netherlands) and Neumünster (Germany) in the current season. With 20 points for their victory at ’s-Hertogenbosch, they now share first place in the final standings of the Western European League (77 points), together with Dutch rider Imke Schellekens-Bartels.
Schellekens-Bartels, who won World Cup qualifiers at London (Great Britain), Mechelen (Belgium) and Ams-terdam (the Netherlands), did not compete in front of her home crowd due to Sunrise’s slight injury, but the Hano-verian mare is already back in training. Along with Werth and ’s-Hertogenbosch’s second-placed Danish rider Andreas Helgstrand, Schellekens-Bartels is one of the favorites for a victory in the Las Vegas Final.
In the 22nd edition of the Rolex FEI Dressage World Cup Final, Germany will, for the first time, be represented by just one starter. Besides Werth only Ellen Schulten-Baumer qualified for the final, placing sixth in the Western European League. But after the sudden death of her top mount Lesotho at the beginning of March, she withdrew from ’s-Hertogenbosch and Las Vegas.
Some of the other riders qualified from the Western European League aren’t sure if they will set off for Las Vegas. Though it seems to be settled that the horses will fly two to a container instead of three, there are many other restrictions that upset the riders. For instance, they may not bring their own feed for the horses, and they have no time to get the horses used to the feed provided by the show organizer. The equipment per horse has been limited to 150 kilos (330 pounds), although the empty show cupboard weighs about 80 kilos (176 pounds), so grooms may travel with just one handbag, but no suitcase, and they have to acquire a visa before the journey.
Swiss team coach Juergen Koschel criticized the restrictions, which also played a role in the withdrawal of Silvia Iklé, who placed ninth in the Western European League and who would have replaced Schulten-Baumer. Iklé was obviously disappointed about this decision.
“The Swiss federation and our team coach share the opinion that it is better that I not go to Las Vegas. The risk is too high. The goal for 2007 is to qualify the Swiss team at the European Championships for the 2008 Olympics at Hong Kong, and we are part of this objective,” said Iklé.
Sweden also has to qualify its team at the European Championships at Torino (Italy) in August for the 2008 Olympics, therefore Sweden’s top star and individual and team bronze medalist of the 2005 Europeans Jan Brink (10th in the league) wasn’t positive if he should attend the World Cup Final or not.
“Björsells Briar 899 is already 16, and I have to be careful with his strength. I will make my definitive decision after a veterinary check at home,” he said.
The same holds true for his trainer and 1991 World Cup Champion Kyra Kyrklund of Finland, who finished fourth in the Western European League. She made her decision following a vet check of Max.
ADVERTISEMENT
Since Louise Nathhorst (11th) of Sweden and Laura Bechtolsheimer (12th) of Great Britain do not want to go, in case one of the riders qualified would drop out, the next ones to replace them are Marlies van Baalen (13th, if a Dutch rider would withdraw) and Belgium’s Jeroen Devroe (16th). This is actually against the World Cup rules, since substitution should only take place through 12th place of the Western European League (50 percent of the places added to the number of riders allowed to qualify in the league, which in the Western European League is eight, so the number is eight plus four, which allows them to take riders through 12th place).
Otherwise, the riders would have to receive FEI wild cards, but the decision was made by the FEI Dressage Committee on March 27 in favor of North American riders. In addition to the two riders who would qualify automatically through the U.S. League Final at Burbank (Calif.), the third-placed rider of the U.S. Final will also receive his or her ticket for Las Vegas.
German-based U.S. rider Catherine Haddad has her ticket in her pocket, after being granted a wild card due to her good standing in the Western European League, in which she finished in an excellent 14th place. A wild card was also granted to British rider Wayne Channon, who finished 15th in the Western European League. The other two wild cards were given to the Canadian rider Jacqueline Brooks and to the Portuguese rider Daniel Pinto.
High Quality
The final qualifier of the Western European League in the sold-out Brabant Hall was of such a high level that it could have been the final itself, although the home country did not have a bright weekend.
Besides the fifth-placed Edward Gal, aboard Group 4 Securicor IPS Gribaldi, only Alex van Silfhout competed in the freestyle for the Netherlands, aboard Luxform’s Olympus, placing 13th. Laurens van Lieren, eighth-placed in the Western European League, qualified for the final, and full of ambition to compete at Las Vegas, had to withdraw his chestnut gelding Hexagon’s Ollright due to a swollen fetlock before the Grand Prix.
Prior to the World Cup freestyle, Marlies van Baalen also had to withdraw the Oldenburg stallion Relevant due to lameness. But even competing in the qualifier she would not have had much chance to edge out van Lieren from eighth place. With 66.16 percent she had finished 13th in the Grand Prix.
Catherine Haddad performed consistently throughout the whole World Cup season with Maximus JSS. With the 13-year-old, Dutch Warmblood gelding sired by May Sherif, her World Cup freestyle placings included a seventh at Stockholm (Sweden), a third at Mechelen (Belgium) and sixth at Gothenburg (Sweden). In the Grand Prix at ’s-Hertogenbosch the dressage instructor, who runs her own stables in the German city of Vechta and is training with Rudolf Zeilinger, placed 11th, easily qualifying among the top 15 for the freestyle.
In the Grand Prix, Haddad rode conservatively, showing a very correct test, which could have been a bit more expressive. Highlights of their performance were the first piaffe, the relaxed, ground covering extended walk and the first canter pirouette. With 67.91 percent she placed 11th, but Dutch judge Wim Ernes ranked her seventh.
Haddad rode her newly choreographed freestyle to music taken from the movie Gladiator. In spite of the high degree of difficulty, the whole test worked out perfectly and very correctly, with highlights in the passage-piaffe tours. One of the most difficult series of movements involved going from a passage half-pass into a piaffe pirouette and going from one-tempi changes into extended walk, which worked out very well. The beginning of the freestyle is extraordinary, when she starts with a walk before the first salute.
A score of 70.00 percent put her in 12th place and could have certainly been at least 2 percent higher, but Haddad was very satisfied. “I am really happy with my new choreography and that everything worked so well together with my newly arranged music,” she said. “I think technically it was very good today. I was very happy with my piaffe-passage tour.”
Holding Steady
The placing of the top six was pretty much the same in the Grand Prix and the freestyle other than the fact that the fourth-placed Swedish combination in the Grand Prix—Brink and Briar, who had won the qualifiers at Stockholm and Gothenburg—placed sixth (76.20%) in the freestyle. The Swedish stallion showed himself much more elevated than in recent years, but he had a mistake at the beginning of the
two-tempis, while the one-tempis were not jumping forward and upward.
The Swiss combination of Iklé and Salieri CH placed third in both tests and achieved the excellent score of 79.60 percent in the freestyle. They also had highlights in the piaffe-passage tour, although in one piaffe there was a slight loss in rhythm, but they collected more points in the canter tour and finished the test with a very well-done, calm and closed final salute.
Kyrklund and Max, who had not performed well in the Grand Prix at CDI-W Neumünster (Germany) mid-February, returned to the level of performance they had shown at the CDIO Aachen (Germany) and Stuttgart (Germany) in 2006, when they had achieved scores above 80 percent. The piaffes—last year one of the highlights of their tests—were still a bit laborious, but the one- and two-tempis were excellent. In the final salute the 12-year-old, dark brown gelding remained relaxed, as usual, until the rider gave the command to walk, but they must have lost points in the halt, since Max did not stand square. With 76.55 percent, they were fourth in the freestyle.
ADVERTISEMENT
Regarding the final halt, Warum Nicht FRH could take an example from Max. But Werth was still happy with the rest of the test.
“ ‘Hannes’ was very concentrated and in a powerful shape,” she said. “The piaffe and passage went better than in the Grand Prix, and apart from the little unevenness in the extended trot and apart from his anxiousness to stand still at the final halt, I have no complaints.”
Besides rhythmical transitions from passage into piaffe and reverse, the fluent and expressive half-passes and the one- and two-tempis were brilliant highlights of the performance. With 82.40 percent, Werth and the 11-year-old, Hanoverian gelding almost repeated their record score of 83.60 percent from Neumünster.
A few spectators booed as they saw the score of 81.65 percent for Andreas Helgstrand and Blue Hors Matine, which they considered too low compared to Werth’s.
Without a doubt Matine, who won individual bronze in the Special and individual silver in the freestyle at the WEG last year and is Helgstrand’s planned mount for Las Vegas, possesses an outstanding potential for piaffe and passage, but she is still overzealous and not well balanced. Furthermore, her tail is swishing like a propeller for most of the test, although at the end, in the final halt, she stood very calm and relaxed, and obviously she is full of trust for her rider.
In previous years, especially for the Grand Prix test of the World Cup shows, the scores for the single movements were shown, but this was abandoned at ’s-Hertogenbosch. Only the current average score could be seen, along with the score of the leading combination for the same moment of the test.
It’s All Up To Werth
Isabel Werth secured the only individual medals for Germany at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen—a gold medal in the Grand Prix Special and the bronze medal in the Grand Prix freestyle. In Las Vegas, she will again be the one to pick the coals out of the fire for Germany.
The 1992 World Cup Champion is looking forward to Las Vegas. “It is a challenge, which I like to take. It
is really a shame that I am the only rider to represent Germany. But those German riders who have just one
top mount concentrate on the European Championships and the preparation for it. Ellen Schulten-Baumer has a really sad story, but even if we had two German riders in the final, it would have been quite few.“
Normally in the past, more German riders had qualified for the final than the three that are allowed per nation to compete (plus the title defender).
Title holder Anky van Grunsven will not be able to increase her record number of eight wins this year. The Dutch rider gave birth to her daughter, Ava Eden, in the beginning of March and would be fit to go, but as the title defender she still has to participate in at least two qualifiers. The Dutch rider will be present at Las Vegas nevertheless, coaching Schellekens-Bartels and participating in a judges’ clinic the day after the final.
Birgit Popp