Germany maintains its might
Germany remain kings of Europe, while the fight for silver and bronze medals leaves Britain floundering in fourth
IT was never going to be easy, continuing Britain’s run of dressage medals with such a huge Valegro-shaped hole in this year’s line-up. But to have given up hope of a medal would be to underestimate the immense talent and experience of the four men who travelled out to Gothenburg. Between them, Carl Hester,
Emile Faurie, Spencer Wilton and Gareth Hughes have recorded a staggering 29 championship appearances and 17 medals — if anybody could make it happen, it was them.
Sadly though, some things just aren’t meant to be. The problems began for the British team when Emile’s selected horse, Hof Kasselmann’s Welt
Hit II son Weekend Fun, had to be withdrawn the week before the championships due to injury. The 16-year-old was replaced by Emile’s reserve ride, the slightly less experienced Lollipop 126, who has produced plus-74% grand prix results, but was also likely to show some greenness in the environment.
But Britain’s fortunes took a real nosedive when Gareth’s ride, Anne and Steve Keen’s talented 12-year-old Don Carissimo, was asked to re-present after the trot-up, subsequently failing the reinspection. It came out of the blue for Gareth, who had reported the horse to be working very well since arriving in Sweden.
“I worked him in the main arena and he felt great, taking it all in his stride,” said Gareth.
“But at the inspection he was really lame behind — I couldn’t tell while trotting him up but when I turned at the top I could see everyone talking.”
With the British team down to three, the pressure was really on, especially with the likes of Sweden, Denmark and the mighty Germany looking better than ever.
Luckily, Emile Faurie is a man for whom it takes far more than being on a three-man team to crack.
He and the bouncy Lord Sinclair I son produced a corker of a test to put a solid 72.28% on the board for Britain. Other than a slight spook at the shadows cast across the arena by the floodlights, this little 13-year-old, who looks as though he has springs in his feet, didn’t put a hoof wrong.
“What a cool dude,” exclaimed Emile, full of animation at his horse’s performance. “He’s relatively inexperienced, and has never been to an event like this. To come to a championship as a reserve horse and do a mistakefree test with the pressure on is very cool.
“He felt amazing warming up, though I did feel his little heart going a bit too quickly when we went in, so I did something I never normally do and walked right around the outside to give him a chance to take a breath. Coming up the first centre line, he was still a bit like, ‘Get me outta here!’, but then he settled and really let me ride him.”
Lollipop is the sort of horse
that creates excitement for the future — there’s definitely plenty more to come.
“Obviously I didn’t want to risk too much out there as we don’t have a discard score,” added Emile. “I didn’t ride conservatively but I did try to keep it mistakefree rather than putting my foot down.”
GERMAN RIDERS FLEX THEIR MUSCLES
BY the end of the first day, Germany had already established their dominance, with Helen Langehanenberg and Dorothee Schneider sitting comfortably at the top of the leaderboard. Neither of their respective rides, the bay stallion Damsey FRH and the striking San Remo son Sammy Davis Jr, have a huge amount of experience — the latter is in his first season at this level.
“He did his first international grand prix in March this year and five competitions later he was on the German team,” said Dorothee.
But they set the precedent for Germany, with two chunky 74% scores on the board.
With the team medals being decided solely on the grand prix — the special has its own separate set of medals at European Championships — the performances of Britain’s Spencer Wilton and Carl Hester on the second day were crucial. The
hosts, Sweden, were sure to rise to the occasion before an exuberant home crowd, Denmark’s allfemale quartet were already looking dangerous and the might of the Netherlands can never be underestimated.
Spencer followed Dutch rider Madeleine Witte-Vrees and the smart chestnut Cennin into the arena, and admitted that the applause for her test had put Jen Goodman’s hot Supernova II on his toes.
This pair have accumulated some mega scores over the past 12 months — they were so far unbeaten in 2017. Neville is super correct in his work, and they began superbly, trending on over 76% in the early trot section, which is the De Niro gelding’s strong point. He displays amazing regularity in his springy passage, with smooth, expressive half-passes adding to the marks.
Their first wobble came in the double-marked zig-zag, where Neville lost his lateral momentum for a stride early on, but it was the pirouette sequence — frustratingly also worth double marks — that proved their downfall. The gelding appeared to fall right out of the movement, dropping to trot, and it took Spencer a good few strides to regain canter. The flying change that followed suffered, and the pair’s trending score plummeted to below 70%. It is testament to the high quality of Neville’s trot work that the piaffe-passage on their final centre line pulled the overall score back up to 72.08%.
“He is really clever — he’s always thinking about where the exit is and the wobble in the zigzag and mistake in the pirouettes was due to him thinking about the way out behind him — he thought he’d quite like to get back to the safety of his stable,” explained Spencer, adding that pirouettes have always been a weakness for Neville. “But I was actually pleased because he grew in confidence out there. The judge wants to see a happy, relaxed
athlete, and unfortunately he wasn’t quite relaxed enough. I can manage the trot work when he’s tense but the canter still suffers — I try, but I can’t kid the judges!”
A STONKER FOR SÖNKE
AS the competition moved into the business end, all eyes were on Germany’s young star, Sönke Rothenberger. The 22-year-old is actually half-Dutch with dual nationality — his parents, Sven and Gonnelien, both won dressage team silver at the 1996 Olympics for the Netherlands — but the Germans must be counting their lucky stars he chose to represent their country.
Having been victorious in pony ranks, Sönke successfully pursued international two-star showjumping for several years, and it wasn’t until 2014 that he turned his attentions solely back to dressage. He is an extremely talented rider — he is at least 6ft 4in but rides with baby-soft hands and the lightest of seats.
His 10-year-old Van Gogh
gelding Cosmo is also something very special, and proved it with a whopping score of 78.34%. It wasn’t quite a personal best for the pair, who scored fractionally higher in Aachen this year, but the fact that it wasn’t even a flawless round — they had a mistake in the one-times — means that grand prix scores of over 80% are certainly on the horizon.
As Sönke shot straight to the top of the leaderboard, Germany’s gold was all but confirmed — and each team’s final riders were still to go. Germany had begun the competition as outright favourites, and indeed, had last-to-go Isabell Werth decided not even to ride, they would still have claimed gold.
But, with the battle for silver and bronze still wide open, the competition was far from over. Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and Britain were still firmly in the mix for a medal, and Britain’s chances rested heavily on the shoulders of Carl Hester and Nip Tuck.
Carl’s journey with the 13-yearold Don Ruto son has been well documented, but it is still hard to believe sometimes that this horse has grown from a gangly, spooky, uncoordinated youngster into such a grand prix machine — Britain’s biggest hope for both a team and individual medal.
Edward Gal’s ride, Glock’s Voice, had not excelled himself for the Netherlands, with a tense, unsettled start impacting heavily on the movements that this powerful De Niro stallion has the ability to perform to a very high standard. And so it was with every Brit in sight doing frantic maths, trying to work out what score Carl needed to go ahead of the Dutch, that Britain’s anchorman entered the arena.
It was a very good test. Barney showed off his gorgeous canter, with clockwork changes and tight pirouettes. As always, he spotted a Pokemon at C, and had a bit of a “Barney moment” in the rein-back, appearing to forget he had four legs as he moved three backwards and left one behind. The extended trot has long been his weakness, but Carl is an expert at creating the illusion of a bigger trot with careful riding and a clear lengthening of the frame.
“I dread those three extended trots in the grand prix, but off
I go each time with a big smile, hanging on for grim death until I get to the other side,” laughed Carl, who is brilliantly comical in his affectionate deprecation of Barney. “He still battles physically with the top horses but he is so willing and genuine.”
THE BATTLE FOR BRONZE
CARL’S 74.9% placed Britain safely above the Netherlands, but with Sweden’s Patrik Kittel entering the arena to as close to hysteria as a dressage audience can muster, there were still three teams vying for two medals and Patrik needed just 72% to knock Britain back down from their silver medal position. Patrik and the 11-year-old Delaunay didn’t disappoint their adoring fans, with a smart test that put Sweden back in line for their first team dressage medal since 2007.
“This is crazy — we’re a mostly young team and everyone is a debutant with these horses,” said a jubilant Patrik.
“We fought really well together, and to do this here at home is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Tensions were high as Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour made her European Championship debut with Atterupgaards Cassidy, and the look on Carl’s face as he ran his hand through his hair and eyed the 25-year-old Dane’s footperfect centre line indicated that he knew it was over for Britain.
Cathrine and Cassidy have been together for over a decade, since competing together in juniors, and it’s been a fairytale journey for the pair. They swept the board at the young rider Europeans in both 2012 and
2013, and burst onto the senior scene in Rio, finishing 13th in the freestyle.
The chestnut gelding is full of enthusiasm for his work and he and Cathrine present a beautiful picture. She scored 78.3%, elevating Denmark to silver and spelling out fourth for Britain.
“We’re a snip off bronze — I’m obviously gutted for the team,” rued Carl, as scoreboards revealed Britain finishing just two points behind Sweden in bronze. “But on the other hand, it’s really good for the sport as a whole to have Denmark and Sweden up there,
who haven’t won a medal in a long time [Denmark last won a European medal — bronze — in 2001].
“For Sweden to take a medal on home ground — good for them!” added Carl. “That’s what changed our life: winning silver at Windsor in 2009 lifted us to a new level and this should do the same for the Swedes.”
It’s ironic that a rider so good at dealing with intense pressure entered the arena with next to none. Isabell Werth found herself in the luxurious position of knowing German’s team gold was in the bag, no matter how she and Weihegold OLD performed. But this lady is the consummate professional, and a perfectionist — she was going to give it her all, no matter what.
The 12-year-old mare by Don Schufro x Sandro Hit is wonderful to watch: textbook correct and super expressive, with her big, floppy ears demonstrating how relaxed she is, trusting completely in her rider. And who wouldn’t trust Isabell — this team victory was her 28th championship gold medal of a career that spans four decades. You’d think the magic might have diminished by now, but the wonderful thing about Isabell is that she celebrates every gold medal as though it’s her very first, and never hesitates to praise her horse.
“Weihe is in such great shape, but the question is always whether they can bring it to a competition. But she was so easy to ride today; so focused and with me all the way,” Isabell said fondly of her lovely black mare, at what she described as the “latest — and driest — press conference of my life!”
Sönke Rothenberger, sitting beside Isabell with his long legs folded under the table, added: “As a young boy I would watch Isabell ride, and now I can’t believe I’m sitting next to her in a press conference about winning gold. It’s really special.”
He’s right: Germany have proved they are as strong as they have ever been, with a fascinating combination of young horses and riders, and old hands. Watch out Tryon 2018!