Seamless and supple
Twenty-six years after her first European gold in the special, Isabell Werth strikes yet again — with ease
AFTER such a display of dominance in the grand prix, few would have bet against Isabell Werth adding gold in the special to her week’s tally. She and Weihegold OLD recently scored 81% in the special at Aachen, but this mare can score even higher, and they were trending on over 80% after their early trot work.
The special is a hard test, but Isabell and Weihe made it look easy, with seamless transitions and gorgeously supple half-passes which demanded nines. The crowd relished such a top-class display, clapping the pair down their final centre line into the halt, at which Isabell punched the air with fierce delight.
“She gave me the best feeling in there, especially in the trot and passage,” said Isabell, who posted 83.61% for an easy victory, 26 years after winning the first European Championships special with Gigolo. “My piaffe could have been better, but my challenge was to take enough risk but not so much I had a mistake, as I knew the other riders would put the pressure on me.”
She was right about that. Cathrine Dufour showed no hint of being intimidated by following such a performance. She may only be 25, but she is ranked number seven in the world and she knows how much this little Danish warmblood is capable of. The 14-year-old Atterupgaards Cassidy, by Caprimond, has no weaknesses and simply reels in the marks. He can sometimes take his hindlegs a little wide in the piaffe, but only because he sits so much, and Cathrine presents him extremely well, with plenty of pats throughout to reassure him that he is doing a good job.
In fact, he was doing a brilliant job, recording a special personal best of 79.76% to finish in bronze position and give Cathrine her first senior individual medal.
Sometimes it seems Cathrine doesn’t quite take in the magnitude of her achievements.
“He was very calm, and it was fun,” she said, simply. “He was really with me in the canter so I could put more pressure on him without too much risk.”
As expected, 22-year-old
Sönke Rothenberger slotted into silver. He certainly piled the pressure onto his senior teammate with another stunning display from the light-footed Cosmo. The Van Gogh gelding has so much quality and is only 10, so can be forgiven for the odd tiny mistake that still creeps in.
Sönke rides with exceptional maturity, letting Cosmo edge forward ever so slightly in piaffe to maintain a smoother transition out. The running score rivaled Isabell’s and when it came it was 82.47%, another personal best.
NIP TUCK EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS
POOR Carl, following a test like Sönke’s, especially having not ridden a special on Nip Tuck since Rio, over a year ago. The special test doesn’t suit “Barney”, with extended trot featuring heavily, and after Cosmo, whose knees almost touched his nose in his giant extensions, poor Barney suffered in comparison. But Carl squeezes every ounce out of this horse, and the Don Ruto son he has had since a yearling gives him everything he has in return.
He showed lovely expression in passage, with so much energy he just had the odd double beat behind. Both horse and rider visibly relaxed into canter and here Carl can really show off Barney’s poker straight, perfectly even changes, super supple half-passes and tight pirouettes. As they were clapped up their final centre line, it seemed to lift him even higher in passage, and they bounced into halt with a smile on both their faces.
“I could not be more happy with him, enthused Carl. “It’s not his test, but he actually did good extensions today. I did much more trot in the warm-up — he’s so good in canter I hardly practised anything and he was more relaxed in trot when we went in.
“It’s so hard going after Isabell and Sönke on such light-footed horses — they really fly, then in comes Barney, who doesn’t find it the easiest. But he did some lovely difficult things out there, and he’s just so genuine. What you get outside, you get in the ring.
“When I heard the crowd clapping the others at the end I thought, ‘Oh god, Barney just doesn’t inspire that kind of mood,
but actually he did!’”
Carl finished fifth with
76.72%, higher than he expected in this class, and just one place ahead of Britain’s Spencer
Wilton and Supernova II, who redeemed themselves after their disappointing grand prix.
Spencer and “Neville” led the class until the final stages, with their score of 76.07% finally reflecting this horse’s ability, although they have still scored higher in this test. The 14-yearold gelding was unsettled in the first pirouette, which had caused trouble for them in the grand prix, and subsequently had an error in the one-time changes, but their trot work oozed quality, with a passage that looked as though it could go on forever.
“I’m just happy he went in and felt like he really tried,” said Spencer, who had done a good job of hiding his disappointment the day before, but seemed genuinely delighted today. “Pirouettes have always been tricky for him — he gets nervous when I collect him in the canter and he becomes so big in the hindlegs and sits too much. There’s not much I can do about it — I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best.”
The special brought a reversal of fortunes for Emile Faurie, too, but sadly in the other direction.
Elena Knyaginicheva’s Lollipop 126 showed his inexperience with a smattering of mistakes, but then again, this was only the 13-year-old’s second special.
“He was just a bit ahead of me all the time, catching me out at the beginning of the two-times, and not really swinging into the rhythm of the piaffe,” explained Emile, who also reported that the cheeky, cheerful little gelding was doing little whinnies all the way through the test. “He squealed when we started the one-times!
“Today was disappointing, but he’s proved he’s a championship horse — just give him another 12 months.”