Story Christopher Hector and Photos Roslyn Neave
It’s always had a tendency to be rainy, but this year’s Bundeschampionate was consistently the wettest I’ve experienced since I first started coming to Warendorf in 1999 and it became a bit more of an endurance test than the usual opportunity to drink coffee (or champagne) and catch up with friends while enjoying Germany’s finest young horse flesh.
I thought the bay Hanoverian stallion, Smirnoff (above) the nicest horse in the five year old dressage qualifier, and I’m glad to say that the judges swung around to that view in the final. Luckily he doesn’t have the awful Sir Donnerhall hindquarters that his sire usually bestows on his get, his dam line of Florencio / Landadel probably overwhelms the flat rump legacy of the Fredriksborg, a Danish breed of chestnut carriage horses that lurks on Sir Donnerhall’s mother line.
Smirnoff was tactfully ridden by Manuel Bammel, loose in the back, soft to the ground, forward to the contact – but still with real stallion presence. The transitions, particularly in the canter, were wonderful. Scores: 8.5 for trot, 8.5 for walk, 9 for canter, 9 for Dürchlässigkeit (letting through the aids, education…) and 9 for potential for an 8.8.
Goldmond and Birgit Hild
A win, but only just a win by 0.1 from the silver medalists, the Trakehner, Goldmond (Imperio / Latimer) ridden by Birgit Hild. My notes say ‘normal’ horse, not very attractively ridden, but hey, I know nothing. The judges went wild, with the only 9.5 of the final, for the walk, 8 for trot, 8.5 for canter, 9 for Dürchlässigkeit, and 8.5 for potential and an 8.7 total.
Katrin Burger and Sir Solitär
Third to the former Oldenburg breeding director, Katrin Burger and a big imposing black stallion from the Württemberg studbook, Sir Solitär (by Sir Sandro – Sandro Hit / Weltmeyer / Donnerhall – out of a Disco-Tanzer mare). Katrin has a touch of the ‘Adeleans’ at times, but she is an old hand at this young horse caper, and makes the most of the stallion’s masculine presence. Trot – 8.5, walk – 8, canter – 8.5, Dürchlässigkeit – 9, potential – 8.5 for an 8.5 total.
Danciano and Anja Engelbart
I really liked another black stallion, Danciano. The horse is an interesting mix of the best of modern Hanoverian dressage breeding: Dancier (De Niro, out of a mare by the Lauries Crusador son, Lancier) out of a Rotspon / Wolkenstein II mare. Beautifully ridden by Anja Engelbart, the horse was so light he seemed suspended above the ground (but the trot was not in the slightest bit passagey), effortless canter, great presence. The judges thought is only worth 7.9 – me, I’d happily send a mare to him.
Bellena and Esther Maruhn
The qualifier winner, the Hanoverian mare, Bellena (Belissimo / Welser) was not quite on song for the final. Still she was shown beautifully by Esther Maruhn – the chestnut mare is so correct, so active and engaged in the trot, a great canter with a superb downwards transition. 8.4 for equal fourth with another beautiful Hanoverian mare, Florina (Fürst Romancier / Donnerhall) and Claudia Rüscher. Florina was so soft and light and forward.
Florina and Claudia Rüscher
The crowd was down on previous years, perhaps the effect of the rain, perhaps the insidious influence of ClipMyHorse with its live coverage, so it was a little sad that the audience was so meagre at the final presentation, when two of the people who have made the Bundeschampionate what it is, were farewelled: Micheal Riploh, the cool dude in the bowler who handed out the champers at the end of each of the final rounds, and ‘Mr Bundeschampionate’ himself, Christoph Hess. Christoph with his relentless enthusiasm for good riding and the preservation of the principles, was a driving force behind the event, his will be a huge gap to fill.
