Rebecca Ashton reports – and took the photos…
Today the Grand Prix Special saw the same top three in the same order as the Grand Prix test. Isabell won the first Grand Prix Special in the history of the Europeans back in 1991 on Gigolo and here she was, 26 years later, doing it all again. While the 48 year old remains the benchmark, it’s also great to see such young talent coming up the ranks on horses they’ve brought on themselves. When it was mentioned that the two riders on either side of her at the press conference were just 22 and 25 years old, Isabell sighed, “Ja, ja, ja. As long as they are on each side of me, it’s fine.”
Isabell, keeping the young riders on her left and right at the presentations
She was full of praise for her horse, “It can’t be better. Weihe is in the best shape ever. She’s really constant, honest and focused. Today she was really with me. She gave me the best piaffe and passage tour I’ve ever had in the Special. The first piaffe could have been better when you know how she can piaffe, but you only take so much risk because I knew the rest behind me (in reference to Sönke and Cathrine) would try to make me angry.”
Sönke retorted, “I don’t want to make Isabell angry. She might whip me!”
What Weihegold lacks in quality in some of the work, Isabell makes up in professionalism, tact and very clever riding.
The piaffe/ passage work is solid with 10s. Cosmo, on the other hand is more even with the scores with the quality spreading across the whole test.
The crowd clapping the final passage down the centreline has now become the norm for each test at this show and Sönke was beaming form ear to ear. The judge at C, Frances Verbeek van Rooy had the pair in 1st place on 85.588%, but they’ll have to settle for 2nd place once more.
Sugar for Cosmo from Sönke’s father, Sven
Sönke said, “Today we were very close to doing all we can. He gave me so much. With the trot on the short side, you just have to sit back and he feels like he’s on springs. It gives me goosebumps. I always thought the only way to feel that was to clear a 1.60m show jump fence, until I sat on Cosmo. It is a different story to bring that feeling into the arena on the day though. This is what Isabell does so well.”
Cathrine Dufour again claimed the bronze. She entered with a flamboyant salute but I think she held her breath the hold test judging by the big gasp she takes at the end, hand on heart. She’s did it, secured the podium and she should be well pleased. The judges at C and F scored her and Cassidy over 80%. The test wasn’t as sparky as the GP, but perhaps that was for the best as Cathrine explained, “He was more relaxed this time and more with me in the canter. I’m so thankful.”
Cathrine likes her horses really hot. “I like a horse to be super, super energetic, almost too much running forward. But here we are all on different horses so you see when you educate them and develop them, they can really change.”
The other star of the day was Therese Nilshagen from Sweden, who became the local hero on the 10 year old stallion Dante Weltino OLD taking out 4th place on 78.585%. I caught up with the Klaus Balkenhol trained 34 year old after her test. “That was really nice today. My horse is in really good shape and I think we did the best that we can do at the moment. I’ve ridden him since he was five. He was already at the yard where I work. It’s not been so difficult to take him to Grand Prix because he is so talented and he has a very good mind. Klaus couldn’t be here this weekend so Louise Nathhorst trained me here. That was really good also. The horse wants to work so much. He’s really a fighter.”
As a result Carl Hester had to be satisfied with 5th, just in front of Spencer Wilton who made up for his Grand Prix mistakes with a pretty faultless ride, bar a hiccup in the centreline tempis. “He was a good boy!” exclaimed Spencer who will get to play his music tomorrow.
Aussie judge Susie Hovenaars was sitting at B and I asked her for her impressions afterwards, “It was such an honour to judge such quality and what I think is great for our sport is that the four top place getters, they’ve trained these horses from young horses themselves and they’re real horse people. This has to be good for our sport. And the quality of their work was really top. We can give 8s, 9s and 10s. You cannot see better and their riding, it’s so correct and so precise, especially Isabell; she never throws away a mark. You might say the horse doesn’t have the same quality as Cosmo but she gets every point she can with really super, super transitions. For me, it’s hard work because you want to do a good job as a judge. I think the jury did a fantastic job. The day before yesterday, we had two days of 66 horses. We gave 17000 marks and the JSP said they changed 100, just slightly up or down. That’s a very good percentage. That can be a flying change you don’t see from where you sit, sometimes on the diagonal, they come towards you and you cannot see. It’s been a super competition with a super, very experienced jury. We’ve judged a lot together before. For me it’s a real privilege.”
What was the highlight today for you?
“I think the fourth horse (Dante Weltino), she rode the best she’s ever ridden. It’s so close now at the top, it’s fantastic. Ten is not enough now, I want to be able to give 12. These riders are just fantastic.” How do you go about preparing yourself to judge a big comp like this?
“It’s like anything, you’ve got to keep your eye in. I’ve been in Europe for over four months this time and you just have to keep judging.”
