Princess Nathalie and her new look Danes…

The Dressage World is changing. The new world top ten is dominated by the Germans (6 out of 10 places) while for the first time in ages there are no Brits and no Dutch combinations in the top ten. But there is a new nation emerging, Denmark, and their top rider, Cathrine Dufour is number five in the new order of things, leading the way as the Danish team moves up the ladder. The team is led by Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who not only brings her vast experience as an international competitor to the job, but also a lifetime of training with the world’s best. We caught up with her at Aachen last year, and she talked about her emerging group of riders…

The team made their presence felt with a fourth placing in the Nations Cup at Aachen. At the European Championships they went even better and finished with a Silver team medal, and team star, with Cathrine Dufour and Cassidy winning two individual Bronze Medals behind German stars Isabell Werth and Sönke Rothenberger.

Princess Nathalie has lost no time in her new rôle as coach of the Danish dressage team and there was a new buzz around her squad at Aachen…

Looking at you working with your team, there’s a whole new feeling about Danish dressage…

“Thank you…”

And it was nice to watch their warmups, they all worked very quietly, very correctly, very sympathetically…

“I am trying to give them security, that you can ride them in that way, and that’s the only way that really works. You have to have them through from the beginning.”

You seem to have some new combinations…

“They have all been thereabouts in some way. Agnete Kirk has had Jojo for quite some time, and it is just a matter of giving her a new way of thinking to get a little more out of him.

Agnete Kirk Thinggaard and Jojo

next team member is Daniel Bachmann Andersen and Blue Hors Don Olymbrio

“Daniel was reserve for Rio with Hotline, but with Don Olymbrio, and Zack, he has made them more or less, so it’s more his horses – especially Don Olymbrio that he has here, the little cutey – we call him the pony – he has ridden the horse since he was seven or eight. He has made him and you can see that. It’s his hand-writing, and the horse suits him. They know each other…”

Don Olymbrio (Jazz/Ferro) and Daniel Bachmann Andersen, starting their test, and some more moments with this exciting combination to share…

Next Anders Anders Dahl and Selten HW

And Anders Dahl, despite sitting on a Sandro Hit – Selten HW – was pretty flash…

“That horse is definitely not easy, we all know that the offspring of Sandro Hit are not always so easy, also from their mind, but Anders has tried to open up his horizons, he’s trained with Carl Hester, and Jean Bemelmans, also I’ve been able to help him a little bit, to give him a way to try to get the horse to work a little bit nicer with the rider.”.

“Then there’s our ace in the team, Cathrine Dufour and Atterupgaards Cassidy. Cathrine is mentally so bloody strong, she knows exactly what she wants, she is just out of the under 25 class, but she is mentally so strong. The horse and she, they know each other in-and-out, so she knows exactly when she has to press each button, and when she has to stand back a bit and let him go. It’s a combination to watch.”

The secret weapon – Cassidy – working on the day before the Grand Prix and finishing in fourth place behind Isabell Werth, Laura Graves, and Sönke Rothenberger!