Aachen – Freestyle Magic

Christopher Hector wrote the words, Rebecca Ashton took the photos

It’s hard to believe that this is the last day of our Aachen + trip. The first day of the plus bit was so good that the majority of our travelers suggested that I couldn’t come up with another day as good as that. Master dressage trainer, Johan Hamminga with the help of his partner, Jennifer Sekreve, gave a wonderful demonstration of the classical training principles in action, before Johan gave an extraordinary lecture on the conformation and balance of the dressage horse before agreeing to a request from our visitors to demonstrate two reined lunging. It was an exhilarating day.

Johan Hamminga talks about what to look for in the conformation of the dressage horse

That was followed by visits to two of the powerhouse studs in the world of dressage. Joop van Uytert’s stud has been home to some of the most influential stallions in Dutch Dressage breeding – Gribaldi, Krack C, Partout, United, and is now home to one of the dominators – Vivaldi, who we saw…

United at home

We then moved on to visit my friend Eugène Reesink, who has bred, discovered, or sold about 35 international stars, including, Vitalis and Vamos Amigos, and now has an exciting lineup of cutting-edge stallions.

Vaderland we saw Dinja van Liere riding him

Eugène is one of those people with ideas bubbling out of their heads all the time, our travelers were entranced as he talked about one of the major health problems facing dressage breeding, shivers, a problem that no one, particularly the breeding associations, wants to talk about. More to come on that one…

The next highlight was a visit to Carina and Fabian Scholz at Sportpferde Scholz. This young couple are making a name for themselves, producing horses that have been trained gradually along classical principles, and it was wonderful to see when Fabian worked a gelding in hand that the changes of balance he set out to achieve, actually happened. It was the same when we watched Carina’s ride her horse into a totally different balance and way of going.

But maybe our best day was the next when we were privileged to visit one of the modern masters, Hubertus has not been riding recently and the most I hoped for was to see him school the talented group of riders he has assembled at Fleyenhof, it was very special to watch him ride a full-schooling session on a Grand Prix horse. Sad that the poisonous digi world extends even to this little oasis of civilised riding, you are welcome to take videos and photos for your own use, but please no faceback or internet. And of course we respect our host’s wishes and thank him again for riding for us…

Here’s the foal that one of our happy band of travellers, Judy Sonnefeld bought.The foal is by Prince Samarant from a Benicio mare. Some of our group were astonished to find that the prices in Germany were much, much lower than in Australia…

The next day as we sat down to a welcoming glass of rosé, at our table at the most prestigious Westfalien foal show, at the Beckmann stud, the sound track switched to Walzing Matilda, and our welcome was doubly warm when one of our group bought a stunning foal, and the foal then went on to be crowned premium foal of the show. It was a fabulous day stunning mares, and exceptional foals.

What a week, then it was on our bus again heading down the highway to Aachen to the Show of all Shows, CHIO Aachen. We’ve had a great week here, and now, the absolute highlight, the Dressage Freestyle.

Oh dear, the judging has been all over the place, we were hoping the judges would get their act together over night, but with five horses gone in the Freestyle, we have four different ‘winners’.

Time for the big kids, Frederic and Bluetooth, more nothing music, but it is proof that correct training can really change a horse for the better. Light contact, lovely self-carriage, soft, supple, rhythmic. While the horsework tells a story, the soundtrack is just cleverly synchronised noise. Bingo, all five judges have them first, 84.480.

Isabell and Quantaz, at last a score that sounds like it is saying something, there’s even an underscore for the walk work.  Fabulous one-and-a-half pirouettes, dead straight ones into a little levade-ish something. Not sure the piaffe pirouettes really work, but it has been a grand test. Bonnie Tyler supplied the musical inspiration,

 Oh, it’s a heartache
Nothing but a heartache
Love him ’til your arms break
Then he lets you down

Actually Quantaz is in fine self carriage, no chance of Isabell’s arms being strained… A new leader on 84.84. Four out of five judges have her ahead on Artistic marks, but they split on the Technical, two have her first, three in third.

Charlotte Dujardin and Imhoptep, the entrance light and gay, as is the music, the trot flows but it would be so much nicer with the horse’s neck a bit longer. Really lowering the quarters in the piaffe – and we haven’t seen a lot of that – super unhurried passage. I don’t know what the music is, but I love it, the effect is magic. Super one and a half pirouette, expansive ones, tight tight half pass. Piaffe demi pirouette then reverse and piaffe the other way… amazing! 88.415 Five technical firsts, five artistic firsts.

Charlotte Fry and Everdale. Really wide and swinging from side to side in the piaffe. Where Charlotte’s ride was an exercise in harmony, this seems a bit of a battle and the stallion looks hollow backed, high behind and out behind to me. Just behind Charlotte with 87.515, two judges actually think her technical work better!?

Therese and Dante Weltino, what a lovely harmonious picture they make, passage to piaffe, and out in that huge trot he has, look at how sweet the contact is. Love the horse, can live without the music. Get’s a bit tangled in the canter pirouette, almost doing a counter canter for a couple of strides. I have actually seen that wonderful Portuguese horseman, Rodrigo Torres ride a counter canter pirouette at home but I don’t think it would be welcomed at Aachen. Still it’s a lovely test from Therese.

Jessica and Dalera, perfectly in synch with their score, like Edith they have no regrets, why would they, they are ranked number one. And Christopher resist the temptation to play around with Piaf, and piaffe… It’s a little hymn to joie de vivre, a message of hope when not so far away, brave  Ukranians are trying very hard to be hopeful. It’s not just the music. Jessy is working at a 10.0 level of difficulty, and the crowd claps along with the great chanteuse for that final centre line, into an explosion of rapturous applause. And an equally rapturous response from the jury, 90.820,  while the usually enthusiastic  spectators can only manage 89.038 for their scoring.

What an act to follow. Still Nanna and the horse sent home to be a schoolmaster, continue to shine. Zepter has such a wonderfully even, clear passage, the work is so clean, so correct. Here’s a horse with great engagement, great rhythm, every step spot on the beat. Thank you Nanna, with your gelding, you have given us so much pleasure at this Aachen, and even managed to open the eyes of a couple of judges to what real dressage looks like.  Hope we see you next year…

And what an Aachen it is going to be in 2024  in the final countdown for the Games, with team selections for half a dozen countries on the line.

Yes, we are running a tour, to put your name on the info list email reception@organisationunlimited.com