French Kiss
World Young Dressage Horse Championships
in Verden
Story – Chris Hector
Photos – Roz Neave
It has always been a little embarrassing that the local Hanoverian Young
Horse classes held in conjunction with the World Championships have
a better line up of horses than the international titles! Our Hanoverian
friends have been doing their best to rectify this situation by selling
their horses all around the world. Thus, at this year’s world
titles, there were 16 Hanoverian horses being ridden by riders from
Luxembourg, Switzerland, France, USA, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands,
Austria, Ukraine and Australia.
But it’s not only German horses that are in world wide demand,
it is the skills to ride them, and that provides another neat little
solution. Thus Saskia Lieben-Seutter who has worked for the past six
years at Holga Finken’s stables just 20 minutes down the road
from the Verden showground, gets to ride Wyclef Jones, a Hanoverian
stallion who makes a sixteen hour dash to Austria to qualify, while
Florianus 2, gets selected for Canada, with Gillian Duke who has worked
with the Papes for the past three years (luckily they do not make a
trip across the Atlantic a selection requirement) and Belgium is represented
by another German breeding stallion, St Ludwigs Leardo ridden by Phillipe
Jorissen.
Florencio
Even more exotic is the situation of Hans-Peter Minderhoud and Florencio
2 - he is riding with a wild card after the Dutch refused to let a German
based stallion compete for them. Susan Draper and Baroncelli also needed
a wild card, when the British filled their quota with two other horses.
Given the debate about which anthem to play of a few years back when
Hans-Peter riding Rubels, won the title – Dutch for the rider
or German for the horse? I think perhaps they should just play the national
anthem of the country of the wild card, The Troggs hit ‘Wild Thing’.
The truth is that sporthorse breeding now knows no boundaries, no stud
books; the bloodlines that are working are used all over the world –
the only studbooks that can’t cope are the closed ones like the
Spanish, or the Trakehner. Call it the World Young Horse Championships
and forget about the studbook / country qualification – just make
sure the best-of-the-best get to compete. It might be a nice idea to
award separate ribbons for the various FEI regions, which would give
some of the less developed nations – like Australia – the
chance to take home a ribbon.
The weather has been truly wild in the lead up to the event, with a
torrential thunder storm the night before the start, and the news on
the CNN forecast is not encouraging. Still it is bright sunshine for
the first few tests at least, before it starts to pour rain –
and that will be the pattern for the whole day.
Belissimo
Holga Finken’s test on last year’s Bundeschampionate winner,
Belissimo M (by the Bolero son, Beltain, who is out of one of the legendary
mares of Dr Schultz-Stellenfleth out of a mare by Rembrandt’s
dad, Romadour II) is stunning, but the master of the young horse classes
is working overtime to keep the act together. There is no winking or
smiling at the crowd today, that is until the test is complete, and
the crowd roars its applause, and the scoreboard lights up before the
pair have left the arena. 9.3 for trot, 9.6 for canter, 9 for walk,
9.5 for suppleness and 9.5 for general impression. Total – 9.38.
I guess most of us thought we had seen our winner but we were reckoning
without Dutch ace, Hans Peter Mindenhoud.
Two years ago Holga and Hans Peter had a wonderful head-to-head
confrontation in the World Six Year old title – Holga won the
qualifier on Wanesco, and Hans Peter hit back to take the title on Rubels.
This time Hans Peter is riding the stunning Florencio 2 (by Florestan
out of a mare by Weltmeyer). Where Belissimo was just a touch fidgety
with his mouth, with Florencio the contact is just perfect – almost
too perfect – this was my only slight (ever so slight) worry with
Rubels, the horse was a bit frozen in the frame and you would have liked
to see him expand and contract a little more in his neck, and it is
the same with Florencio 2, but this is a very minor criticism of what
has been an exceptional performance. Much the best horse in the trot
(9.8) and the walk (9.5) while the canter is also exceptional (9.8)
add a suppleness score of 9.5 and a general impression score of 9.7
and you have 9.66, and the score in the Minderhoud/Finken battle now
stands 2:1 to the Dutchman.
There are other wonderful performances in the 5 year old class. The
Rubinstein stallion Rosario (out of a Castro mare) ridden for the Paul
Schockemöhle barn by Anja Engelbart, has matured, become leaner
more muscled than when I saw him last, and the work is silky smooth.
He is sitting in third on 9.04 tied with FS Lord Loxley (Lord Sinclair
/ Weltmeyer) and Jana Freund – although I thought the horse had
a very artificially ‘produced’ trot with more in front that
behind. The judges loved it and award a 9.7!
Royal Prince
There are other impressive performances from the American rider, Suzanne
Owen Hassler on the Rohdiamant son, Royal Prince 3 (out of a daughter
of Prince Thatch xx) and Amidou (by the Holsteiner, Alcatraz out of
a mare by the Thoroughbred, Langata Express) and Ulf Möller, and
we are set for a Grand Final. Hans Peter must be the favourite, but
it is not wise to underestimate Holga Finken in situations like this!
Australia’s Tor van der Berge has such a Dutch name that everyone
assumes that a European rider has been contracted to ride the Australian
Hanoverian, Jaybee Alabaster – but the truth is, neither horse
or rider have ever left Australian soil before, although the horse was
conceived in Germany, bred by the late Werner Schockemöhle by his
top stallion, Alabaster and out of a Glorieux mare.
Alabaster
Tor has spent six weeks training with Ulf Möller at PSI and he
is hugely grateful for the generous assistance he has received. It shows
in his riding – Tor is sitting up like his mentor, and getting
everything possible out of the horse. They are both soaking wet, having
warmed in, in the worst of the torrential rain, and pay the price of
being first on after the break with a 7.10. It is a little unfair, the
pair have probably looked the best of any of our Australian representatives
so far, but such is the standard of the competition, that they won’t
make the final. Still as you can see from the photo, they did us proud!
The weather has deteriorated for the six year old final, and sadly,
also the quality of the horses – and the judging. The five year
old judging panel of Dr Dietrich Plewa, (Germany), Else Mouw (Netherlands)
and Leif Törnblad (Denmark) have on the whole been relatively easy
to follow but the six year old team of Wojciech Markowski (Poland),
Klaus Ridder (Germany) and Hilda Gurney (USA) is hard to follow. When
they award Susan Draper and Baroncelli a somewhat miserly 8.88 for a
test that looks so soft, and smooth and rideable, they are left with
no room to manoeuvre and they end up with a mere 0.50 separating their
top ten, but there are no stand out stars in there and you get the feeling
that Susan will win.
On the breeding front, Florestan has two out of the top ten in the Five
Year olds, while Rubinstein and his son, Rohdiamant also have two. Weltmeyer
and his son, Wolkenstein II, are the brood mare sires of three out of
the ten.
Baroncelli
The leader in the six year old class, Baroncelli represents the increasingly
popular Hanoverian B line, with Baroncelli by Bergamon (Bolero out of
a full sister to Pik Bube) out of a mare by the French Anglo Arab, Matcho.
A Florestan gelding, Fazzino is in second place, with the current stars
of Dutch dressage breeding – Jazz, Gribaldi and Ferro all represented
with one competitor each.
The Final of the 5 Year Olds was all we could have hoped for. Hans-Peter
and Florencio 2 swept all before them in a performance that had the
crowd cheering and stomping. The trot was truly spectacular, the walk
breath-taking and the canter sublime. Jennie Loriston-Clarke was doing
a wonderful job in the commentary box, but even her very British, ‘Okay,
okay’ could not still the applause, finally it died away, and
she agreed: “We understand you like him, we like him too –
and for the canter, the judges have awarded a 10, 9.5 for the overall
impression, 9.7 for the trot, 9.8 for the walk, 9.6 for the submission
and 9.9 overall…” And once again the crowd was roaring its
approval – it was indeed the perfect political mixture, the horse
has a Westfalien sire, a Hanoverian dam sire, and stands in one of Oldenburg’s
leading stallion station… and is ridden by a Dutchman.
Holga Finken’s Belissimo looked flat by comparison, and dropped
to 5th place on a score of 8.72. Lord Loxley was so much softer and
looser today, and brilliantly ridden by Jana Freund, moved into second
place with a 9.30 (one and two out of mares by Weltmeyer!) while Ulf
Möller proved why he is one of the world’s great showmen,
moving into third on a score of 8.98. Rosario bit his tongue and had
to be retired.
Royal Prince 3 has been trained in the USA in the run up to the World
Champs, and Suzanne Owen Hassler has done a super job, he is going better
than he went in the Bundeschampionate before he was exported –
just a bit ‘Thoroughbredy’ in the canter, score 8.90.
The magnificent black Rotspon led the placegetters onto the field, followed
by the equally impressive Escudo II, but the moment belonged to Hans
Peter and Florencio. They were magnificent.
The six year old class never reached the towering heights of excitement
we saw with the five year old but still resulted in victory for honest,
clean training and a horse that remained soft, forward and responsive,
the black stallion, French Kiss – again representing Florestan,
this time out of a Donnerhall mare. Third out, the stallion scored a
massive 9.7 for his walk for a total score of 9.16 and it was catch
me if you can.
Susan Draper’s lovely Baroncelli lost the sparkle of the qualifying
round and could manage only a 8.66 to finish in fourth place.
Fazzino
Third went to yet another Florestan son, the chestnut Fazzino, ridden
well by Arnd Erben. The horse was too high in front, but strong enough
to maintain his movement and flair. 9.3 in the trot put him on a score
of 8.68. Second to the Dutch bred, Magic Rodrigo (by the showjumping
stallion, Indorado out of a mare by Styvesant) ridden by Edward Gal.
This was perhaps the most controversial call of the whole competition,
the test started with an awful halt and featured a canter that looked
perilously like a four beat at times. It was flashy but artificial,
still the judges liked it well enough for an 8.7 and second place.
The show ended, appropriately with a quadrille of the magnificent Hanoverian
stallions of Celle, the World Young Dressage Championships have truly
found the perfect home in Verden…
