Germany marched right up to the head of the standings as the FEI World Dressage Championships got underway Tuesday, with strong performances from its most junior rider, Raphael Netz, third on Great Escape Camelot (73.338) and veteran Frederic Wandres, in the lead with Bluetooth Old (75.963).
And when the medal competition resumes Wednesday with the second half of the class, it has even better prospects as its two top competitors, Catherine Hemmer (Denoix PCH) and the legendary Isabell Werth (Wendy de Fontaine) perform.
Team standings are, of course, up in the air until everyone has ridden, but at the moment, Germany is 2.143 points ahead of second-place Great Britain, the other country that is favored as a contender for the gold. British FEI World Cup Champion Becky Moody on her homebred Jaegerbomb (73.20) was the score that counted for her side, but that number was less than expected from such an experienced pair..
In the unique atmosphere of Aachen, their performance started on the wrong foot with a halt that was a bit of a rolling stop, to earn 42 percent. Then her horse broke into canter as she extended the trot.
“We didn’t get off to the best start in the world. He was just a little too excited and distracted when we went in there, so we didn’t have a very good first halt and we had a break in our first extension because I didn’t quite have the balance where I needed it,” Becky mused.
“But we pulled it back and we still got some really good bits, and he came back to me really well. You can’t focus on the mistakes – you have to think about where you can try and pull it back.”
The other British mark, Fiona Bigwood’s (Donna Bella) 69.348 was listed (like Netz’s score) as a drop score because only the top three scores count for a team and all will be adjusted before the medal presentation. So on the official standings, Germany and Britain are 1-2, while Denmark — a gold medal possibility and the only country besides Germany to have two riders score more than 70 percent — stands fifth on the best of its plus-70 scores.
Fiona hasn’t ridden for the team since the 2016 Rio Olympics. Atterupgaards Orthilla, her mount in Rio a decade ago, is 10-year-old Donna’ Bella’s dam.
Orthilla also was 10 Fiona rode her at the European Championships at Aachen in 2015.
“It’s really nice to bring her daughter here and do the same thing in their first years of Grand Prix. They’re both very similar to ride – they both go and try their hardest, and so it’s lovely,” she said.
To sum up her performance, a delighted Fiona exclaimed; “I love that mare – the right brain and talent, a heart of gold, never does anything wrong, just tries her heart out. Almost tries too hard for you!” That probably was the reason she added two more one-tempis to her line of what was supposed to be 14 changes.
Carl Hester will ride Fame, who also belongs to Fiona, when he appears in the ring Wednesday, 36 years after he first appeared in a world championship. Last to go for Britain will be reigning world champion Lottie Fry and Glamourdale, trying to snatch the gold from Germany.
Carl Hester and Lottie Fry watching the action at Aachen.
The U.S., which was not expected to be anywhere near the podium, stands eighth of 17 teams on veteran Kasey Perry-Glass’s tactfully ridden 70.606 percent performance. Meagan Davis, called up to the team for her first international championship just last week, did well under those circumstances, with 67.624 percent on Toronto Lightfoot.
Chef d’Equipe Christine Traurig said she felt good about both riders’ performances, explaining, “I think Meagan, definitely being a rookie at an event of this magnitude, did a beautiful job. There’s so much more to come from that pair. This is just the tip of the iceberg for her.”
Standing twenty-fifth individually, Meagan does not have a chance of coming back on Friday for the Grand Prix Special, the test for individual honors which takes only the top 30 riders from the starting field of 45.
Kasey was a team Olympic and World Equestrian Games medalist with her longtime partner, Dublet, but Heartbeat WP is a far less experienced mount. Even so, she stands a respectable eleventh on 70.606 percent and is likely to make the Special.
Kasey Perry-Glass and Heartbeat WP
Speaking about Kasey, Christine enthused, “What a wonderful rider she is, aiding the horse so kindly, light aids. She had a solid test and showed us she is aiming to tap into his potential in the Special. She definitely showed us how much experience she has.”
Kasey said she was just looking for a “clean, consistent solid test from him. I am so proud of him; that was the biggest atmosphere he’s been in and the biggest I’ve been in. I’ve been to a couple of Games, but this is just something else,” she noted, citing the aura that Aachen delivers in a big way.
The opening ceremonies Tuesday night underlined how special Aachen is, with scores of horses choreographed to the delight of the capacity crowd, as team members and fantasy figures mingled on the grass field.
Horses played a big role in the world championships opening ceremonies.
Kasey also was named to the team late in the game, just a few days before Meagan, so she had a task on her hands with a horse that she still is developing.
“I had to really figure out what makes him tick different than Dublet did,” said Kasey, whose formula involves lots of turnout, trail rides and hand-grazing.
“It’s been a journey with Heart. Going into this, I had to almost center my emotions and keep everything super-quiet for him in my own attitude. He stays there right with me when I do that.
“Dublet, I could go in and kind of push and ask for more from him. Heart will offer more the more I kind of let him build. He needs a little bit of that confidence from me to kind of hold his hand and stay quiet.
“We have so many emotions in our sport. As an athlet, you always want to go in there and just go for it. it’s a challenge to learn how to stay that center pillar for him. I’m proud of myself for figuring that out and what works for him. He’s an emotional horse, he really picks his people. He really picks his emotions. to be able to put down a solid test like that in atmosphere like this, I’m so proud of him.”
Click here for world championship team standings. Click here for individual standings.
