On Thursday morning 28 April 2011 the first Grand Prix class took place at the ENE showgrounds for the 2011 CDIO Saumur, beautifully located in the woods outside the town where a cuckoo seemed to announce the first starter. Stephanie Brieussel made the French ouverture in the appropriately named “Carierre d’Honneur” for the Grand Prix of the GPS-tour, in which a huge field of 30 starters tried to reach the Special on Saturday afternoon.
Riding the youngest horse in the class, the 8-year-old KWPN stallion Werner, Brieussel (née Collier) had an unlucky start when the impressive bay unexplicibly reared after an obedient halt. It took her some seconds to bring the horse on the track again. The harmony returned and the Krack C offspring showed promise, executing an already nicely cadenced piaffe-passage-tour. With more experience on the horse’s side this pair could be one to watch in the future.
The competition continued with a Belgian, Spanish and in particular British accent. Contrarily The Netherlands and Germany are only represented by one or two starters, which was a pity.
The French Accent
The French, one third of the starters, were led by Olympic rider Catherine Henriquet on the charming Saxonian gelding Paradieszauber. This leggy chestnut made his debut at Grand Prix-level last year and competed in his first CDI in 2011. The natural way he displays the movements distinguishes him from some of his more spectacular moving, but not always tension-free colleagues. In the zig-zag, in which many horses tend to come too deep, he stayed exemplarily uphill.
It was a pity he became distracted and slightly tense before the last extended trot and as a result he broke into canter. He calmed down again to show a piaffe and passage on the final centerline which was a positive example regarding self-carriage and lightness in the contact with the bit. A 5th place and the best French result was the reward. Close behind Henriquet was Pierre Subileau who came in 6th place with the Gribaldi son Talitie.
Marc Boblet, one of the most consistent and successful French riders of the past three years, showed the big framed Westfalian chestnut Florijn (by Florestan), an impressive mover with a nice piaffe–passage tour. They finished tenth. Two more French riders, who have not shown at international level very often yet, presented interested horses. Stephanie Delpierre, partner of former international rider Dominique Flament, showed the Lusitano stallion Sino de Almeida which owns a quality trot, surprisingly without any typical knee action. He still needs more balance and strength in the canter tour in which his flying changes and pirouettes weren’t settled enough. Claire Gosselin rode the only French bred horse of the class, the beautiful liver chestnut Karamel de Lauture (by Gribaldi). They placed 11th.
The Spanish Influx
The Spanish dressage team again visited Saumur with a whole delegation of Grand Prix riders. Only three of them decided to take part in the Grand Prix for Special tour: Jose Antonio Garcia Mena with his well known grey PRE Norte, Jose Daniel Martin with the young PRE Incanto and Antonio Diaz Porras showing the De Niro-son Duke.
As expected Spanish team horse Norte placed highest for the riders from the sunny peninsula, finishing 8th. This horse is a good example of how the Andalusian breed has progressed towards a modern sport horse since they first appeared on the international dressage scene in the 1990s. This evolution goes not without danger of losing the original PRE-type, but Norte proves that it is possible to breed a Spanish horse with the quality of a warmblood and the charm of the Iberian. In the trot work Norte’s expression is hard to match, but in his pronounced passage he could work even more from behind even though his frontlegs reach the horizontal. Without loosing balance in the 2nd canter pirouette or in the last piaffe a better result would have been possible.
The American owned 9-year-old Incanto is another talent from Spain He moves in a similar style to Norte and showed trot half passes with the most amazing athleticism and crossing over, reminiscent of Satchmo. However, the other movements still need more maturing, though he appears to be promising. Duke, the friendly looking Hanoverian, was the only warmblood for Spain. His ride was dominated by the harmony between horse and rider, but the sympathetic horse lacked a bit of sparkle.
The British Festival
Four British riders represented the United Kingdom in France and turned the Grand Prix into a British festival. Riding the gorgeous black KWPN-stallion Uthopia (by Metall) the master managed to stay ahead of his students. Multiple Olympic rider Carl Hester gave a demonstration of clear transitions between collected and extended work, which could not be said of all starters. Many of them rode, for example, trot half-passes almost in passage.
Uthopia was moreover one of the few horses which stretched the neck n the extended walk, but his real highlight were the passage and extended trot; in the latter he really seems to fly across the diagonal. Uthopia certainly is a different type to Carl’s 2009 European team horse Liebling II.
Prior to the competition Valegro was the name repeatedly mentioned as the favourite for the win:The young, 9 year old powerhouse of rare talent and quality is ridden by Charlotte Dujardin. The activity of this horse’s hindlegs is extraordinary, honestly pushing forward in extensions and upwards in collection. In his piaffe he sits and moves with the same amazing rhythm as Margit Otto-Crepin’s Holsteiner Corlandus did so brilliantly twenty years ago. Regrettably the KWPN gelding (by Negro) tensed up a bit after an unsettled canter pirouette and probably lost the victory in doing so. Undoubtedly Saumur was only the beginning of this horse’s rise.
Almost complementing a British triple was Henriette Andersen on her trusted partner, Louis d’Or. This cute little Danish warmblood gelding (by Heslegaards Louis x Grandis) moves with the expression of a stallion and at 14 years of age he is a matured Grand Prix-horse whose cadenced passage stands out.
Andersen placed 4th.
The Rest of Europe
This third place was taken by Danish Anne van Olst on another Negro-offspring, Taikoen. He is surely a highly talented horse showing much promise but the chique 11-year old Dutch warmblood did not move without tension now and then and van Olst risked little in the extended canter.
While van Olst was happy placing her second Grand Prix horse so highly her compatriot Anders Dahl experienced a black hour with his Swedish gelding Bukowski, a sympathetic son of Jan Brink’s longtime partner Briar. Although this horse has proven to be a very solid mount in the past, the friendly bay reared highly and repeatedly in the first piaffe. Dahl managed to bring Bukowski on his 4 feet again, but the tension did not disappear until the canter tour. Unfortunately the horse showed more resistance in the last piaffe and also his great passage could not help prevent an unusual low rank.
Belgium was represented by three very different pairs: Former Young Rider Julie de Deken with her longtime partner Fazzino, team rider Philippe Jorissen with his fiery Le Beau and Hans Meganck with the Friesian stallion Rintje.
The Friesian made a real exotic appearance in the arena, moving with the high knee action typical of this breed originally bred for pulling carriages. Of this trio Jorissen placed highest (15th place), a result which was mainly caused by the fact that the chestnut became rather hot and as a result tight in the neck. Le Beau still showed some brilliant passage and expressive extended trots.
Germany’s Kathleen Keller, daughter of dressage trainer Dolf-Dietram Keller, entered the arena very relaxed and smiling, patting her confidently looking Hanoverian Wonder FRH before starting her test. The happy looking bay, who has been Kathleen's partner for many years, did everything very willingly and in an outstanding harmony with his young rider. They placed 7th.
Following in the Footsteps
While the main attention was drawn to the Grand Prix itself, it is also interesting to take a short look at the breeding side. It is remarkable that out of 30 horses 10 were sired by stallions who themselves either had started or even won at international Grand Prix-level. Most notably these were Krack C, Jazz, Gribaldi (3), Rohdiamant, Briar, De Niro (2), Heslegaards Louis and Blue Hors Cavan.
The KWPN breed was represented with 8 horses while Germany provided 13, followed by the SWB, DWB and PRE with each having 2 horses as representatives. France, which is such a great breeder of jumping horses, only had one horse of the Selle Français breed in this class, but that mount was sired by the Trakehner Gribaldi.
Text and Photos © Silke Rottermann for Eurodressage.com
Related Links
Scores 2011 CDIO Saumur
British Riders Bang on Form at the 2011 CDIO Saumur
Working Day at the 2011 CDIO Saumur