Eight riders scored above 80% in the Kur to Music Finals at the 2011 European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam on Sunday afternoon 21 August 2011. An unprecendeted amount of high quality rides groomed the judges into giving high points. Though no world records were broken, the class was one of the most exciting ones in recent dressage history.
On home turf local hero and crowd favourite Adelinde Cornelissen stamped her authority on the Kur and won gold with 88.839%. While her performance was outstanding in its accuracy with many highlights, the point difference between the number one and two was a bit exaggerated. Silver medal winning Carl Hester and bronze medal winning Patrik Kittel were certainly not 5% "less good" than the number one. It was in fact a very tight competition which was reflected more in the close scores of the other top 10 place-getters than in the top three.
British Laura Bechtolsheimer, who won triple silver at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, only collected two medals in Rotterdam. One of them was of course team gold, the other Grand Prix Special bronze. In the freestyle she just missed out on a podium place after an 83.018% scoring ride. Riding to music of The Shadows, Laura was back in business with Mistral Hojris. The huge Danish chestnut was attentive to the aids and put in a great first part with great piaffe and passage work and wonderful half passes but he could have been slightly more up in the frame. The rhythm in the piaffe was not always crystal clear, something which has always been Mistral's strong point. Also the tempi changes have been cumbersome at these Championships. In the two tempi's the first two changes did not come through behind but she redid them on her correction line. The ones were good. There was much spring in the final piaffe-passage line but overall it was a very strong test.
"Alf [Mistral Hojris] grew in ambition as the test went on” Laura told British Dressage. “I’m so proud of him that he was so cool and focused. It felt like one of the best music tests he’s done; maybe the marks didn’t quite reflect what I felt but it’s still been an amazing show for British dressage. For Carl to get another podium finish is fantastic."
German Matthias Rath and the 11-year old Dutch warmblood stallion Totilas slotted in fifth with 81.696% and was unable to live up to the sky high expectations which the Totilas team itself had raised the past season by feeding the hungry media like Calypso did with Odysseus. It all proved to be hot air and as the young Rath is not yet on the same wavelength with his stallion and expected international success too soon. His Paul van Dyk freestyle has a brilliant dramatic opening and end but the middle part is a blur of sound that does not sufficiently mark the movements. There was many wonderful things in his test: super passage, wonderful half passes and even one decent extended trot. The canter zig zag was excellent. Unfortunately Rath was unable to stay faultfree. He struggled with the piaffe in which the stallion became too tight and deep and lost the forward impulsion. There was a mistake in the two tempi's, which he corrected at the end though these were not straight in the body. The first double pirouette did not have enough jumps and in the one to the left he was bending the horse to the outside to keep control over the turns. The one tempi's went wrong but Rath finished his test on a high note with a brilliant final passage.
"I had the same mistakes in my Kur in Aachen but still I'm happy," said Rath after the freestyle. "Totilas was much more focused than yesterday. Overall we weren't able to get individual medals this year, which is a pity, but that's the sport. We will continue to train in a quiet atmosphere and improve our communication."
Only rider in the freestyle was able to do what Spanish Juan Manual Munoz Diaz did with his Andalusian stallion Fuego: take the audience (and judges?!) on a roller coaster of emotions! His test was pure beauty. The music is brilliant. The "Spanish" kurs have been used so often that the style has been clubbed to death but Munoz Diaz has certainly taken it to a new level! His fantastisc symmetrical choreography with beautiful guitar and vocal sounds are composed mostly to the beat of his horse and Munoz Diaz -- who was the star of the freestyle at the 2010 World Equestrian Games -- upped his performance from a year ago by being technically even better in Rotterdam.
Fuego's piaffe, which generally lacks spring but has plenty of lift in the legs, was better throughout the test as if the music helped him with the rhythm. The trot extensions were huge with a far-reaching front leg and decent overtrack. Munoz Diaz was extremely focused on his horse and made sure that the grey stallion would not become too hectic. In the extended walk the horse became distracted and whinnied. This meddled with the overtrack and relaxation. In the canter tour some pirouettes were a bit big. The Spanish rider performed lovely two tempi's on the curved line and raised the level of technical difficulty more by riding the one tempi's single handedly on the centerline. The crowds went wild when they saw him do that and just like in Kentucky they could no longer sit muted on their chairs but exploded in clapping and cheering. By the end of his ride he brought tears to the eyes of many and got standing ovations which only ended until the rider had left the stadium. Munoz Diaz posted a score of 80.982% which put him in the lead for a while, but eventually ranked him sixth in this world class field.
German Isabell Werth had a new freestyle designed for El Santo NRW by her long-time kur composer Michael Erdmann (who arranged 4 out of 15 kurs in Rotterdam!). The fun and fruity David Bowie inspired Kur was the talk of the town as it was either completed disliked or absolutely loved for its airiness and swing. Also Isabell's technical performance as well as her score of 80.536% was highly disputed after the class as many journalists and riders considered it overrated. On a technical level, Isabell scored marks between 73.25% and 81.50% and artisticly her scores veered between 76.00% and 87.00%.
Werth's El Santo is always ridden extremely fresh and forward in order to build up plenty of combustion for the piaffes which are the horse's weakness. The passage and trot half passes were flowing and regular, the extended trots very ground covering. The first piaffes were very small but the last one of the centerline had more activitiy. The two tempi's were lovely as well as the wonderful double pirouettes on both sides. Werth made a mistake in the one tempi's but fixed that problem by riding a good one tempi line afterwards. Werth was the first rider to crack the 80% barrier with her 80.536% but in retrospect to what the other riders had produced this might have been a bit high.
"Today it was good. He was loose underneath me," said Werth. "I wish I had a few points more but overall i'm very pleased."
German Helen Langehanenberg and her charming liver chestnut stallion Damon Hill NRW improved each day of the competition and had a wonderful freestyle rider to pumping music in which there was a quirky reference made to the horse's namesake, the world famous Formula 1 racecar driver. The fluctuation in accelleration in Langehanenberg's test was fantastic. This nice variation between collection, piaffe, passage, half passes and extended trot lines made the test look expressive and forward. The horse could stay a bit more uphill in the frame though, despite all this activity. The passage half pass left could have been more regular. The right double pirouette was a bit big but overall Helen had a fantastic technical execution of her test. Pity that Damon Hill often had his mouth open even though the contact with the bit is featherlight. The combination scored a personal best score of 80.446% and placed 8th.
"Wow," was the first word Helen said after her ride. "I had a good feeling from start to finish. Maybe at the beginning he held himself a bit but then he really came up to speed."
British team rookie Charlotte Dujardin and her extraordinary 9-year old Dutch warmblood gelding Valegro finished 9th in the freestyle finals. She tallied two big mistakes which kept her short from an 80%+ score (79.357%). Charlotte rode to music arranged by Tom Hunt. Her kur is based on film scores from movies such as The Dark Knight and Passion of the Christ as well as from the fantasy tv-series Game of Thrones. The piaffe and passage score was composed by Hunt himself. Especially the aetherial singing combined with the drum accentuated Valegro's lightfooted and elastic movements.
Dujardin pushed her horse a bit too much in the extended trot as he broke into canter, but the other extensions were excellent. The gelding has a wonderful piaffe and passage but lacked some energy and power to bounce more. One transition to piaffe could also have been a bit smoother. The collected walk was regular, the extended ground covering. Valegro showed outstanding sit in the double pirouettes. The two tempi's were executed on a curved line to increase the degree of difficulty. Two changes in the one tempi's were not through. In general the harmony between rider and horse and the delicacy with which Dujardin rode him were the supreme highlights of their test.
Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - No Reproduction Allowed
Video Link to all the freestyle tests here.
Also Read: White Swan Cornelissen Takes the Upper Hand and Wins Kur to Music Finals
Back to the 2011 EDC index