Belgian equestrian photographer and one of the most genuinely nice guys, Dirk Caremans, had something else on his mind than dressage when he shot this photo at the 2011 European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam. "Who said dressage is boring,"
was Dirk's caption to this photo.
While Isabell Werth was quite pleased with the performances of her horse at the 2011 European Championships in Rotterdam, she did get thoroughly annoyed by two unpleasant occurances. Thieves broke into her car at the riders' hotel and stole her GPS system (apparently they did the same to the car of Belgian team vet Jef Desmedt). It seemed that the Rotterdam thieves were deliberately looking for Mercedes GPS systems as three Mercs in total got broken into. To add insult to injury, sixty kilometers from her home in Germany, Werth put in the wrong fuel into her car and her already damaged Mercedes had to be towed.
Though he didn't qualify for the Kur to Music finals because the fourth German team member was mandatorily dropped from the entry list, Christoph Koschel was quite pleased with his achievement in Rotterdam. After the show, his wonderful Finnish warmblood got a holiday and enjoyed hacking in the woods. Check out this lovely photo Christoph took while riding his horse.
Now that we are back on topic of the 2011 European Dressage Championships, we have to point out a column which celebrated equestrian photographer Arnd Bronkhorst wrote for the Dutch Paardenkrant and its sister site www.horses.nl. It was a very interesting, emotional piece for which we asked permission to reproduce it in English (so the world can read it instead of just the Dutch community) but apparently Bronkhorst had his reasons to object international publication. On Friday afternoon, an English translation of the column appeared on the site as well but it was quite different and more brief than the Dutch version.
The column is called "Totilas: the Tragic Hero" and it questions why so many things have gone wrong in one year time. He cites that wrong decisions have been made as well as wrong insights gained. The photographer recounts his two photo shoots with the horse, one at Schockemohle's in March 2011 and one in Kronberg in May 2011. Despite a few communication problems seen in Muhlen, in Kronberg the horse looked less impressive than with Edward, but with more opening in the frame. In Rotterdam, however, Bronkhorst saw a different image. At the Totilas trade fair booth he saw "extremely ugly" clothes with the words Totilas Champion 1 on it. Arnd believes they should have waited until they had really seriously won something. The PR campaign could all be brought back to "a handy marketing agency" whose Totilas' merchandising brings across "arrogance." In the warm up Arnd saw a horse that was "lame" and considered it better for the horse be put back into his stall. On Friday Arnd witnessed Matthias Rath training Totilas much on the day between the Grand Prix and Special focusing principly on collection, "again and again piaffe and passage," he writes. When he sees the Special Arnd gets the feeling that "it seems as if they don’t like each other anymore." On Sunday morning Bronkhorst saw a public argument between Matthias and his father at the stables. "Matthias no longer wants to ride and his father wants him to compete," Arnd wrote. When the horse is waiting for the prize giving ceremony he notices a spur mark on Totilas right flank. "What are they doing to Totilas? What are they doing to themselves? What are they doing to Edward and Nicole?," he wonders. Arnd concludes that Totilas has become the protagonist of a tragedy. "So much potential, and such sadness. What a disaster for all involved." Bronkhorst finished his piece with a clear message for things to go right again soon. Read the complete Dutch column here (you can react at the bottom) or read the English transition.
Dutch Olympian Marlies van Baalen has a new horse at her disposal: the 7-year old Ratzinger (by Ricardos x Rubirando). The dark bay gelding has been in Johann Hinnemann's ownership since he was three but the horse will now continue its training in The Netherlands.
Has anyone ever watched the tv-show "Bang Goes the Theory' on Discovery Science channel (and the BBC)? The presenting voice you hear announcing the different sections of the program sounds just like Richard Davison's. Weird!
Hans Peter Minderhoud told us that he was on the verge of competing at the 2011 World Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany, aboard the silver medal winning Lissaro van de Helle. Because the Dutch rider had never competed the horse before (as the bay Hanoverian switched riders little over a year ago), he was declined a wild card. Unbelievable!! We would have loved to have seen Lissaro back in the show ring!
We've often thought about creating a new section on Eurodressage, similar to a page in American People Magazine: the "Do's and Don'ts in Fashion". Very often we see things at shows that is certainly not our flavour. Of course "de gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum" but still we'd like to point out a few things:
What is certainly NOT DONE in our opinion:
- beige breeches: nothing makes you look more old-fashioned
- painting white hoofs black. Your horse looks unnatural with those fake nails
- brown bridles combined with black saddles: no go!
- uncleaned tack, unpolished boots and unshone bits of which the metal looks like it was retrieved on a prehistoric excavation site
- too many pins on your lapel. Yes it's nice to brag about the shows you've been at but make sure your pins don't look like paper weights. Anky has a beautiful collection of Olympic pins on her lapel. That's how it's done (of course you have to have been to as many as hers to match the amount)
- unbraided forelocks. It looks messy!
What is definitely DONE
- beautiful bling browbands in the colours of your country: the Barbançon girls ride with an amazing Spanish flag bling brow band and the Danish young horses in Verden had little Danish flags in rhinestones. A star at picking beautiful browbands is certainly Valentina Truppa who has been spotted riding in blue bling as well as in big diamonds. Well done
- Colour co-ordinating your horse during schooling sessions: colours can be fun but keep it co-ordinated between your wraps, saddle pads and T-shirts
- White is the new black: white is beautiful and will always be. You can't go wrong with white
- Wearing a helmet and set an example to all your fans and idols who come to watch you at shows!