Achleiten: Positive balance

The CDI Achleiten is over and we draw a super positive balance!

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Especially because our not yet so experienced horses did not let themselves be irritated by the changes in their familiar environment (home shows are always a special challenge!). In addition, especially in the Grand Tours there was strong competition from our own country. After all, our tournament was the first Austrian sighting for the European Championship in Rotterdam/NED in August.

I was especially happy with my "Benni". For the just eleven-year-old Oldenburger Benaglio, as he is correctly called, it is his first Grand Prix season ever - and he is improving from competition to competition. I had a special moment of glory in the Special, by the way only his second ever. He already felt mega good when he was being ridden. And also the competition itself was really, really good, except for two small things, which I have to attribute to myself. Benni has developed fantastically and there is still a lot of air up there. With the new personal best mark of 73.574 percent we took second place behind the winning pair from Finland, Henri Ruoste and his gelding Rossetti, who achieved a score of 73.894 percent. Third place went to Lisa Müller/GER with Gut Wettlkam's Stand by me OLD (72.55 percent) and fourth to Karoline Valenta with Valenta's Diego (72.42). Stefan and Fackeltanz OLD secured fifth place with 70.80 percent. The two also managed a very fine round in their only fourth joint Grand Prix Special. "Fackel" was presented by Stefan, was concentrated and always on his side. A few small things led to a deduction of points, but this is rather due to the lack of experience. Bravo, you two!!! Christian Schumach ranked sixth with Sinclair Jason - as fourth rider from Austria with a 70 percent score. This was followed by Belinda Weinbauer with Fustanella OLD in seventh place, both of them a 70 percent score Florian Bacher on Fidertraum in eighth place, Astrid Neumayer with Sir Simon in ninth place, Anja Luise Wessley-Trupp with Sparkling Fizz in tenth place and Amanda Hartung with Dresscode Black in eleventh place. So we have good cards for Rotterdam, especially in view of a qualification for the Olympic Games 2010 in Tokio/JPN, and it will certainly be really exciting at the second European Championship sighting in Cappeln at the end of July!

But let's go back to Benni, who was already super motivated in the Grand Prix, despite the really sweaty temperatures, and presented himself very confidently with beautiful highlights, for which the judges gave 72.087%. Henri Ruoste received exactly the same amount. According to the FEI regulations, in case of a tie in the first three ranks, the third highest score of the five judges is decisive, so in the end 0.109 points decided in favour of Henri.

Stefan finished eighth with Di Navarone in the Grand Prix qualification for the freestyle. After a very nice start to the test, "Navi" unfortunately made a few mistakes, which were expensive. He's on the right track, but now he needs to improve his safety. Stefan will now continue to work on this with him.

Super well-behaved was the superior St. Georges winner "Vali", who also improved his personal best with 75.11%. I am growing together better and better with the eight-year-old Valparaiso, who took seventh place at the World Dressage Championships for young horses in 2018 with Wolfgang Himsl. He is becoming more and more self-confident from show to show and is really bringing a lot of talent with him. A real fun mobile! And he's very consistently at a high level: in Ebreichsdorf and most recently in Munich there were rounds of 74 and 75. Since Vali was so well-behaved and the temperatures were really exhausting, I decided not to start in the Intermediate I.

And what else is there to report? Sure, the beautiful successes of our young horses! Our rider Tamara Michei and Diamond of Eternity GV won a double victory in the class for five-year olds. The jury praised the tact and permeability of the Westphalian gelding by Diamond Hit-August der Starke OLD, "a horse equipped with all possibilities" - 86.00 and 85.00% respectively! The stallion Zarathustra MT also did very well under Stefan, but is currently in full development and simply needs more time before he can show his outstanding potential. We will give him this time. That's why, after finishing sixth in the warm-up test, we didn't bring him back to the start in the final test.

In the Tour for six-year olds, Wolfgang Himsl presented the Hanoverian stallion Duracao (by Diamggio), who impressed with his trot (score: 9.0), among other things. The judges scored 84.40 and 82.20% for his tact and positive power, which meant second place in both competitions.

We were highly praised for our show by the participants, the judges and the spectators. Everyone felt very comfortable in Achleiten, which really made us happy. We are happy to pass this praise on to our team, who tirelessly ensured that everything ran smoothly and in a great atmosphere both in front of and behind the scenes. Thank you, all of you!!!!

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