Germans establish authority ahead of Dressage team medals final

Day two of the Dressage Grand Prix at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics saw Team Germany finish at the top of the leaderboard after great performances by their final two riders.

Dorothee Schneider with Showtime and the living legend that is Isabell Werth with Bella Rose, secured pole position at the end of the competition, which decided the eight best nations that will go through to Tuesday’s medal-decider, the Grand Prix Special in which all teams start from scratch.

Qualified teams, in order of yesterday’s rankings:

Germany
Great Britain
Denmark
USA
Netherlands
Sweden
Portugal
Spain

Unfortunately Australia finished in 13th place and did not qualify for the Grand Prix Special, despite great performances from our team.

Simone Pearce and Destano finished on a score of 68.494%, after producing a lovely test despite some costly errors. It was Simone’s first Olympic Games, and Destano looked a picture thanks to groom Emily Reudavey!

Simone Pearce and Destano.

© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans

The beautiful Samhitas and Kelly Layne displayed some quality work, however miscommunications in the piaffe were costly in terms of their score. Kelly’s tactful piloting showed her professionalism, and she continued through the test to produce some stunning movements that showed just how talented this horse is. They finished on a score of 58.354%. It was also Kelly’s Olympic debut.

Samhitas and Kelly Layne.

© Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans

On the first day of competition, Mary Hanna and Calanta produced a beautiful test, albeit with a couple of mistakes, to score 67.981%.

“Calanta gave me a good feeling in her test although feeling the heat a bit at the end,” said Mary of her test.

“Expensive errors in changes killed my score. She was beautifully presented by the best groom in the world Casey Louise. I’ve been doing this for so long now. Riding’s one of those amazing sports where you can do it no matter what your age is, or your gender. It’s a fantastic sport like that. So as long as I feel fit enough to ride a horse, I’ll keep going. Because it’s what I love to do, it’s my life. It’s everything to me.”

Equestrian Life is so incredibly proud to have had Mary, Kelly and Simone representing Australia on the world stage!

Individuals proceed to the Freestyle

Meanwhile the 18 individuals that have made the cut to Wednesday’s Individual medal decider are also confirmed. The two best from each of the six qualifying groups – Charlotte Fry and Charlotte Dujardin (GBR), Therese Nilshagen and Juliette Ramel (SWE), Cathrine Dufour and Carina Cassoe Kruth (DEN), Edward Gal (NED), Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, Dorothee Schneider and Isabell Werth (GER), Sabine Schut-Kery and Adrienne Lyle (USA) are through.

Also qualified are the six next-best individuals, Nanna Skodborg Merrald (DEN), Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (ESP), Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED), Carl Hester (GBR), Rodrigo Torees (POR) and Steffen Peters (USA).

Last night’s action

Denmark’s Cassoe Kruth and America’s Lyle claimed the top two spots in Group D when the action resumed last night, and then Germany’s Schneider headed up Group E after a lovely test. Schneider said her horse was “a little bit tense but it’s normal for him on first day”. She’s had a late return to top competition for a range of reasons.

“Showtime competed at the European Championships in 2019 and then he was at home because I wanted to keep him safe for the Olympic Games in 2020 and then there were no Games! I wanted to start early in 2021 but then I had an accident in April. But he’s an experienced horse and once he gets out to compete three or four times he’s fine”, she said of the gelding who carried her to team gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and who she has ridden since he was a three-year-old.

A fall when a horse she was competing dropped dead during a prizegiving ceremony left her with a broken collarbone, “but it’s all good now!”, she said. “It took a little time to come back and it wasn’t so easy mentally, but we are back now and I’m happy again”, she explained.

Charlotte and Gio shine

Compatriot Werth headed up the final group of 10 horse-and-athlete combinations and, last to go tonight, underpinned the solidity of the German challenge. With her beloved Bella Rose who scored 82.500% she pinned Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and the charming little chestnut gelding Gio into second place in that group. However both of these ladies look to have a lot more in store for the coming days. And Dujardin, whose reign of supremacy with the great Valegro changed a lot about the sport of Dressage in recent years, is clearly super-excited about her latest rising star. You could feel that rivalry between herself and the evergreen queen, Werth, filling the air once again tonight.

Talking about Gio, Dujardin said, “I was so happy, he’s a very green inexperienced horse, so it was a bit of the unknown what to expect. Hagen (Germany in April this year) is the biggest show he’s done and he delivered there. I couldn’t ask for any more today, he went in there and he tried his heart out. He’s just unbelievable, he keeps giving. I felt emotional on the last centreline because when you have a ride like that, win or lose that’s what it’s all about for me.

“He’s like a little powerhouse, he’s small but definitely mighty, for where he is at his training I know he can give even more and I’m so happy with him”, she said.

The judges awarded the maximum score of 10 on 14 occasions during the second half of the Grand Prix, and 13 of them were earned by Isabelle Werth’s Bella Rose – 7 for piaffe, 5 for passage/piaffe transitions and one for halt. A single 10 was awarded to Charlotte Dujardin’s Gio for two-tempi changes.

Steffen Peters of the USA also produced a great ride on Suppenkasper in the final group, with the American team looking strong after finishing fourth in the rankings last night. “He’s a hot horse so to do a relaxed clean test was a very good start. This was not the test to go crazy in, we’ll do that in the Special! It’s been four years of a complete love affair with him, he’s such a big, kind teddy bear. He’s 18.2 hands tall but there’s not a mean bone in his body, he always tries and I’m one of the fortunate riders who gets to ride him!”

Steffen complimented the judges on the scores they gave his team-mate Sabine Schut-Kery yesterday whose pathfinding ride got the US off to a great start on the first day of competition. “Sabine is a cool, calm competitor with a helluva horse. Not too many people know her that well but I appreciate that some of the judges who had never seen her before gave her a very good score”.

Rivalry

Werth clearly enjoys the renewed rivalry with her British counterpart because it feeds her competitive edge. “It’s always very important that you have strong field of competitors because then you push each other to top performances and that’s the spirit of competition”, she pointed out.

She described the 17-year-old Bella Rose as “my dream horse and when she’s in top shape she is the best – her way of moving, her character, her charisma, her piaffe/passage down the centreline – of course Weihe (her other mare Weihegold) is super and the younger ones too, but with Bella you have the feeling there is always something more possible!”

Isabell Werth and Bella Rose.

Talking about these “Games like no other” in Tokyo, the multiple Olympic champion said the lack of an audience could be influential. “Mostly you will see it in the medal decisions, especially in the Freestyle. There will be music but no crowd to carry the horses and riders – it makes a big difference – but on the other hand we are so happy that we can be here, can compete that we have an Olympic Games. We are in a discipline that is really depending on Games, because then we are more in the focus of the media and the world and it gives the younger riders at home the motivation and support so it’s a big package we have, and we are very thankful to be here”.

If Isabell Werth wins double-gold she will become the most decorated female German Olympic athlete of all times.

Full results can be found here.

Source: FEI Press release/Louise Parkes with edits from Equestrian Life

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