The reigning 2005 European Dressage Champion Anky van Grunsven won the Prix St Georges today at the 2005 CDIO Aachen. With much feeling, Van Grunsven steered the 8-year old KWPN stallion Painted Black (by Gribaldi) to a 72.725% score
and referred the 19-year old Matthias Alexander Rath to a second place.
Van Grunsven rode her ponyesque Painted Black with much brilliance in the trot tour. The horse was engaged, balanced and uphill in all trot movements, but he seemed a bit numb in his mouth. The walk was good with decent overtrack, but in the canter, Painted Black's weakest gait, the horse could not always keep a clear 3-beat rhythm between the movements and flying changes. However, Anky performed all exercises to perfection and made no significant mistakes in the pirouettes, and flying changes. Her first win of her Aachen week was in the bag.
The 19-year old Matthias Alexander Rath, stepson of Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, put in a very good fight against dressage monument Van Grunsven. Aboard Cantelli (by Cordoba x Weltmeyer) Rath scored 70.90% test. Aachen's local favorite Nadine Capellmann ranked third with Bouton, a Hanoverian gelding by Borneo x Weltmeyer, she has been internationally showing at Prix St Georges level for more than three years. Bouton showed some lovely trot work, but in the canter he does not cover enough ground. His flying changes are short, but correct. Capellmann got 70.600% from the judges.
Isabell Werth finished in fourth place with her new Prix St Georges horse Polano. The liver chestnut Westfalian stallion already showed at Grand Prix level under PSI rider Insa Hansen, but the horse switched owners (now owned by the Dorn family) and Werth moved him down one level. Polano has a gorgeous front leg in the trot and worked well for his rider, who tended to overpush the horse a bit in the trot causing some loss of balance. In the canter tour, Werth seemed to be working really hard to get the flying changes going after a mediocre right pirouette. 69.450% placed them fifth, but judge at C, the Finnish Sucksdorff, scored it a 65.000%
Text and Photo by Astrid Appels
This article has been exclusively written for Horsesdaily.com
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