The 21-year old Laura Bechtolsheimer won the consolation finals at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, April 22, 2006. Aboard her father Wilfried's Hanoverian gelding Douglas Dorsey (by Donnerhall x Salem)
, Laura scored 73.525% and placed first in a field of six riders who rode the B-Finals Kur to Music in the RAI expo center Saturday morning.
Riding to Elvis Presley tunes and 'Big Spender', Bechtolsheimer and "Doug" excelled in passage - extended trot combinations and lovely piaffes. The massive liver chestnut gelding became a bit strong in the hand at the end of the ride and the collected trot looked too passagey, but Laura's ride stood out by its nice choreography and fluency.
Bechtolsheimer was beaming during the award ceremony and the 15-year old Douglas Dorsey behaved like a gentleman when the trophy was handed over, but he transformed into a frolicky youngster during the victory lap. He was a fox on the run and it took two rounds for Bechtolsheimer to collect him again, but her smile quickly returned on her face. "It was the most amazing experience of my life with horses," she was quoted saying.
American Leslie Morse and her Swedish warmblood stallion Tip Top (by Master) placed second with 71.450%. Morse rode her Pirates of the Carribean kur which has a high degree of technical difficulty. Half passes in passage, extended canters followed by double pirouettes, tempi's on the circle; the sturdy Tip Top did it all. Although the dark bay did lose some impulsion in the piaffes, overall Morse put down a very decent ride with her 12-year old stallion.
"For him [Tip Top] to come to a venue of this size; he did a great job," said a lively Morse in the press conference. "I changed my warm up and philosophy for the ride today. He's a hot horse and the temperature difference between the warm up and the arena is 12°. I put ice water on points to refresh him. I have to keep trying different things so he can step up. It's all about 6 and a half minutes. The whole master game is where to build highlights in your test and know how to build an audience," she philosophized.
Swedish Kristian von Krusenstierna, who found out two weeks ago that he got a spot in the World Cup Finals, placed third with 71.200%. Von Krusenstierna put in a very clean ride in which the constant soft and light contact with the bit was a pleasure to see. Unfortunately, Wilson made a mistake in the two tempi's and there was some loss of impulsion in the piaffe.
Russian Elena Kalinina ranked fourth with the Russian bred Royal Black Label (Randa x Weston). The winner of the Central European League Finals expected more from her World Cup Finals in Amsterdam, as she did not make it to the A-finals. In the B-finals, she rode a mistake filled test with errors in the tempi's changes and a loss of rhythm in the extended trot. Trained by Jan Bemelmans in Germany, Kalinina rode the Pradar owned Royal Black Label to a 70.950% score.
Photos © Astrid Appels
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