Patrik Kittel and Marie Haward's 11-year old Swedish warmblood mare Deja (by Silvano x Don Schufro) were a league of their own in the Grand Prix for Kur tour at Horses and Dreams Meets Australia -- the 2015 CDI Hagen -- held at the gorgeous Hof Kasselmann in Hagen, Germany, on 24 - 26 April 2015.
Kittel was unbeatable on the elegant, feminine dark bay Deja, whom Patrik believes has the potential to be amongst the select few able to score the highest marks currently ridden. With a winning Grand Prix score of 78.000% and an 80.225% Kur to Music score, the Swedish team rider certainly proved to be close to the world's elite and with much more left in the tank.
In the Grand Prix the appealing mare clearly showed potential. Her passage is super light footed and elegant, the trot extensions have good ground cover but were hurried and the tempi changes are super expressive but could be more uphill. The pirouettes were small but there was a loss of balance in the exits. The mare was not properly relaxed in the extended walk and the collected walk needed more collection. The weakpoint is still the piaffe. The side view is quite pretty but the frontal view reveals that the mare struggles very much with the balance; she leans on the forehand and rocks from left to right. The star quality of the horse impressed several judges, other panelist were more critical of the lowpoints though, which caused Kittel's Grand Prix score to range from 81.00% to 73.90%. All of them placed the pair first though.
"Deja once again blew me away this weekend," Kittel commented. "Deja felt unbelievable and gave such a great feel(ing). With over 78% in the Grand Prix, Deja joined an elite few to achieve such a score, and what is exciting as this is still such early days for this mare!"
Ingrid Klimke and Clodagh Wallace's 11-year old Westfalian gelding Dresden Mann (by Dresemann x Florestan) landed second place twice. In the Grand Prix they achieved a 72.980% and in the kur they got 79.350%. In the Grand Prix, the duo was the first to go in at 8 AM on Saturday morning. The black gelding was a bit against the leg in the trot tour but Ingrid kept him energetic and forward. Throughout the test the horse was supple in the contact. The two tempi changes were a bit wild and the ones lacked ground cover. The transitions from walk to passage and from passage to canter were difficult.
Hubertus Schmidt and Christian & Vivi Vang-Lauridsen's 11-year old Danish warmblood Hedelunds Mefisto (by Michellino x Matador) were third in the Grand Prix with 72.460% but dropped to 14th place in the Kur with 67.350%. The chunky dark bay gelding is a lovely with a good passage and very lofty pirouettes. The horse appeared insecure in piaffe and lacked elasticity in the one tempi changes in the Grand Prix.
Dorothee Schneider and Arlette Jasper-Kohl's 16-year old Dutch warmblood stallion Silvano (by Rubinstein x Cocktail) were fifth in the Grand Prix with 70.860% and third in the Kur with 77.775%. Silvano is an eye-catching dark bay stallion who is lovely and sweet in the contact and well ridden by Schneider. In the Grand Prix the horse struggled with the regularlity in the movements though. He had a mistake in the rhythm in the second extended trot, in passage he trailed with the left hind leg, in the tempi's the changes to the left were laboured and the horse became uneven in the trot half pass to the right. The collected walk on the other hand was lovely, the pirouette right very well ridden and the final trot extension had good overstride.
Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - No Reproduction allowed
Eurodressage's Astrid Appels took photos of all Grand Prix riders competing in the CDI Hagen. If you are interested in photos, contact us by email with your name and the name of the horse.
Related Link
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2015 CDI Hagen