2017 European Dressage Champion Isabell Werth is securing the future of her success with high scoring youngster. At the 2017 CDI Donaueschingen, Werth won the national Prix St Georges Special - a qualifier for the 2017 German Developing PSG Championship - aboard the Belgian owned QC Flamboyant, cracking the 80% barrier.
The Nurnberger Burgpokal, the official qualification circuit for the German Developing Prix St Georges Horse Championship, featured a series of qualifiers before the finals at the CDI Frankfurt in December. It is the chosen path for Germany's best dressage riders to present, train, develop and compete their upcoming Grand Prix horses.
At the national qualifier in Donaueschingen on Saturday 16 September 2017, Werth won the class aboard Patrick d'Eer's 9-year old Oldenburg gelding QC Flamboyant (by Fidertanz x De Niro). The judges were thrilled with the ride and scored it 81.512%. The pair had already won the warm-up test on Friday with 78.317%.
Werth was once again a league of her own, with all competition far behind her. Oliver Oelrich placed second oN Gestut Westfalenhof's 8-year old Hanoverian stallion Desario (by Dimaggio x Pik Pavarotti) on 75.585%. Werth's former stable jockey Matthias Bouten placed third with Stucker's 8-year old Hanoverian stallion Bodyguard (by Burlington x Pik L) on 74.927%.
Isabell Werth's new iron in the fire, QC Flamboyant, is not an unfamiliar face on the German show circuit. In 2013 the bay gelding won the Bundeschampionate under Marita Pundsack. In 2014 Pundsack and Flamboyant represented Germany at the 2014 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Verden, where they finished 14th in the Finals, and at the 2014 Bundeschampionate they were fourth.
In December 2014 the gelding moved into training with Isabell Werth in Rheinberg. Owner Patrick d'Eer told Eurodressage at the time that he was deliberately seeking for the best rider to ride his best horses. Isabell Werth competed him twice in 2015 in the national Prix St Georges Special at the CDI Perl-Borg. They finished 4th in the warm up round but were eliminated from the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualification test after refusing to go in the canter tour. In 2016 Werth's assistant trainer Niklaas Felzer was allocated the ride and he showed the horse at several local shows at small tour level from 2016 until September 2017. Felzer's last show on Flamboyant was on 1 September in Gelsenkirchen, where he scored a winning 73.202% in an S-test. Two weeks later Werth cracked the magical 80%.
Photo © Stefan Lafrentz
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