Catch Ride Erlentanz Keeps Dujardin in the Spotlight at Beginning of 2019 CDI Big Tour Show Season

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With number one Grand Prix ride Mount St. John Freestyle not having competed since the 2018 World Equestrian Games half a year ago, in 2019 Charlotte Dujardin is keeping herself in the international spotlight with catch ride Erlentanz.

Dujardin and Erlentanz made their international show debut at the 2019 CDI Keysoe on 15 - 17 March 2019, capturing two second places with scores of 73.413% in the Grand Prix and 77.700% in the freestyle.

“He’s been as good as gold – he is just so cool to ride and he really makes me smile, because he just tries his heart out,” enthuses Dujardin. "I overrode it (in the Grand Prix), I was trying too hard, and I was so annoyed about the mistakes in the zig-zags and the ones because they were rider error,” she says. “I learnt from my mistake and for the freestyle, I knew not to override it. These are all the things I’ve got to get to know – how much I can push and can’t push. For me, he lacks a bit of confidence in there, so it’s just about getting him to open up in there and find that extra gear that he has out here.”

Charlotte has only been riding Erlentanz little over two weeks, but she immediately gelled with the gelding. She has the horse temporarily on loan as his owner and rider Sonnar Murray-Brown is recovering from a broken leg.

“He’s not got much experience – he’s only got one year at Grand Prix, so Sonnar didn’t want Erly to drop down,” Dujardin explains. “I helped him with the horse anyway, and I had ridden him a few times, but it’s one thing just popping on a few things and another going in there and doing that. But because I’ve trained him and ridden him a bit, that definitely helped me – I wouldn’t do that on a horse I didn’t know. I knew his strengths and his weaknesses already from Sonny, and so it made it easier to just get on. He’s an incredible horse and Sonny’s done a fantastic job at training him.”

Catch Ride for Charlotte

Erlentanz is a 12-year old Trakehner bred by Ingrid Lejeune-Dirichlet in Germany and owned by Murray-Brown.

Charlotte and Erlentanz (Photo © T.Berendt)

Sonnar sustained a displaced, spiral fracture of his tibia, falling off a spooking horse three weeks ago.

"They managed to put a nail down it so it's pretty secure now," said Sonnar about his injury. "All being well and if the X-rays look good I will hopefully be off crutches after about six weeks post surgery. I have so much support around me from my parents, friends and family and from the World Class programme. Next week I will go to Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre to start my Rehab."

This was not the first time that Sonnar fractured his leg. In January 2009 the rider survived a serious car crash as a passenger, but sustained a broken femur in his left leg and a broken femur, knee cap, tibia and fibula in his right leg. It took fourteen operations and four years to recover from the accident.

In 2013 Sonnar was fit again and decided to take his horses to Germany to train for a year. There he discovered Erlentanz at the 2013 German Trakehner Championships in Hanover, where he was ridden by Zara-Adina von Zitzewitz. The now 30-year old Brit acquired the Trakehner and began competing him in Germany in 2014.

Grand Prix Debut

They made Their international debut on the stunning eye-catcher (by Latimer x Benz x Falke x Magnet) at the same CDI Keysoe one year ago and went on to ride his horse at the CDI's in Compiegne, Bolesworth and Hartpury.

Sonnar and Erlentanz at the 2018 CDIO Compiegne
(Photo © Astrid Appels)

"After our first year at Grand Prix in 2018 I have been training hard over the winter," Murray-Brown told Eurodressage. "Watching Charlotte ride Erly helps me to visualise what I am meant to be doing and this also helps him to consolidate his work with such a talented rider."

For sidelined Murray-Brown, the experience of Charlotte piloting Erlentanz is a great way to help find the relatively inexperienced horse’s extra gears in conjunction with his trainer.

“He rings me all the time – he rang me and was like, ‘I get more nervous watching you than I do riding him! It’s such a pleasure to watch you ride him!’ So he’s really, really happy,” said Dujardin.

While Erlentanz has been Dujardin's only Grand Prix horse she has taken internationally this year so far, she has more options to choose from in the barn. Aside from MSJ Freestyle, the double Olympic champion has been sharing rides with Carl Hester on Hawtin's Delicato (as her team back up horse) and has En Vogue (by Jazz) coming along. The Dutch warmblood made its national Grand Prix debut already back in May 2018 scoring 72.5%. In February they achieved 81%.