One of my new year's resolutions this year was to make a bigger effort at attending more shows. With the completion of my PhD last year, there was little time to do anymore shows besides the big league championships. This year, I'm focusing on a wider variety events and I just love the youth riders competitions.
So in one month time I did Weert, Moorsele and Bonn. Next week it's Hagen and then Rotterdam and Freudenberg, but I haven't decided yet where to go (Rotterdam is a certainty).
I got up early Friday morning at 6 AM to drive to Bonn. I was amazed at how close it was from my home. Only one hour and fourty minutes and I drove up to the premises of Winkelhues' equestrian centre.
As I entered Bonn, I was teased by the banners of a big Kandinsky exhibit in town, but I had to fulfil my duty and shoot horses and ponies all day.
I arrived on the show ground at 8 am ready to shoot the first class at 8.30 but there was no horse in sight. .The crew was still watering the arena and dragging the ring. No one was warming up. I got the starters' lists and saw the classes only started at 10AM. Duh! Oh well, I avoided rush hour traffic and got some spare time to drink a cappucino, wake up and chat with the Belgian pony chef d'equipe.
I decided to focus on the pony team test and catch as many young riders at the same time, as two classes were going at once.
Here is a selection of photos I took during the day.
Pony Riders
The pony team test was won by the 14-year old Bianca Nowag on the drop dead gorgeous Der Feine Lord. A super rhythmical and smooth trot tour, ground covering canter work, a good walk and no major mistakes made them the winners of the day. Nowag is trained by Oliver Oelrich.
Sönke Rothenberger is getting very tall for his pony, but he can still do the tricks. Aboard Deinhard, Sönke had some problems finding consistency in the trot as the contact with the bit was not so steady as usual, but the canterwork was outstanding as usual. They finished second with 0.5% point difference with the winner.
Viktoria Braun on Voyager. The pony is a former double Bundeschampion, winning both the dressage and eventing discipline at the same championship. He then went into bootcamp at Connie Endres' stable and returned from there all messed up in the mouth. Braun and her trainer Stefanie Meyer-Biss did a great job fixing what was broken, especially the contact with the bit. Though Voyager still goes behind the vertical a lot and loses suspension in trot, he does have great extensions in trot and canter. He finished fourth.
The prettiest pony on the scene, IMHO. Grete Linnemann's Cinderella. Such an elegant, gorgeous, light footed mare, but she's still young and loses her balances in the traversal movements and corners. The future looks promising.
Danish Anne Tange took over the ride from Swedish Elin Aspnas on Tim. Tange does a great job and had a lovely team test which should have scored much higher than it did (66,111%).. Oh well, in Germany the Germans get ranked first, or not?
Junior Riders
The winner of the junior riders' team test was Louisa Luttgen on the delightful Hanoverian gelding Habitus (by Hohenstein). The dark bay gelding is super a powerful, lightfooted mover and the contact the bit was at all times steady and soft. What a textbook example! Louisa is trained by her sister Anna Katharina.
Nicola Krause, the cousin of Sonke and Sanneke Rothenberer (and almost a spitting image of Sanneke), finished second on the lovely Dutch bred mare Rhythm Dance (by Goodtimes x Pretendent). The dark bay mare is originally called Ritti and was previously trained and competed by Ingrid Klimke.
German pony rider Theresa Bausch is moonlighting. She was riding her pony Dornik Double in the one ring and then got on the gigantic Don Freddy for the junior riders' test in the other arena.
Young Riders
Winner of all three young rider classes was Thea Felicitas Muller with the Hanoverian Highway (by Hohenstein). The black gelding, with the most impressive canter imaginable, is blind.
In the summer of 2006 the Muller family returned from vacation to find Highway in his stable standing like a statue and staring at them with his eyes open. He was diagnosed with atrophy of the retina and was slowly turning totally blind. Müller did not give up on her horse and learned him special commands to rely on her as his pair of eyes. She continued building trust with the horse and was able to ride him first indoors and later on in the woods. Their dressage career also progressed and the pair became the shooting stars of Germany, winning the 2008 Preis der Besten, the 2008 CDI-JR Bonn and the silver medal at the 2008 European Junior Riders Championships.
Show Photography
- Eurodressage photographer Astrid Appels was on the scene taking pictures of all international pony riders riding on Friday and most juniors and young riders
- We shot the following riders: Albeck, Andretta, Bachmann, Barbancon, Barnekow, Bausch, Binder, Blicher, Brabanders, Braun, Camp, Claeys, del Castillo, De Ridder, Elkjaer Holm, Fairchild, Federspiel, Fokker, Frenzen, Gotzens, Hartmann, Kienbaum, Kragtwijk, Krause, Laier, Larsen, Lindberg, Linnemann, Luttgen, Mansmann, Marconi, Metzer, Moller, Mucke, Muller, Nevermann Torup, Nowag, Orloff, Otto, Overmann, Peperhowe, Richter, Rom, Rothenberger, Runge, Schindler, Schmitz, Schneider, Schulz, Snijders, Sparaciari, Stuttgen, Tange, Thill, Tychon, Van den Berghe, Van den Brink, Wagner, Weychert, Winkelhues, Winther
- If you are interested in seeing your photos and ordering prints, send us an email mentioning the rider's or horse's name.
All photos copyrighted Astrid Appels
No Reproduction Allowed without Permission/Payment
Related Links
Scores 2009 CDI-PJYR Bonn
Photo Report - 2008 European Youngster Classic in Bonn
Photo Report - 2007 European Youngster Classic in Bonn
