Over One Hundred Horses Entered for 2015 CDI Drachten

Shows

2015 CDI Drachten

There is no rest for the weary. Only nine days into the new year, the international show season continues and kicks off for 2015 with the well attended CDI in Drachten, The Netherlands, on 9 - 12 January 2015. At the moment the provisional participants list tabulates 102 ponies and horses that are entered to compete.

The CDI Drachten in the Friesland expo centre has been a fixture on the show calendar as year opener for the past four years. Drachten provides good accommodation for the horses and proper warm up and show conditions in the indoor arenas. It is also the setting for many new combinations to make their international show debut.

A few interesting appearances to note are the return of German routinier Nadine Krause on her second pony Cyrill. The palomino was briefly campaigned by Krause in 2013 but in 2014 she leased the 2009 Bundeschampion to German Annabelle Manganaro. In the junior class Antonia Arl will make her CDI debut on the former Dutch junior riders team horse, Equestricons Ziggy. Dutch-Italian pony rider Noa Prijs will also do her first junior level CDI on her sister's schoolmaster, 21-year old Michigan.

At Grand Prix level a few highly ranked riders on the FEI Dressage Ranking are scheduled to compete, including French WEG team member Marc Boblet on Noble Dream and British B-team rider Nikki Crisp on the 18-year old Pasoa. Two German riders are travelling to the north of The Netherlands: B-team rider Carola Koppelmann on the talented Deveraux B and Ellen Schultens-Baumer is returning to the international stage with Grosso's Gentle after their come back performance at the Munich Indoors last November.

For The Netherlands big names such as Patrick van der Meer, Marlies van Baalen and Laurens van Lieren boost the order of go. Kirsten Beckers will present the 2009 World Young Horse Champion Westpoint for the first time at international Grand Prix level and the same goes for Madeleine Witte-Vrees on the Jazz offspring Unlimited, which already had a CDI career under Stephanie Peters.