Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and her 15-year old Hanoverian stallion Desperados have confirmed that they continue to wield the axe of power in Germany by winning the 2016 CDIO Aachen Grand Prix Kur to Music on Sunday morning 17 July 2016. While they became the 2016 Aachen Grand Champions, her compatriots were on her heels and the German top three trio is well matched.
The final day of competition at the grand Aachen show grounds drew out the crowds and in a sell out stadium of 5,000 spectators set in mild summer weather judges Alonso, Clarke, Holler, Lang and Baarup made their final assessment of some of the world's strongest performers. The next time this panelists sit together will be at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, where the competition promises to be top level. Even in the absence of the top British, Dutch, French, Spanish and American riders Aachen was still a major event that was finger licking good.
Aachen always succeeeds at creating that electric championship atmosphere were the going gets tough and the battles are fought with gloves off. While the freestyle continues to be the flavour of the masses, nothing goes beyond a good technical Grand Prix or Special test. The majority of the music ridden to is simply bland, amateuristic, repetitive, boring and not matching the horse's movements. It is subway background music at its best and very few freestyles stand out and are memorable. The best freestyles earn "names" usually based on their themes; Anky's West Side Story, Esprit Chanson or Tango kur, Steffen Peters' Coldplay kur, Patrik Kittel's Depeche Mode kur, Isabell Werth's David Bowie or Maria Callas freestyle, to name just a few. Werth's Callas Kur was clubbed to death by some judges, which unfortunately made Isabell decide to put it in the back of her drawer. It is still remembered as one of the best in the world. This year in Aachen, the only stand-out freestyle that had a professional and memorable ring to it was Tinne Vilhelmson's Putting on the Ritz' freestyle, though a few others made a decent attempt. It is regrettable that top competitors are not investing more money in a proper, inspiring production instead of choosing copy-paste material done by keyboard crusadors who call themselves freestyle designers.
Anyway, back to what happened...
Kristina Bröring-Sprehe rode to her violin and classical music freestyle, which she used at the 2015 European Championships in Aachen last year. Desperados produced very fluent combinations of passage and trot half passes. The extended trots were impressive, the extended walk had good overtrack but the black stallion curled his neck too much. The canter half passes were big, but there was some tension in the flying change. The tempi changes were all well executed, especially the ones, and the extended canter was powerful but could have had more uphill tendency. One left double pirouette had a hesitation. The piaffes were beautifully on the spot, also in the piaffe fans, but overall the passage was not as jazzy as normal. The right hind leg was either not tracking up or it swung out on several occasions. The contact with the bridle, however, was the best in the freestyle. The horse was very steady in the contact, chewing and foaming. The end halt was not immobile. It was a very good, high-level freestyle, but not their best and Sprehe seemed to agree as she did not flash the brighest smile on her face at the end of her ride. Her winning score of 88.825%, however, was the highest she ever got.
"Desperados has become more light in the hand and has found a good rhythm in the piaffe-passage tour," said Bröring-Sprehe. "He has simply become more powerful most recently and is very willing to co-operate. He was super today and really fought together with me."
Isabell Werth has a magical drawer in her house from which she can pull a plethora of wonderful freestyles, but the one she has assigned for Weihegold did not spark the imagination. The 1970s Italo pop music freestyle featured the "Dance Samba with me" tune. The canter music fitted her eager black mare well, but the rest was bland. On a technical level, the 10-year old Oldenburg mare impressed. The first part of her test had a lot of piaffe-passage work. The passage was elevated, quick off the ground and sparkling, the piaffe was really good but in the piaffe fans and pirouettes she lost the rhythm. The trot extensions were correct but flat in the frontleg. The extended walk was decent, but the collected was quite short and not so clear in the rhythm. The extended canter had much power but the mare lost the uphill tendency especially on the left lead. The tempi changes were really nice, but the transition from canter to trot was a bit hesitant. The final passage was top class and Werth ended strongly with a piaffe pirouette. They scored 86.950%.
"Besides a few small things we still need to work on, the piaffe and passage were super today," said Werth.
Dorothee Schneider and the 10-year old Hanoverian Showtime landed third place with her Queen freestyle which opened with "The Show Must Go On." The dark bay gelding produced very ground covering, forward trot half passes and extensions. The first piaffe at X had a good rhythm but the transition out was difficult. The second piaffe-passage combination was much better. The walk was well regulated. Just like Sprehe, Schneider also chose for the combination collected walk - piaffe - extended walk, a movement Swedish Tinne Vilhelmson came up with first. The pirouettes to the right lacked bending and the extended canter clearly needed more opening in the ribcage and lengthening of the frame. Some tension crept into the canter work. The tempi changes were correct but the ones were slightly hurried and short. Showtime's youth reveals itself in the piaffe pirouette and fan, in which he struggled to keep the rhythm, but overall the passage was outstanding. Neither of the two halts were immobile though. The pair scored 86.925%.
"Showtime is really shy, but I have to say time and again how nice he is," Schneider commented. "He trusts me completely. It's a nice feeling and I'm very happy to go to Rio with him."
Spanish Severo Jurado Lopez and the 10-year old Danish bred Lorenzo (by Lord Loxley x Rubin Royal) became the crowd favourites and had the people in standing ovation and clapping on the final passage line with one hand towards the end halt. Spanish team trainer Rafael Soto, who himself was able to get the Aachen crowds on their feet back in the day, initiated the clapping and the spectators eagerly followed. They were upset when Jurado's fourth place flashed on the board, but there was definitely nothing wrong with the placing. Lorenzo is a very sympathatic horse with the cutest face, ears forward, energetic and very welling to do to job, but his self carriage still needs massive development. The horse pulls the hocks and knees high in passage, but does not really engage the hindlegs under body and carry himself. It shows the best in the piaffe in which the horse gets wide behind AND in front! Also the tempi changes are very uphill and bold, but not really honestly in balance and the horse swooshes its tail in those movements. Lorenzo still relies much on the help of his rider, but the duo really works together well and it is a cute partnership for sure with many other highlights: the energy, the ground cover in the trot extensions and half passes. Jurado rode a freestyle with a high level of technical difficulty: a canter pirouette with a transition into a piaffe pirouette in the opposite direction, tempi changes on the circle and curved lines. The way they showed emotion and excitement in their freestyle were a true joy. They scored 83.350%.
American Steffen Peters and Akiko Yamazaki's 14-year old Westfalian gelding Legolas completed the top five. The pair also rides to Queen using "Under Pressure" as the lead song of their music. The bay gelding started strongly with rhythmical and regular piaffe-passage work. Legolas could have been a bit more supple in the contact and foam more, but Peters rode with much concentration and he seemed to ask less expression and more precision from his horse. The horse benefited greatly from that in the overall silhouette. Still there was a mistake in the one tempi changes. One right double pirouette was a bit quick and lacked balance. They well executed a canter pirouette which transitioned into a piaffe, followed by extended walk. In the transition from the pirouette into trot, the horse lost the rhythm. The passage half passes were lovely. They scored 79.300%.
Text and Photos © Astrid Appels - No reproduction allowed
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Eurodressage Coverage of the 2016 CDIO Aachen
