"I managed it at last", said the elated Dutch dressage rider, Hans Peter Minderhoud about his victory at the CHIO Aachen 2009. He topped the field in the Grand Prix Kur CDI Tour with the 16-year-old Ex Libris son Escapado with a score of 76.65 percent.
"He was a bit heated up today, he was much cooler in the Grand Prix. But he still performed excellently and I am very happy about winning. It is my first ever victory in Aachen," stated Hans Peter Minderhoud.
The Germans weren't spectacular in the freestyle. Gina Capellmann-Lütkemeier delivered the best result on the Breitling daughter, Baldessarini. The pair scored 72.15 percent, which meant fifth place. "Unfortunately, we made a mistake in the one-tempi flying-changes," reported the rider, who has been riding the mare for three years.
Second place went to the Dutch rider, Jeannette Haazen, who lives in Belgium, on her Jazz son, Nartan. "He is 1.83 metres high and I am only 1.55 m tall. But we still get on extremely well together," the rider, who runs her own dressage yard, beamed. "In spite of his size he is very sensitive and fine to ride, otherwise I wouldn't have a chance on him." Stephanie Peters (NED/73.65) came second, her horse, Jeff, also descends from the KWPN stallion Jazz, who heads the list of the top breeding stallions of the World Breeding Federation for Sporthorses.
Hendrik Lochthowe, who trains with Silvia Iklé, didn't find out until the last minute that he had qualified to compete at the CHIO. He came sixth with a score of 70.60 percent on his Oldenburger breeding stallion. "I got a call on Monday at 2 p.m. informing me that I could compete in Aachen. We weren't 100 percent prepared for the occasion, so under the circumstances it is a super result. Being able to ride here was a wonderful experience," explained Lochthowe, who also came fifth in the Intermédiaire I with the Rubin Royals son, Rubin Cortez.
Ulla Salzgeber chose not to compete in the CDI Tour on the Wolkenstein II mare, Wakana. Her upcoming talent, Herzruf's Erbe, injured itself while entering the stadium for the Grand Prix Special and had to be led out of the dressage arena, because he was badly lame. Because the diagnosis wasn't clear before the start of the freestyle, she decided to withdraw Wakana. What terrible luck for the rider, who after the retirement of her extremely successful horse, Rusty, five years ago, finally has two top horses again.
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