Germany's Wandres and Hendricks Dominate 5* Friday Night Lights at 2024 CDI Wellington

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2024 CDI Wellington - Global Dressage Festival - Week Ten

-- GDF press release by Alice Collins, edited by Eurodressage

Germany’s Frederic Wandres and Felicitas Hendricks emerged victorious on Friday night 15 March 2024 in the penultimate week of CDI action at the 2024 Global Dressage Festival (GDF) in Wellington, FL.

The 5* Grand Prix Freestyle and the 5* Grand Prix Special took place in the main stadium at Wellington International show jumping grounds.

Frederic Wandres Improves PB in Special

After Frederic Wandres’ win in Wednesday’s qualifying grand prix, he said he would “try to go for a little risk to shine bright” in Friday night’s 5* Grand Prix Special, and he did just that. Riding his employer Hof Kasselmann’s 14-year-old Bordeaux x Riccione gelding Bluetooth OLD, Wandres pulled off a near-flawless performance, garnering a new personal best in this test of 78.34% for the talented duo.

The remaining two podium places were taken up by female athletes from the USA: Anna Marek rode Cynthia Davila’s 14-year-old Zizi Top gelding Fayvel to second place with 70.617%. This was the duo’s second ever CDI grand prix special, and they set a new personal best, beating their previous high score by 2.34 percentage points. Ashley Holzer put a tense performance with Hansel in Wednesday’s grand prix behind her, slotting into third. She rode PJ Rizvi’s 11-year-old Blue Hors Don Olymbrio gelding to 70.149%.

Last to go in the class, Bluetooth exuded power and grace with a light, consistent contact and Wandres presented him in an uphill frame with the hind legs always engaged. They were rewarded with a high score of 80.957% from the judge at E, Janet Lee Foy.

“It felt like a flawless, harmonious ride,” said Wandres. “I had a wake up call in the grand prix when I had that mistake [in the one-time changes] and I was angry with myself because normally our strength is that we can show mistake-free rides, but that pushed me even more for today.

“I felt like where I could go for risk, I rode it out more tonight. For Bluetooth it’s the beginning of the season, but he’s going back to Europe next week. Here [in Florida] this season we really invested in working on the details and I think it worked out. I spend a lot of time with my horses — not just the riding — and here I can really do that, so I am very happy tonight.”

Hendricks Wins Kur to Music

The 24-year-old Hendricks, who finished second in the five-star Special last year to Frederic Wandres (GER) went one better, topping the line-up with her own 13-year-old Destano x Dimaggio gelding, Drombusch OLD. They scored 77.245% dancing to a disco soundtrack in their first ever five-star Freestyle.

Hendricks competed in four CDI's this season in Wellington and has won seven out of the eight classes. Of the four Kur tests she performed, her Kur high score was achieved at the CDIO Wellington on 23 February (79.100%), coming close to the magical 80% marker. It’s easy to forget that Hendricks is still eligible to ride in the Under-25 division and not in senior ranks.

Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén rode Lövsta Stuteri’s 15-year-old Devanto (by De Chirico) to second with 74.565%, slotting between two Germans. Anna-Cristina Abbelen finished third on her own and Silke Abbelen-Mooren’s 17-year-old Samarant gelding, Sam Donnerhall, with 73.895%.

Improvement

Hendricks, who with Drombusch is the reigning European Under-25 Championship gold medalist, said, “It was super fun. I loved it here last year already and I think we improved from last year, which is something really special. The atmosphere was amazing, the crowd was great and it was super nice to experience a different atmosphere. I love Global [dressage’s usual venue], but it was really fun to come here too and do it at WEF.”

Hendricks’ freestyle is of high technical difficulty, but she rode with quiet hands and invisible aids. She moved seamlessly between movements, and included tough transitions and a testing floorplan, like double pirouettes immediately out into canter half-passes. She finished with a metronomic passage and a one-handed piaffe to halt.

“Drombusch has a great passage which really feels like being on a cloud,” she enthused. “I’ve had him since he was six. I bought him from my uncle and trainer Christoph Koschel who thought that he might be the right match for me, and he turned out to be right. It’s been a long journey, but it was very rewarding and I couldn’t wish for a better dance partner. It’s even more special because we’ve gone all the way together.”

This was Drombusch’s final show of the Florida season as he will fly back to Germany in a week. After giving the horse a break, Hendricks will map out his summer season in Europe.

Puttin on The Ritz

Having ridden at seven Olympics, Vilhelmson Silfvén has much experience to draw on, and she had to think on her feet when a mistake crept into her freestyle test on Devanto, which she rode to her well known “Puttin’ on the Ritz” soundtrack composed by Cees Slings.

“I actually had a super feeling — the best I’ve had in a freestyle,” she explained. “Until I had a mistake, and then I lost him. So then there were more mistakes because he got upset. He thought he was going into an extended canter, but I wanted to do two-tempis, so he almost fell over. But anyway I’m happy. This is the third time he’s gone in here [the WEF arena] and every time it gets easier. The atmosphere was great tonight.”

High Degree of Difficulty

Abbelen’s ride, the 17-year-old Sam Donnerhall, was the oldest horse in the class and she increased the degree of difficulty of her floorplan for this show.

“After every ride I’m super happy to have him, that he’s super sound and that every day he’s willing to work,” she said. “That he’s fresh and that I made it into a five-star grand prix and freestyle is really a great gift.

“The music is pretty explosive and powerful, like Sam, and I’m sporty too and the music covers that really well. I changed my floorplan for this five-star because I thought we were ready now that we’ve known each other for three years, so I wanted to take the risk and it worked out really good,” added the 28-year-old.

Abbelen is part of the team of Hof Kasselmann, alongside Frederic Wandres and Lars Ligus, which winters in Florida at their U.S. branch in Loxahatchee selling high quality dressage horses while competing on the circuit.