Dressage
Grand Prix - Wed. 11 & Thur. 12 September 2002
Grand Prix Special Friday 13th September.
Grand Prix Kür - Sunday 15th September 2002
by Berni Saunders Report - Page 12

The top 25 combinations go through to the Grand Prix Special
and the top 15 horses from this competition go through to the Kür
and I will cover all 3  performances for the top horses.

Number 333 Renoir and Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff for Germany on the outstanding 11 yo Oldenberg gelding Renoir-Unicef.  The horse is by the legendary sire Rubenstein (sadly deceased... as too is Relevant)  Ann-Kathrin is a tireless worker for Unicef and so add this name to her horse's.  The Grand Prix was a quality performance.   The horse broke in one extended trot - but when you are going for it, this is easy to do.  The horse crept forward in the final Piaffe.  Anne-Kathrin got a 10 from one judge for her half pass right.  They scored 70.32% and went into 12 place after this first round of competition.

Special:  This was a better and stronger test than the Grand Prix.  Renoir is a very good horse and it was difficult to fault his work.  They scored 73.52% and although on points and their 11th placing - only three combinations from each country were able to go through to the Freestyle which decides the medals - bad luck for Anne-Kathrin, because hers was a better result than some who got the chance to go through to the final.

Special:   This ride was a little more settled and the young stallions understood that it was not life threatening and he settled nicely into some fantastically expressive work - this horse is one to watch. 
they scored 70.56% and moved up to a final placing of 16th.

Grand Prix Kür   Even though this combination finished 16th and it was the top 15 that went through, due to the number of representatives which were allowed for each nation, Guenter Seidel did not take the ride in the Kur and this gave Jan Brink the chance to do their Freestyle. Briar seemed to be high on the sense of occasion and again Jan did a great job to convince the spirit stallion that everything was allright.  The music was 'beaty' with an attractive Caribbean theme.  The canter moved to Ricky Martins 'Livin' la vida loca' .  The technical marks would have come down a little due to the seeing in the Passage.  But they went on to perform a most attractive sequence of Half Passes in Passage.  I felt that this music collection had a 'toe tapping' quality which added greatly to the performance.

It was a lovely flowing and artistic test and the score of 71.85% moved this combination up into 13th place.

Briar semen is available in Australia through 4 Aces

Special.  Their performance in the Special was quite similar the Grand Prix.  It was a great test and scored 69.76 which unfortunately dropped them down a placing to 15th, due to some of the others significantly improving their placings with a great ride in the Special.

Grand Prix Kür : Elena chose a very different orchestration of the popular Grieg classic - Peter and the Wolf. Her choice of music and the overlaps between the paces were very nicely done for my taste - with freestyles it is so much a matter of personal opinion. Elena too included the double pirouettes which were nicely done and the one and the times changes were well executed.  By the end of her test it appeared that she had got a little ahead of her music.  They scored 74.30% for this Kür which gave them total points of 213,580 with a 12th overall finishing position.

Krack C is still a little green - but as you would expect all of his work was perfectly prepared and his rider gave him every chance to do his best work.  Even so there were some technical problems - for instance on the centre line between the flying changes the horse got this Grand Prix test confused with the Special and put in three one times changes - a very easy error.I felt that the 69.52% score was perhaps a little generous and it saw them in 14th place and therefore progressing to the Special.

Special:  It was a test of better quality than the previous ride as the few little errors were avoided.  I did feel that the horse was hurried in the walk sequences - as with Bonfire - this is not Krack C's best pace - they scored 71.80% and a chance to ride their Freestyle.  This is the area where Anky excels.

Grand Prix Kür : A catch arrangement as only Anky can manage of Hernando's Hideway provided a fantastic and secure beat for the entry which was done in walk.  They Krack C shoed the full might of his expression with a fantastic extended trot - beautifully balanced with clean, smooth transitions in and out.  Themes from Carmen made for a very appropriate choice for this appearance in Spain and the half passes were poetry.  More Carmen into the Passage which was quite weak from a technical viewpoint.  Again Carmen with an adjustment of timing for the canter work.  The half passes were lovely but there was a faulty change in the 2 times sequence.Double pirouettes again - it seems that they must all give these a go to be competitive. The Artistic aspect of Ankys performance was strong and there is still some work to be done with the technical side.  The wonderful choice of music and catchy arrangements have become a hallmark of Anky's musical rides and this test was up there with the best.76.37% was her score and this brought her total to 217.695 and moved her up 2 placings so that she finished in 11th place overall.

Special:  Again Susan and Flim Flam put in a very strong performance - this horse is particularly good in his Piaffe and then into a strong and regular Passage.   The weighting of the marks for this area in the GP and GP Special mean that a talent for this work will be very advantageous.  They scored 73.24% which kept them in 7th place.

Grand Prix Kür :  Susan and Flim Flam performed the same Freestyle test as they did in Sydney - and why not it was wonderful and so well suits the horse.  As I mentioned before the timing of the canter on the beat of the music would be very hard to improve and Flim Flam seems to love being the star of the show.   A score 74.375% took the total to 145.48 but other strong Freestyle performances meant that this was not enough to maintain 7th place and they moved down to 10th.