Heather Reimer, a regular EN contributor from European events, was kind enough to send us this report from the Luhmuhlen CIC3* dressage earlier today. Heather has been very kind to keep us posted with everything behind the scenes from Luhmuhlen this week and we are very grateful. Thanks for writing this Heather and thank you for reading.
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Sandra Auffarth and Paranc
From Heather:
Luhmuehlen started on Thursday with a day of awesome 3* dressage. The CIC3* was mainly dominated by the Germans on home ground but Sweden is represented twice under the top ten. The first score under 40 points was given to the 5th starter Ingrid Klimke(GER) riding Butts Abraxxas (38.00). They had a good test but it was a bit lacking in expression and seen very differently by the three judges (7-11-4) her final placing being 7th. Not long after this Michael Jung (GER) moved up to the pole position with a lead of nearly 4 points riding his gelding Halunke FBW. He was still leading before the lunchbreak and wasn’t really threatened by either Simone Dietermann (GER) and Free Easy NRW with 38.20 points or Niklas Lundbäck (SWEW) with Mister Pooh who moved into 2nd place with 37.20 points. After the last coffee break, things heated up. Frank Ostholt, bronze medal winner at the Europeans last year, rode Little Paint and put in a brilliant performance. They left the arena with only 32.80 points. Just two starters later his Swedish wife Sara ridding her grey mare, Wega, just missed pushing her husband off the top slot with a well deserved 34.00 points. There were just 6 horses to go. Ingrid Klimke riding her second horse Tabasco (the winner of the CIC3* in Wiesbaden this year) moved up into fourth place with 36.20. And last but not least was World/European Champion Michael Jung riding the 11 year old gelding Weidezaunprofi’s River of Joy. Michael broke his own personal best and took the lead after the dressage with just 27.80 points.
It has been a day of above average dressage tests, all of which were a joy to watch. The sun shone and the horses were all groomed to perfection. The footing in the arena is perfect and you get the feeling the horses really enjoy being there. Only two horses had problems today. Marina Köhncke’s(GER) Escorialblue and Sofarsogood ridden by Malin Petersen (SWE) both spooked for some reason at the same place and it was difficult to get them back to the business of concentrating on their rider and the test in hand.
Andrew Nicholson will be the first rider in the arena tomorrow morning at 8:45 CET for the CCI4*and I am looking forward to another day of top dressage tests but I can’t help having the feeling that we might be seeing the same name at the top of both leaderboards tomorrow evening.
