Photo of Sandra and Opgun Louvo via the FEI
From Heather Reimer of GermanEventing.de:
Day 1 Dressage It has been a great day of dressage in Luhmühlen with all the German riders putting on top performances on their home ground. Two riders from each team have ridden today and Germany is overnight leader with Great Britain 2nd and Sweden 3rd. Unfortunately for Great Britain, their first rider Nicola Wilson with Opposition Buzz made a mistake during her test, she seemed so thrilled with her halt and immobility that she totally forgot to rein back 5 paces, however Piggy French and Jakata made up for it by riding a really convincing test which put them in 4th place overnight in the individual results and rescued the 2nd place overnight for the British team. Sarah Algotsson-Ostholt (SWE) riding Wega, a beautiful 10 year old grey mare she has breed and trained herself, took the lead just before the lunch break and stayed at the top of the leader board until the middle of the afternoon when Sandra Auffarth and Opgun Louvo, the 9 year old chestnut gelding with whom she won the silver medal in the 4* in Luhmühlen in June this year, put in the best performance of the day.
[Horse and Hound Recap, Individual Results, Team Results, Dressage Photos, FEI TV Coverage]
I spent most of the afternoon standing next to the trainer of the Irish team who gave a non-stop commentary of each test and I must say I have learned a lot about how to ride a dressage test. One of the main tips that stayed in my mind was, to ride a dressage test you need two reins, two legs and weight, at no time should you only be riding with one leg or just one rein, the skill is to balance the use of these five aids and when you can do that you can win!
Day 2 of the dressage starts tomorrow morning at 10am CET. There are still a lot of big names to come not forgetting World Champion Michael Jung and Sam who will be the last pair to enter the dressage arena at 16:26 CET.
I think we will be in for a really exciting day of competition and I look forward to updating again this time tomorrow.
