At the dressage championships in Balve, Dorothee Schneider and Showtime won the title in the special for the second time after 2019. Meanwhile, Isabell Werth is very angry with herself.
Isabell Werth was very angry and she showed it, which is not usually her style. “I have to take it all on myself”, said the most successful rider in history, who, with the highly talented Quantaz, took the unusual third place in the Grand Prix Special at the dressage championships in Balve behind Dorothee Schneider with Showtime and the surprise second Frederic Wandres with Duke of Britain occupied.
Quantaz, this powerful mix of macho and genius, has not been in a special for a year. “It really went through my head and I’m really annoyed that I didn’t use all my experience to prepare him properly for this test,” said Werth. You can only try to learn from it: “I’m also really sorry for the horse, because he has developed so incredibly since last year.”
Quantaz fails several times
After a brilliant start to the program, Quantaz had made several mistakes, especially in the one- and two-man changes. “He didn’t find his rhythm from the canter tour, you just have to practice that,” said Werth, who describes the twelve-year-old gelding as the new number one in her stable after Bella Rose and Weihegold retired. But while the rider can spontaneously change his program during a freestyle, the procedure in the Special is precisely specified, so there was no chance of designing the lessons differently.
Dorothee Schneider and her majestic Showtime didn’t have these problems, after all the dark brown Hanoverian gelding has four years more experience under his belt than Quantaz. Schneider and “Showi” showed a flawless performance that was rewarded with 83.686 percentage points. “We’re actually both a bit shy,” said Schneider, who even shed a few tears of joy at the award ceremony: “But when we realize it’s time, then we turn it up.”
Wandres initiates debate about World Cup occupation
Frederic Wandres, rider at Hof Kasselmann in Hagen in the Teutoburg Forest, did the same. With the Duke of Britain, the 35-year-old relaunched the discussion about filling the team for the World Championships in Herning in August. National coach Monica Theodorescu didn’t want to be carried away by any predictions: “We’ll discuss that in detail from the beginning and end, after all we still have Aachen ahead of us.” By then, Quantaz will definitely have the Special back on.
