Photo: FEI/Cara Grimshaw
Defending series champions Isabell Werth and her magical mare Weihegold OLD have cruised to victory in the sixth leg of the FEI World Cup Dressage in Amsterdam.
‘Power and collection’
The duo floated through their Freestyle test to score 88.540, almost a full percent higher than their winning mark on home turf in Stuttgart in November.
“Weihe was really fantastic today,” said a thrilled Isabell. “I can’t describe the feeling of this power and collection, she’s like a metronome – we can do whatever we want!”
‘High hopes’
Edward Gal was second on his exciting young stallion Glock’s Zonik. It was only the 10-year-old’s third Freestyle test and Edward was delighted to be awarded 81.860.
“It’s five weeks since we finished third at Olympia and there is a visible improvement,” he said. “He’s getting stronger and stronger and more motivated. Suddenly we are making big steps forward and I have high hopes for him for the future.”
Just behind Edward was Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her 17-year-old stallion Unee BB on 81.195. Jessica is now in second place on the Western European League leaderboard behind Sweden’s Patrik Kittel, who finished fourth with Deja.
Title defender
As the title defender Isabel doesn’t earn points at the qualifiers, but she must compete in at least two legs of the Western European League with the horse she intends to take to the final in April. With two wins in the bag for Weihegold she is now turning her attention to her back-up ride, Emilio who topped the line-up in Lyon in November.
“Obviously Weihe is my first choice, but Emilio will go to the last two qualifiers in Gothenburg and ’s-Hertogenbosch,” she explained.
The next leg of the Western European leg is in Neumunster, Germany on 18 February.
You can watch FEI World Cup Dressage: Amsterdam online when it premieres on 31 January at 8pm on Horse & Country TV and Amazon Video. It’s also available to watch on Sky 253.