Three British riders, plus two British bred horses, competed at the FEI World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses held in Verden, Germany, 6 -11 August.
Together, FEI and WBFSH have organized the World Breeding Championships for Sport Horses (WBCSH) in Dressage, Jumping, and Eventing since 1992, and this year the Dressage Championships attracted a field of 84 talented young horses from 21 countries. Almost 42 percent of the entries were German-born, with 15 competing for the nation of their birth and 20 competing for other countries.
British riders Tom Goode and Susan Pape contested in the 5 year old classes while Emile Faurie rode Patricia Vaughan’s Dimaggio sired Duke Ellington in the 6 year old sections. Duke Ellington is registered under the British Hanoverian Horse Society and was born in the UK in 2007.
Alongside Duke Ellington in the 6 year old classes was the British bred gelding Duke of Britain who was ridden by his co-owner, Germany’s Victoria Michalke (pictured above).
Germany’s Eva Moller and the six year old Sa Coeur stole the show when they became one of an elite group of double champions by adding the Six-Year-Old title to last year’s victory in the Five-Year-Old category.
The Oldenburg Sa Coeur was bred by Gestut Lewitz and originally owned by Hof Kasselmann but sold at last year’s PSI auction for a staggering €2.3m. The gelding’s new Russian owner returned Sa Coeur to Moller so that he would contest the World Championships once again as a six-year-old, and the faith shown in his rider was well-rewarded.
With scores of 9.2 for trot, 9.2 for walk, 8.9 for canter, 8.7 for submissiveness and 9.2 for general impression, the overall mark of 9.04 left the pair (picured right) clear winners.
Lena Stegmann and Scara Boa topped the Five-Year-Old division by earning an overall score of 9.6 including a perfect 10 for submissiveness.
Lena has been riding the German bred mare for less than a year, and the 30-year-old German rider achieved 9.5 for trot, 9.0 for canter, 9.7 for walk, a full 10 for submissiveness along with 9.8 for general impression. She admitted to being suprised by her wonderful result - “we were already happy when it became evident that we qualified for the Championships - I would never have imagined to win!” she said.
British results as follows (including results for Duke of Britain)
5 Year Old Classes
Tom Goode
Horse: Dior
Year of birth: 2008
Sex: Stallion
Breeding: Gribaldi/Hann
Country of birth: NED
Owner: S. Geddes
Class 1. 24th – 7.44
Class 2. 14th – 7.12
Susan Pape
Horse: Quassar du Charry
Year of birth: 2008
Sex: Stallion
Breeding: Quaterback/Hann
Country of birth: GER
Owner: Dr H Hereth
Class 1. 25th – 7.43
Class 2. 11th – 7.34
6 Year Old Classes
Emile Faurie
Horse: Duke Ellington
Year of birth: 2007
Sex: Gelding
Breeding: Dimaggio/BHHS
Country of birth: UK
Owner: P. Vaughan
Class 4. 33rd – 6.66
Class 5. 16th – 6.90
Victoria Michalke
Horse: Duke of Britain
Year of birth: 2007
Sex: Gelding
Breeding: Dimaggio/BHHS
Country of birth: UK
Owners: V. Michalke & KG Hoff Kasselmann
Class 4. 10th – 8.22
Class 6. 4th – 8.60
Images @ FEI 2013