This year's CDI4* at Hagen might have been the place where Horses and Dreams were due to meet Russia, but it was newly married Brit rider Laura Tomlinson (neé Bechtolsheimer) who stole the limelight with a meteoric win in the Grand Prix Special on Sunday 21 April riding her ever-faithful partner Mistral Hojris.
Clearly the time that she and Alf have spent away from the competition ring since the London Olympics back in August 2012, while Laura focused on her March 2013 wedding to polo player Mark Tomlinson, has done absolutely no harm to the solid partnership.
Together they performed a near foot perfect qualifying test in the Grand Prix de Dressage class on Friday 19 April posting a score of 79.064% to land themselves right into first position nearly 5% ahead of the second placed combination, and qualified to ride the Grand Prix Special two days later. Alf looked absolutely on top form and much younger than his actual 18 years.
It was obvious to see the emotion in Laura’s face after completing her final salute and thanking her mount - perhaps she couldn’t quite believe that this year could get any better, but as always Alf wanted to show her that there’s a reason he will always be her number one man.
Going in to Sunday it was hard to think that things could get any better – but Laura and Alf managed to top themselves in the Grand Prix Special, with every single judge placing them first and a score of 81.021% - over 6% higher than Danish rider Lone Bang Larsen who took second place with her ride Fitou L.
Also at Hagen representing Team GBR was Michael Eilberg, straight from his time at the NAF Five Star Winter Championships, contesting two of his rides – Half Moon Delphi and Marakov.
Michael and Marakov joined Laura and Mistral Hojris in the Friday Grand Prix class, securing a qualifying ticket through to the Grand Prix Special on Sunday in which Michael and his father’s 13 year old Latvian gelding finished in the top ten with a score of 68.146% and eighth place.
On Saturday Michael and the Deverill’s Half Moon Delphi entered the arena for the Grand Prix and left with a ticket to the next day’s Grand Prix Freestyle on a score of 70.426%.
Sunday afternoon turned out to be another top ten placing for the 26 year old from Worcestershire who went on to ride the flamboyant 11 year old mare, affectionately known as Maggie, to ninth place in the GP FSM on a score of 72.950%.
Another Brit riding abroad at Hagen was German based Group 1 rider Susan Pape, who was contesting her own eight year old Dimaggio stallion, Harmony’s Desisderio at small tour in the PSG and Inter I classes.
The pair did well in two strong classes taking 17th place in the PSG and 15th spot in the Inter I.