The German team secured a crisp, clean victory in the third leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Dressage 2013 series on home soil at Aachen . The powerful side were favourites from the outset and lived up to expectations when topping the winner’s podium by a margin of more than seven percentage points over Denmark, while the USA finished third. A total of nine countries were represented at this penultimate leg of the pilot series, which will come to a conclusion at Hickstead, Great Britain in early August.
Reigning Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage champion, Helen Langehanenberg, headed the individual rankings and left the team result in little doubt with yet another lovely performance from the stallion Damon Hill NRW as the competition was drawing to a close. The runners-up from Denmark were well-pleased however. As hosts of the Ecco FEI European Championships in Herning in eight weeks time they came to Aachen with the intention of making the best possible impression and they succeeded, with Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby bolstering their position when slotting into third place ahead of team-mate Anna Kasprzak and Donnperignon in fourth.
However it was Anabel Balkenhol’s solid ride with Dablino FRH, 13th of the 37 starting combinations to enter the arena, that set Germany on the road to success. Posting a score of 77.043 with her 13-year old-gelding, she provided her side with a solid platform and when Isabell Werth steered Don Johnson FRH to a mark of 73.979 and then Langehanenberg produced the only score over 80 percent – 81.128 – that clinched it. Fabienne Lutkemeier’s 71.830 with D’Agostino was the discard score, as the best three scores counted, but German Chef d’Equipe, Monica Theodorescu, said afterwards: “Fabienne is not happy because she made a few mistakes, but she deserved to be on the team and I’m proud of her!”
