Great Britain to Field Five German Horses at the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses
The Hanoverian “Secret Agent,” ridden by Charlotte Dujardin, and other German horses will represent Great Britain at the World Championships in Verden
from Dominique Wehrmann 
The Westphalian mare McMary is one of the German horses competing under the British flag at the World Championships in Verden.
Photo: British Dressage Of the five young dressage horses from Great Britain that have been officially nominated for the World Championships in Verden (August 4–9), three come from Germany. The most prominent among them is likely—thanks to his rider—the seven-year-old Hanoverian Secret Agent by Secret-De Niro. The black horse was bred by ZG Sievers and came to Great Britain as a young horse. In the three years that Charlotte Dujardin has been competing with him, she has ridden him in 13 classes, winning twelve times and placing second once. Most recently, they won the “British National Championships” in Wellington with a score of 83.87 percent in the FEI test for seven-year-olds. By comparison, when Fiona Bigwood’s Quinn G. claimed her third World Championship title last year, she scored 81.650 percent.
More German Horses in British Colors
Secret Agent isn’t the only horse born in Germany that is now competing for Great Britain in Verden. The same is true of the Westphalian mare McMary by McLaren OLD-Ampere (breeders: Jeron Slot/Dennis Schurink) with Phoebe Peters in the five-year-old class and the Hanoverian stallion Flirtfaktor by Fürst Samarant-Sir Donnerhall (breeders: ZG Klein and Mornesheim) under Annabella Pidgley in the six-year-old class.
The mare McMary has already won the Pavo Cup in the Netherlands—which is also a kind of National Championship—and was victorious twice this year in the classes for five-year-olds at the CDI Tolbert.
Flirtfaktor, ridden by Pidgley, placed second once and third once in young horse competitions in Aarhus, Denmark, last year. This year, he won the “British National Championships” in Wellington.
Two reservists from Lower Saxony
In addition, two horses registered in Germany were named as alternates. One is the Hanoverian Fifty-Fifty by Furst Toto-Royal Classic, bred by Arndt Schwierking and ridden by Annabella Pidgley; the other is the Oldenburg Newton Sylvanite by Toerveslettens Sylvester-Don Schufro, who was, however, born in Great Britain to Lorna Wilson of Newton Stud. He is owned by Fiona Bigwood, who also rides him herself.
Other Nominees
Among the five-year-olds, the mare Toddington Reet Petite was nominated alongside Pavo Cup winner McMary. She is a daughter of the Westphalian champion stallion Valverde, registered with the Anglo-European Studbook (AES), out of a dam by Lord Leatherdale (sire: Glamourdale; breeder: Camilla Alexandra Brogaard) and, with her rider Lilah Gibbs, was victorious among the five-year-olds at the “British National Championships” in Wellington, among other events.
The seven-year-old named Vitaliano, who was nominated alongside Secret Agent, was born in the United Kingdom to Grand McKerron and is registered as a British Hanoverian, but has (more or less) German ancestry, with Vitalis and Dancier on his dam’s side. He is ridden by Adrian Muñoz, who used to work side by side with Raphael Netz for the Werndl siblings.
