Dorothee Schneider and Vainquer Win the Grand Prix at the Anakenenhof

Master rider and Olympic champion Dorothee Schneider had certainly hoped her first Grand Prix with her horse Vainqueur (French for “winner”)—after more than a year away from competition—would go more smoothly. On the other hand, it was a cause for celebration just how little her 13-year-old son of Vivaldi let himself get distracted in the end.

After glancing warily toward the corners of the arena before the cross-over, he pulled himself together and danced through the cross-overs all the way to the judges, where he was asked to halt and line up in reverse. Vainqueur stood as steady as a German oak. But the backing up would have to wait. First, he had to shed some weight. Once that was done, he willingly allowed himself to be directed backward, trotted smoothly, and demonstrated both a beautiful extension and a very successful passage.

Just before the piaffe, the next unexpected situation arose. Vainqueur lost a piece of his bridle—presumably a foam pad—which fell right in front of his hooves. No problem—he continued to piaffe undeterred and quite lively, transitioned quite well into the passage, and then moved at a rhythmically precise, though not overly expansive, walk.

The pair also had some nice moments during the gallop sequence, such as in the zigzag half-passes and the pirouettes—especially the first one. The double changes showed significant improvement. The single changes, however, were still quite inconsistent, and on one occasion the horse did not complete the jump, which cost them double.

All in all, the couple scored 73.733 percent.

The other placegetters

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Fabienne Müller-Lütkemeier was delighted to take second place (and first place in Judge Harry Lorenz’s C class) with her 15-year-old Westphalian mare, Valencia As. They were just four points behind Doro Schneider and Vainqueur. Behind them came a championship pair: Nuno Palma E Santos, competing for Portugal, in the saddle of his horse Fortunity by Franziskus. The two competed at last year’s European Championships in Crozet. Today, they scored 73.233 percent.

Ranking fourth in the over-73-percent group were the two runners-up in the Louisdor Prize, Thomas Wagner and Escolar’s Emil. They scored 73.133 percent.

Speaking of the Louisdor Prize…

World Team Champion Frederic Wandres is also competing in Pinneberg this weekend and brought two horses with him today. One was Imo Pectore, the winner of the Louisdor Prize leg in Hagen. The nine-year-old son of Ibiza placed sixth with a score of 72.033 percent. Just a few weeks ago in Rastede, he also claimed victory with a score of over 74 percent. He has clearly gained confidence. There’s still plenty of room for improvement in his piaffes.

One particularly exciting horse, however, is the 14-year-old Hanoverian son of Fahrenheit, with whom Wandres placed fifth. He goes by the lovely name Fred and is owned by Carrie Schopf, who competes for Armenia and has already ridden him internationally. The gelding has primarily competed in the U.S., where he’s also ridden with Wandres. That was in March, when they won one of the national Grand Prix events with a score of 73.696 percent. Today, the pair made their first appearance in Germany.

Maybe Fred was a little too cold after having had all his recent starts in sunny Florida. In any case, he seemed pretty fired up, was quite responsive to his surroundings, and broke into a gallop several times during the first trot extension. But he also had some truly great moments—for example, the flowing traversals with beautiful cadence and freedom in the shoulders, and his trot in general was very nice. The walk was rather difficult, but that may also have been due to the gelding’s tension. He also showed considerable talent for piaffe and passage, executed very nice flying changes, and his pirouettes were convincing in principle. What’s still lacking is the fine-tuning. Today’s score was 72.833 percent.

You can find all the results here.