Grand Prix Special in Munich to Charlott-Maria Schürmann and Dante's Pearl

It was a small but fine starting field in the Grand Prix Special in Munich. Only six pairs competed here, but all six made watching worthwhile. First and foremost Charlott-Maria Schürmann and Dante’s Pearl.

The pair were already on the road to victory yesterday in the Grand Prix when there was a misunderstanding on the last centerline and the ten-year-old Dante Weltino daughter misinterpreted her rider’s careful half parade at X as a request to halt instead of transitioning into the piaffe. There was no such lapse today. Instead, there were wonderfully flowing and smoothly placed and bent traversals in which the mare shone with her shoulder freedom. Okay, in the passenger jumps there were a few tension kicks and the first two piaffes yesterday were more secure in rhythm and balance than today. But these were the only sequences in which the pair fell short of their current capabilities. Otherwise, the mare impressed with her elegance, contentment and eagerness to work, sensitively and effectively staged by Schürmann.

The rider’s joy was rightly huge after the second salute. The judges rewarded the performance with 77.191 percent. That was a new personal best – and perhaps even a pointer towards the World Championships.

As national coach Monica Theodorescu replied when asked whether the pair had recommended themselves for bigger tasks with their performance today: “There were several pairs with prospects at the start today.”

The winners

The WEG in Aachen would definitely also be Raphael Netz’s dream. He and his Johnson son Great Escape Camelot are actually real freestyle specialists and as such placed fifth in the 2024 World Cup Final. In Munich, they showed that they can also do the special. The pair scored 74.298 percent for what was, as always, a fine performance.

Behind her was Netz’ former boss, four-time Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl. The fact that von Bredow-Werndl was suffering from a stomach bug and was not sure whether she would be able to ride at all shows just how well she and eleven-year-old Kismet have grown together in the meantime. “Kismet, you literally carried me through these tests,” she later wrote on Instagram. And she did pretty well. The mare had a real pull in the trot tour – which was unfortunately also missing today in the strong walk. Mistakes in both single changes were also costly. But this was offset by highlights such as in the traversal shifts and the pirouettes. The pair scored 73.489 percent, putting them in third place today.

Behind them, Jessica’s brother Benjamin Werndl and his Louisdor Prize third-placed Quick Decision took fourth place. At times, one would have wished for more flow to the front in the test between the two today. They scored 73.064 percent.

Katharina Hemmer and Special Gold came fifth with 71.362 percent ahead of the Louisdor Prize final winners of 2024, Carina Harnisch and Sheldon Cooper, who received 70.319 percent for their beautiful round, which unfortunately had faults in both the single and double changes.