A Perfect Start for the German Team at the U25 European Championships in Pilisjaszfalu

Being the first pair in a dressage competition is always a somewhat unfortunate starting position. Unless, of course, your name is Katharina Schuster and you have a reliable horse like her Qence L under your saddle. Then you can use that to your advantage and effortlessly post a personal best of a whopping 71.206 percent in the Intermédiaire II. The pair delivered a flawless and harmonious performance that no other pair would surpass today. This makes Schuster the overnight leader for Germany in her first championship.

Pia-Carlotta Gagel and Riccio came closest to her score. The daughter of five-star judge Henning Lehrmann knows how to ride so as not to lose a single point, and so they scored 70.941 percent.

Team standings, as in the Young Riders category

In the U21 division, Germany tops the rankings after the first part of the team competition, followed by Denmark and the Netherlands. The same is true for the U25 riders. The only difference is that the top Danish rider has placed behind the two pairs from the leading team.

Ida Kristine Björn and her 13-year-old son Hotson make a lovely pair, and he—a tall bay—is a very talented horse who had several standout moments in his performance. They likely would have scored more than 70.588 percent had Hotson not been too tight in the head-and-neck position and behind the vertical for large portions of the test—while wearing a snaffle bit, by the way.

The best Dutch pair was Tessa Kole and the 11-year-old KWPN gelding Hexagon’s King Robert, a highly elegant chestnut with wonderfully supple movements. After the trot test, it still looked as though Kole and the Capri Sonne Jr. son would take the lead. But in the canter, she wasn’t quite able to keep him on his hind legs as well as she’d hoped, and when errors in the flying changes were added to the mix, they finished in fourth place with 70.265 percent.