Belgian victory in the CDIO4* Grand Prix Special in Lier thanks to Wim Verwimp and Jedai de Massa

It looked like a minor sensation in the Grand Prix Special in Lier. Maria Caetano led until the last rider for Portugal on Hit Plus, her 14-year-old Bretton Woods son, who comes from the same stud as the double European champion Zonik Plus. The pair’s ride was characterized by the great movement possibilities of the long-legged dark bay, especially in the trot tour, even though the contact was very firm at times. Caetano and the Portuguese sport horse gelding have already been victorious in Grand Prix Specials, but in CDI3* competitions on the Iberian peninsula, so without any significant competition. Today was a completely different story and with 73.042 percent, the pair were also able to celebrate a personal best.

Home win also in the special

But the last pair was Wim Verwimp and the twelve-year-old Jedai de Massa, also a Portuguese sport horse, in which KWPN blood was mixed with Lusitano blood on the dam’s side via sire Don Juan de Hus. The plan to combine the movement possibilities of the “normal” warmblood with the piaffe-passage talent of the Lusitanos worked quite well with Jedai de Massa. In any case, this gelding can piaffe and passages like a metronome and that’s what he scored with today – especially on the last line – but also in the pirouettes and safe changes. A but here too was the contact, albeit for different reasons than with Hit Plus. Jedai de Massa’s frequently open and “rattling” mouth was noticeable. In the end it was close, but with 73.107 percent the victory remained in Belgium – just like in the Nations Cup before.

Maria Caetano and Hit Plus came second. Third place went to the British duo Susan Pape and Harmony’s Giulilanta. The latter scored 72.468 percent, beating the Swedish newcomer Navarro under Therese Nilshagen (72.319).

The German results

The best German pair with exactly 70 percent were Tobias Nabben and Forster, who had made mistakes in the two-man changes. Otherwise they could have achieved more than ninth place out of the 18 pairs in the special today.

Evelyn Eger and Global Power initially cantered incorrectly out of the passage, but quickly corrected this. Another small blunder occurred during the transition from collected canter to collected trot, which was shown over walk. The piaffe (and the collected walk before the first) were again the weak point of an actually beautiful test with highlights in the transitions between passage and strong trot as well as the series changes and the pirouettes. The pair finished with 69.128 percent and twelfth place.

Thomas Wagner and Escolar’s Emil made a mistake in the strong trot. They had opened the test today with 68.830 percent and finished in 14th place.