First Top 12 final in Frankfurt

Zonik Plus and Freestyle enchant

Dressage 28.12.2025

from Dominique Wehrmann

Barehoof dancer Zonik Plus also enchanted everyone in Frankfurt. Photo: sportfotos-lafrentz.de

After Stockholm failed to host the event, the Top Ten Final of the world's best dressage riders also seemed to be in danger. Isabell Werth, President of the International Dressage Riders Club, took the initiative and brought this special competition for the best in the world to Frankfurt. The Top 10 Final became a Top 12 Final, and the premiere could not have gone better, thanks to two pairs in particular.

It has to be said, it should have been a top 12 final, but it wasn’t. However, as France’s Corentin Pottier caught a nasty cold shortly before the start of the tournament, he had to cancel and no one was able to step in at such short notice. As a result, only eleven couples were at the start. Nevertheless, the visitors to the Frankfurt Festhalle were treated to some top-class sport. After all, the gold, silver and bronze medal winners from the European Championships in Crozet were among those present and presented their horses in a way that drew standing ovations from the spectators and moved the riders to tears. At least those in the top two places.

For the new European Champion, Belgium’s Justin Verboomen on his beautiful Rhineland stallion Zonik Plus, Frankfurt was the crowning glory of an incredible season in which he catapulted himself from zero to the top of the world rankings.

Less than a year earlier, the pair’s star had risen at the World Cup tournament in Mechelen. Anyone who had not already noticed them at their international debut in Peelbergen at the end of November would have taken notice of them in Mechelen at the latest. At the CDI3* in Kronenberg, they were third in the Grand Prix (71.739), but had already won the Special with 74.042 percent. In Mechelen, they won the Grand Prix with 74.348 percent and came second in the freestyle with 81.730 percent behind the World Championship bronze medal winners Dinja van Liere and Hermès in their first World Cup appearance. That was an announcement. And yet it was only the beginning.

At their very first start at the CHIO Aachen, Verboomen and Zonik Plus left Olympic silver medal winner Wendy behind them under Isabell Werth in her “living room”, and they went one better at the European Championships: gold in the Special and Freestyle. They had not yet overcome two percentage hurdles: the 80 percent in the Grand Prix and the 90 percent in the freestyle. They had already achieved their first 80 percent in the Grand Prix (or 81.195 percent) in Lyon. They went one better in Frankfurt.

Getting in the mood at the Grand Prix

They won the Grand Prix here with 81.587 percent – although Verboomen said that his feeling in the saddle was even better in Lyon and that was what mattered to him, not the percentages. Isabell Werth and Wendy also set a new personal best with 81.456 percent. Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St. John Freestyle were the first pair of the “big three”, but had left the door open for their colleagues with a score of 79.761 percent due to a somewhat dull piaffe and a stumble in the last strong trot. However, this was not to happen to them a second time in the freestyle.

Dressage riding at its finest in the freestyle

Once again, it was the turn of Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and her 16-year-old Hanoverian Fidertanz daughter Freestyle ahead of Verboomen and Zonik Plus. They presented their “Formidable” freestyle from Paris, and it has to be said: rarely has a song title been more fitting. This performance was just that, formidable.

The mare, who had already won bronze for Great Britain as a nine-year-old at the World Championships in Tryon with her trainer Charlotte Dujardin, is a different horse under the Danish rider – more content, more relaxed, less excited and yet still expressive. The pair presented a ride full of harmony, in which Freestyle did not put a foot wrong. And they did so with the highest level of difficulty that the freestyle is peppered with, such as transitions from walk to canter pirouette and later back again. It was a pleasure to watch.

The pleasure in the saddle was obviously even greater. When asked about her dream ride at the press conference afterwards, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour burst into tears: “Normally I have trained all my horses myself and we have been a great partnership. With Freestyle, I had tears in my eyes for the first time today. It was the first time I felt that we had really done it together …”

The judges were also enchanted: they awarded 91.085 percent. But it still wasn’t enough.

Magical Zonik Plus

After Freestyle’s performance, which was met with frenetic applause, the question arose as to whether the European champions would be able to beat it. But Zonik Plus delivered once again. The fascination of this pair lies not so much in their talent for piaffe, passage and pirouettes, which the nine-year-old black horse brings to the arena and presents with unerring confidence. Others can do this too – although only a few can do it with such ease. The real fascination of this horse lies in his proud self-carriage, in the elegance, lightness and joy that he radiates. All of this is underlined by the sensitive guidance of the rider, who merely provides the framework within which this image of a horse shines.

Yes, there are still points that need improvement. There are still moments of tension in the canter. The sticking point was always the single changes, where the stallion’s ears would sometimes go backwards. But even that was more natural in Frankfurt. Verboomen also clearly states that he is still a long way from reaching his goal: “I know we can still improve a lot, more lightness, more flow in the canter.” But “for the moment, we’re just happy”.

So were the spectators. As the pair approached the judges for the last time, Verboomen holding the reins in one hand, the audience began to clap along to the beat of the music. When the pair came to a halt, deafening cheers erupted and the festival hall celebrated the pair with a standing ovation. One of Verboomen’s colleagues summed it up without envy: “That’s just awesome!”

The judges scored the performance with 91.195 percent. If this had been a finish on the racetrack, Zonik would have had a head start over Freestyle. In fact, the outcome could have been different. Three judges saw the mare in front, two the stallion. It was the first time that Verboomen and Zonik Plus had received more than 90 percent – and the stallion is only nine years old.

Wendy with a special ending

Even before the neck-and-neck race between Belgium and Denmark, it was Isabell Werth and Wendy’s turn. Once again Werth’s stately black mare by Sezuan shone in the piaffe-passage-reprises. The traversal movements and in particular the clearly defined differences between passage and collected trot were also convincing, although the mare did not work as smoothly through the body as the two placed in front of her. There were problems in the canter tour, where clear mistakes crept in during both changes. That was a shame. On the last line, Werth once again celebrated the mare with her strengths in “Pi and Pa”. This time, however, she had chosen a different piece of music, the aria Nessun dorma from the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. It was a tribute to Werth’s deceased partner, Wolfgang Urban. Frankfurt was the first tournament since his sudden death at the beginning of October.

In the end, the European Championship bronze medalists scored 87.165 percent. As in Crozet, this meant third place behind Verboomen and Dufour, but ahead of their Olympic and European Championship team-mates Frederic Wandres and Bluetooth, who came fourth with 84.495%. The latter had only achieved a better score (84.568) once before, at the 2023 European Championships in Riesenbeck. This was a pleasing end to the season for them too.

Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour