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Aachen First Visit
by Gay Walker Gay
Walker came to CHIO Aachen for the first time, but it won't be her
last. She took in Grand Prix jumping and marathon driving in the
woods in addition to World Class international Dressage.
Wednesday, June 13, 2001
After a traditional German breakfast at our hotel, we left for the Aachen
horse show, a short 20 minute drive away. (I don't think you
could find any
lodging closer than 15 minutes, and the extra 5 minutes is more than made
up
for by the charm of our surroundings.)
CHIO is a huge show, with 3 stadiums going at once, all with the top level
riders
(and drivers). The vendors area is a village in and of itself,
and even has
streets named for famous horses who competed here including Rembrandt! While
strolling through, we found a painting we both loved and bought it.
We watched the Grand Prix CDIO (first group) this afternoon, and enjoyed
the
rides immensely (though I think I had more fun than Bill, who is newer to
the
intricacies and finer points of dressage). Isabell Werth had a
lovely ride
on her new horse, Antony. [Isabell has been bringing Antony up the
levels for about four years, but just retired Gold Medalist, Gigolo after
Sydney last year.] She is a beautiful rider, her aids are small and
unobtrusive -- she really becomes a part of the horse. We weren't
surprised to see that Isabell received a Grand Prix score of 72%+.
Michael Klimke had a nice ride on White Foot. In the medium
canter, White Foot bolted at the change at X, and then looked as if he
planned on jumping the hedge outside the ring and heading for the jumping
stadium, but Klimke reined him in just in time, finishing in fourth
place.
There was an impressive demonstration of dressage work in hand at the
break
by a member of the riding school from Spain. We saw shoulder-in
and half-pass
in all three gaits, the Spanish Walk, piaffe/passage, one-tempi changes
and
levade! All while the handler walked mere inches from the horse's
hindquarters! For passage, the handler was even stepping
BETWEEN the horse's
hindlegs. Talk about mutual trust!!!
Thursday, June 14, 2001
We were up early this morning so that we would have time to stop by a
computer place to get the proper connections to allow us to use the ISDN
line
at the hotel, only to find that today (a Thursday!) is some sort of
Catholic
holiday, and that all the local merchants were using it as an excuse to
take
the day off. All the businesses were locked up tight.
The show, however, was far busier than yesterday and we had to park in the
hinterlands. We watched the qualifier for the jumping Grand
Prix this morning, which had some surprising results. American
Alison Firestone went clear and advanced to the next round, but favorite
Rodrigo Pessoa was unable to get Galoubet over the water jump and was
eliminated. In all fairness, the water was hiding behind a box
so that the horses didn't see the water itself until the last moment. Many
of the riders had refusals there. Unfortunately, the second round and jump
off coincided with the dressage Grand Prix, and so we didn't get to see
it.
The dressage today was wonderful. Ulla Salzgeber, on Rusty, was
placed first by all 5 judges and deservedly so! His gaits are
brilliant, and he has by far the best piaffe/passage work of any horse
we'd seen (and we'd seen them all, since he went last). He did
make mistakes in the one-tempi's (late behind twice), but otherwise there
were no major errors and his extensions (trot and canter), half passes and
piaffe/passage work were brilliant. His changes were also the
most fluent, uphill and through of any of the horses in the class. We
would have placed him first, also.
Friday, June 15, 2001
After a trip into central Aachen to get an adaptor to allow our computer
to
connect via an ISDN line, we went to the Aachen horse show again today and
watched the Nation's Cup. It was very exciting jumping with a
field of
exceptional skill, and the crowd was knowledgeable, and sighed their
disappointment with each pulled rail. We saw each team of 4
riders (except
Brazil, which only had 3 and therefore no "drop score") go once,
and the top
6 teams return for a second round. The tri-partisan crowd (Aachen
sits at
the crossroads of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) saw Belgium win,
with
Germany coming in second thanks to a final clear round by Ludger Beerbaum.
We had our doubts as to whether Ludger would come through when we watched
his
horse refuse to enter the arena and try to back up. Ludger,
however, turned
the horse around and backed it into the arena and then fought with it to
get
it to go forward (the mare tried every direction but!) and over the first
jump within the allotted time, only to jump a clean and VERY fast round.
The skies began to cloud up as the jumping was ending, and by the time the
evening's dressage performance started, it was cold, windy and raining
fairly
hard. Fortunately, our dressage seats were under the roof, so
we only had to
contend with the nip in the wind and too few layers. (It was
well into the
80's earlier in the afternoon, so that we had been sweltering in our
full-sun
seats for the jumping event). We watched the German National
Quadrille
Championships muscial freestyles before surrendering to the weather and
returning
to our car during a break in the rain.
The Quadrilles were really fun to watch. The last two teams
were the
best -- the penultimate because of their creative choreography, and the
last
team because of its precision work. They were SO together -
matched the gaits
of their horses perfectly, and really rode well -- that they received
rousing
applause both at the end of the their routine, and after several of the
movements. Apparently, it's OK to clap and cheer when you see a
quadrille
team perform something you like! And a good thing, too, because
it's hard
not to cheer when you see four horses shoulder-to-shoulder performing
zig-zag half passes complete with flying changes in perfect harmony!
Saturday, June 16, 2001
We went to the Aachen Forest to watch the Marathon Driving Event this
morning. We lucked into a parking spot, as with an estimated
42,000 in
attendance, most of whom had arrived before we did, we would have had to
walk
for miles otherwise.
We watched the teams manage three of the obstacles, which involved high
speed
turns through impossibly small spaces, and threading the needle between
and
around trees, before moving on to the water obstacle. The water
was the most
exciting --- high speed, water flying everywhere, turns, and entering and
leaving
the water at full speed! It seemed a miracle that no one hit a
tree, and that
none of the rigs fell over!
Aachen apparently also considers the Marathon to be quite a party event.
Many of the crowd were picnicking in the Wald (forest) and enjoying
watching the crowd. Getting to the obstacles was a bit
challenging as well—walking through bogs, and dodging cow patties
while trying to make time over uneven ground so as to miss as few of the
teams as possible. Yesterday's weather report had recommended "Gummistiefel"
(rubber boots) and rain gear, but fortunately the expected storm never
materialized, or we'd have been in trouble.
After the Marathon, we returned to the Reitstadion (show grounds), where
we
saw the second round and jump-off of the Winning Round contest (the top 8
riders returned for a jump-off, with fresh scores). Markus
Beerbaum was a
speed demon, and looked like he might break his neck before it was over.
Miraculously, both he and the horse survived, went clear, and were greeted
with deafening applause.
That was followed by spectacular examples of high school movements by the
Riding School of Spain and their Andalusians, and then the Rolex
"Best of the
Champions" which pitted Otto Becker, Rodrigo Pessoa, Alexandra
Lederman and
Jeroen Doppeldamm against each other. It was a type of
competition we'd
never seen before, because each jumped four rounds, starting with their
own
horse and then rotating horses. As a tie-breaker, Otto Becker
and Jeroen
Doppeldamm had to do a jump off on their own horses and Jeroen won --
though
more because he still had some horse left than anything else. Up
until that
point, Otto's horse had clearly been the more talented jumper but the
stallion was clearly out of oomph, and took down rails on the first 3
jumps,
had a refusal and also received time penalties for a total of 17 faults.
The horses stayed in a warm-up area that was made with fences at one end
of
the arena between rounds, and the riders had only 3 minutes to ride the
horses before jumping the rounds, and were permitted only 2 jumps. It
was
fun to see how each "tested" a strange horse. Otto
Becker, for example, was
more interested in response to lateral aids, while Alexandra Lederman
really
tested the half halts. Even more interesting was watching Otto
Becker's
stallion who was excessively interested in Alexandra Lederman's in-season
mare. We were afraid the stallion would hurt himself over the
practice jumps
a few times, though the riders seemed oblivious and Rodrigo Pessoa even
stood
the stallion next to the "interesting" mare while he had the
farrier fix the
stallion's sprung shoe. (There was a farrier right in the
warm-up area, and
he put at least one shoe back on each of the horses over the course of the
contest!)
Sunday, June 17, 2001
The last day of competition came too soon but the finale -- the Grand Prix
Kür, featuring the top 15 riders from the Grand Prix/Grand Prix Special,
and it was quite the crowd pleaser. Competing in front of a
nearly full house, the riders braved changeable weather which ranged from
sunny and warm, to windy, rainy and cold often with both extremes present
during a single ride.
The riders from Spain were the consummate showmen, playing the crowd for
all
it was worth both during and after their rides. To a one, they
truly danced
to the music and showed the art of dressage in its truest form. If
the crowd
could have voted, the Spaniards would easily have been the favorites
(though
locals Nadine Capellmann and Alexandra Simons de Ridder were also very
very
popular), and Rafael Soto (on Invasor) played his moment of fame to the
fullest, throwing his top hat into the crowd at the end of his ride.
[Note: Nadine Capellmann won the Spectator's Choice for dressage rider at
Aachen.]
Ulla Salzgeber, riding Rusty, had an exquisite performance - full of
power,
drama, and technically superior. Nadine Capellmann and
Farbenfroh, a horse
that is truly magnificent even at the halt, gave them a run for first
place with only one % point separating the top two places (83.59 - Rusty,
82.51 Farbenfroh).
Isabell Werth's Antony and Anky von Grunsven's Gestion Idool were also
excellent, but in their youth are no match for Rusty or Farbenfroh. We
did,
however, especially enjoy Isabell's ride which began to "Here Comes
the Sun"
because it coincided with a break in the clouds and some welcome sun --
sun
which left as Isabell exited the ring, not to return for the remainder of
the
competition.
We were thrilled to have experienced CHIO Aachen first hand. The
level of
competition is on par with the Olympics and World Equestrian Games, full
of pageantry and constant celebration. We
WILL return to CHIO next year!
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