Isabell Werth and Bella Rose have continued their domination of the dressage world with a win in the CDIO5* Grand Prix at Aachen, scoring 82.783%.
Their test was marred only ever-so slightly by a mistake in the one-time changes and the pair pulled in a total of 26 perfect 10s from the five judges – all for the piaffe, passage, transitions between those movements and Isabell’s riding.
Her German team mate Dorothee Schneider was second on Showtime FRH, with a score of 80.609%, while Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin was delighted to be third on a relatively inexperienced Trakehner gelding, Erlentanz, with 79.152%.
“I’m ecstatic. It’s the biggest show the horse has done and my first season with him, but he’s been an absolute pro and not looked at anything,” says Charlotte. “He’s made my life very easy because he just gets on and does the job for me. It’s a joy to ride a horse like this here.”
Unsurprisingly, Germany has a strong lead in the Nations Cup teams competition after the Grand Prix, on 242.392, with Denmark second (228.174) and USA third (225.392), while Sweden and Great Britain are neck-and-neck in fourth and fifth. To put the scores in a little context though, Germany has its A-team competing, with Helen Langehanenberg and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl backing up Isabell and Dorothee, but many of the other teams are blooding new riders. The US is without its leading stars Laura Graves and Kasey Perry-Glass, while Team GB has up-and-comers Lottie Fry and Louise Bell backing up Charlotte.
In the CDI4* classes, Sonke Rothenberger and Cosmo 59 won both the Grand Prix (81.37%) and the GP Special (82.213%), with Isabell second in both tests with Emilio 107.
The CDIO5* Grand Prix Special is overnight (NZ time), with the freestyle on the final day.
