by Domini Morgan
The Dressage Supporters Club devised an ingenious scheme to encourage
judges to be more helpful to competitors. Last summer, all competitors
were invited to nominate one judge from List 4 or 5, who they felt
had given the most constructive comments on their dressage score
sheets. The eight who were nominated most frequently were partially
sponsored to go on a dressage viewing trip to Germany. Domini Morgan,
the international British judge, escorted the party, and reports
on the success of the trip.
The first stop was at the Theodorescu establishment. We watched
about eighteen horses, all but five of them under six years old,
being ridden by Herr George Theodorescu, his wife, daughter Monika,
and several apprentices.
For our benefit, the riders demonstrated that they could ride the
horses "down to the ground" whenever they wished, with
no trace of the weight being on the forehand. Nor did they lose
any of the activity of the hindlegs, when an imperceptible request
from seat and leg asked them for the desired outline, with a supple
back.
Frau Theodorescu gave us all lunch and then the group moved on
to the Warendorf stables of Herr Willi Schultheiss. The dressage
horses remain his interest, while his wife trains racehorses.
He showed us a new arrival, one of the top-priced young horses
from the Verden auction, a chestnut stallion with tremendous bone
and movement. Next door, we admired the marvellous facilities
of the D.O.K., particularly the enormous indoor school for the
dressage horses, /where
Herr "Bimbo" Peilicke was teaching three students.
A four hour trip took us to Aachen, where we were overwhelmed
by the welcome and generosity of the show organisers, led
by Heir Fischer and Fraulein Hagemann, who had arranged for us
to have the best seats for every session over the three days, absolutely
free. This allowed us to sit either behind E on the long side,
or behind A.
On the first day, there were
two Medium tests, and an S
test of Intermediaire I
standard. The first M test was
restricted to horses between five and seven years old, ridden
in a snaffle, and the second was for horses over seven years
old, to be ridden in a double bridle.
Walido, the seven year old winner of the first test, was not bred
in Germany. Possessing three excellent paces, he sailed easily
through a test which demanded many transitions, lateral work and
single flying changes, and caused the British visitors to break
the Tenth Commandment!
The S test gave them a chance to try their hand at marking movements
that they had never previously judged, such as canter pirouettes.
This led to a great deal of discussion and some fellow-feeling
with the three official judges, all German, whose placings also
varied — 10th, 1st, 4th; 1st, 6th, 6th; or 16th, 3rd, 9th.
The following day's shortened version of the Intermediaire
II was not restricted to horses from the Rhineland, as the earlier
classes had been, and several horses which had competed internationally
were having an outing before Dortmund. Monika Theodorescu,
on the attractive black nine year old, Gany-
medes, had a comfortable 30 mark lead over Gina Capellmann and
the consistent Ampere, with the third and fourth placed horses
two and four marks further behind. Johann Hinnemann, bronze medallist
in Toronto with Ideale, was the highest placed man, taking fifth
place with Rubin.
The Fasching Carnival procession and fancy dress jumping which
followed, was unexpectedly hilarious. A pillion rider wearing a
vivid canary and black costume and shock-headed wig, jumped clean
over the barrier and front row of seats to plant a greasepaint
kiss on the cheek of a startled British judge.
Next morning the top twenty competitors rode the new Grand Prix
test, and once again it was a dual between the first two in the
SII. This time the result was much closer, but the order remained
the same, Ganymedes and Monika Theodorescu with 860, beating Gina
Capellmann on Ampere who had 847, and Johann Hinnemann and Rubin
who were third with 825.
The frequent transitions in the new test are very demanding.
For the first time, rein-back is not included, and the trot half-passes
are slightly easier, but it certainly requires a very well-trained,
supple horse if high marks are to be earned.
The British judges left Aachen, with the memory of some lovely
fluent dressage and above all, of the helpful friendliness of everyone
they met. They are also very grateful for the Dressage Supporters
Club's scheme which enabled them to see many medium and advanced
horses, and not just the stars who compete at Goodwood.
12 DRESSAGE REVIEW
