2002 WEG Selection Trials at Gladstone Begin.

Seidel Knows What's Needed

Seidel, who qualified for the Selection Trials with two of Dick and Jane Brown's horses, earned 70.44% with Nikolaus 7 for second place, and 65.60% for seventh place with Foltaire. Seidel rode the Browns' Graf George in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Foltaire in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He said that in today's class with Nikolaus, all of the trot work was good and that "everything in canter was relaxed."

He said the first piaffe was "not so good" but the other two were "pretty good" and the last pirouette was not as tight, but throughout the test the horse was relaxed. Seidel has had the ride on the 13-year-old Westphalian gelding for only a year. "The longer I ride him, the better he gets," said Seidel, pointing out that it takes time to learn all the "little things" about a horse. "It's a matter of getting to know him. I'm still in that process." Seidel described Nikolaus as "so exuberant" and "so much horse." He was pleased with the test and the percentage, though he said that for the class, the judging was "a little all over the place." In his second ride, Seidel said Foltaire felt a little tired and had obvious mistakes in the ones and pirouettes, but that his piaffe and passage were "better than he normally does."