 
|
|
Saturday April 3, 2004 Anky van Grunsven Sets the Tone At the 2004 World Cup Finals Nikolaus' Rebirth in Europe
World Cup Finals' debutant Leslie Morse had a handful with her Dutch warmblood Kingston (by Voltaire). While previously trained by Kyra Kyrklund, Morse had now taken an extensive training programme at Klaus Balkenhol's in Rosendahl prior to the event.
On Sunday, the actual Finals are contested in the Grand Prix freestyle. The top twelve placing combinations can battle for that tomorrow noon. In the morning, a consolation freestyle will be ridden. Kristy Oatley-Nist, Leslie Morse, Sven Rothenberger, Belinda Trussel, Nicole Ahlefeldt Laurvig Lehn and Irina Lys will be riding these B-finals. by Astrid Appels of Eurodressage.com (for those who can reach the WDR channell in Germany, the World Cup Finals is broadcast tomorrow round noon) Related Links   |
In a strong fourth position was American Guenter Seidel on Nikolaus. Seidel has been training with Balkenhol in Germany for a month now and Nikolaus seemed very ready for this show. The Westphalian gelding by Weinberg has never before shown such an expressive trot with lovely knee action and good impulsion. Strong points of Seidel's Grand Prix test were the flying changes and trot and canter extensions. Nikolaus' major problem has always been tension in the piaffe and passage. This time the passage was more fluent, but the piaffe could still have shown more relaxation and rhythm. The American duo scored 71.333%.
In their test, the dark bay licensed stallion Kingston seemed to overpower his rider, for instance by taking of in the extended trot. They finished 14th with 65.875%.
|
| Contact Dressagedaily ©1997-2006 horsesdaily®.com and dressagedaily.com All Rights Reserved horsesdaily®, scoresource® and Phelps Photos® are registered trademarks of Phelps Hathaway Enterprises,Inc. |