Is Werth loosing ground, or are the competitors getting stronger?
For the World Cup final, Werth became 2nd in the Grand Prix beaten by Laura Graves with Verdades, last weekend she came 2nd in Grand Prix Special in Hagen beaten by Sönke Rothenberger with Cosmo, and today Dorothee Schneider and her 10-year-old Faustus won the Grand Prix Special at Mannheim.
A sign of "health" for the dressage sport
Is it a sign of "weakness" from the queen of dressage, or are the field of other strong combinations just getting better?
H2R think it is a combination of both. Seen from the "sideline" Werth has been in top of everything with her 3 top horses for the last two years, and right now is facing that the strongest competitors "scents blood" if they can do a top error free test when Werth might loose points during her test.
And it does not look like Werth has something "new" in the pipeline, like a new star for the big tour right now. But you never know - Werth is there for the sport and is for sure always dangerous and valueable for the sport when she enters the centerline.
Today´s Grand Prix Special at Mannheim - Werth fails and Schneider is clear
Today Don Johnson was not really in the mood for dancing all the way together with Isabell, eventhough they always seems to have a kind of agreement in the ring. But today Don Johnson said no thanks for the first piaffe. He just rejects and goes backwards, but then Werth is telling him what to do and mission is completed. Costly both for the piaffe itself and the transitions, but far from a clear line from the judging panel scoring 4 - 3 - 6 - 1 - 2 for the piaffe. 71.404%.
Dorothee Schneider manage to keep her young and still quite inexperienced Faustus with her and all the way with very nice qualities and without errors. Victory scoring 74,872% with just 7 points between highest and lowest from the judges.
Next placements
Both Borja Carrascosa with Ein Traum and Emma Hindle with Romy del Sol having some smaller issues during their tests, but both horses showing good qualities, and for Romy del Sol and Emma Hindle they are slowly getting there with the experience. This mare just have a sweet spot by H2R.
See the entire results here.
