First Romance and Destacado FRH make headlines

Kronberg – They have repeated it: First Romance, Dorothee Schneider's winning horse from the 2018 NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL, also won the final qualification of "Stars of Tomorrow" after the warm-up test at the Schafhof Dressage Festival. The ten-year-old Württemberg gelding delivered a 75.57 percent performance. Immediately before, the final qualification for this year's NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL was decided and won by the handsome chestnut stallion Destacado FRH (76.34) with Matthias Alexander Rath.

First Romance is an elegance offensive and a horse with great potential, as well as "own ideas", as Dorothee Schneider puts it. In other words, "he sometimes has crazy ideas". This time, the eight-year-old's own ideas were concentrated on the warm-up hall, while in the test arena the Fürst Romancier offspring was completely focused on "teamwork". “If I manage to take this motivation into the arena, then I can simply enjoy it. It is also simply a pleasure to ride this horse,” says the team Olympic champion frankly. The horse’s next goal is the dressage tournament in Bettenrode and there the qualification for the Louisdor Prize of the Schindling-Rheinberger Foundation.

Second place in the “Stars of Tomorrow” in the dressage class S*** with piaffe and passage was taken by Thomas Wagner from Bad Homburg with the nine-year-old Filigrano Marone (73.23) ahead of Annabel Frenzen (Krefeld) with the Rhineland gelding SilberStern, who is the same age. Holga Finken, who came second in the opening test, decided not to take part in the final test with Gino, because Gino was only scheduled to start in the Inter II. Finken was also in Kronberg as a coach for Isabell Freese.

Model student in the NÜRNBERGER BURG-POKAL

Matthias Alexander Rath was himself a little astonished by the seven-year-old model student Destacado FRH in the dressage arena: “We see him every day, he is always incredibly consistent in training, but that he can deliver such a performance twice in a row – wow. I have known him for a very long time and I always notice that he does everything very precisely.” So precisely that his rider sometimes has to smile: “In the warm-up test we made a mistake in the four-way changes because he did exactly what I told him – so it was definitely my mistake.”

As on the previous day, second place went to Dorothee Schneider from Framersheim and the eight-year-old Villeneuve, who improved significantly to 76.04 percent compared to the opening test (also a St. Georg Special). Both chestnuts, Villeneuve and Destacado FRH, are real eye-catchers. This also applies to the dark brown Hugo FH, an eight-year-old KWPN gelding that Marcus Hermes presented in Kronberg and who took third place in the final qualification with 72.94 percent.

Piaff Sponsorship Prize win for Ann-Kathrin Lindner

She came, rode and won twice: Ann-Kathrin Lindner from Ilsfeld, a physiotherapist by profession and 23 years young, won both the opening test and the Grand Prix in the Piaff Sponsorship Prize of the Liselott Schindling Foundation, which was moved from Warendorf to Kronberg from the Schafhof at short notice. With the eleven-year-old FBW Sunfire she received 75.69 percent, a sure victory for the U25 European team champion, who trains with Baden-Württemberg's riding master Karl-Hein "Kalli" Streng. Behind the young rider came Hannah Erbe from Voerde with her own Carlos (74.57). The student, who trained and worked with Heiner Schiergen and Isabell Werth, is now gaining experience with Johann “Jo” Hinnemann. Third place went to Jil-Marielle Becks (Senden). The student rode the 13-year-old Damon's Delorange, which was bred by the family.

A total of 18 riders won this qualification for the Piaff Sponsorship Prize final, which was also a screening for the European Championships for the U25 generation.

Joy about the dressage festival

While Matthias Alexander Rath and his team are now looking forward to the Taunus Talent Auction - the online foal auction - which ends on Monday evening at 8 p.m., Dorothee Schneider said what many were thinking: “I think it deserves a big thank you that the dressage festival could take place at the Schafhof. It is nice to ride there anyway, and it was also carefully planned and implemented under the more difficult pandemic conditions. It is not easy to create something like this in a short space of time.