Sunday October 20, 2002

Ulla Salzgeber Reinstated As Number One After First World Cup Qualifier

by Astrid Appels

The small glitch of winning only the bronze individual medal instead of the gold at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, can easily be forgotten now. Ulla Salzgeber has reinstated herself as the leading dame of the dressage world by impressively winning the first qualifier of the 2002/2003 World Cup Series.

With dominating and overpowering presence, did Salzgeber compete at the Dusseldorf Masters in Dusseldorf, Germany. Rusty was his usual self again, showing fluent transitions, a strong piaffe passage tour and with delightfully light bit contact throughout his two tests. Scoring 76.60% in the Grand Prix and 81.01% in the kur to music, Salzgeber was in fact never abdicated as dressage queen. By winning the qualifier at Dusseldorf and with an early lead in the provisional World Cup ranking, Salzgeber is following the same show path as the year before.