Saturday July 2, 2005

Damon Hill and Florencio In the Lead at the 2005 World Young Horse Championships in Verden

Text and Photos by Astrid Appels

The Westfalian stallions Damon Hill and Florencio are in the lead in the 2005 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses in Verden, Germany. Both licensed stallions respectively won the qualifier test for the Finals in the 5 and 6-year old division. Remarkably they were the only two horses to achieve a score higher than 9.0.

The liver chestnut Damon Hill (Donnerhall x Rubinstein) was the shining star in the 5-year old class. Under the Munster based Helen Langehanenberg, he showed an extremely rhythmical and active trot. His walk had two hooves overtrack and his canter was naturally uphill and very ground covering. There was a bit of tension in the counter canter and a small rhythmic lapse in the extended trot, but Damon Hill was just breath taking. He scored 9.26 and was far ahead of the second placed Rusty (Rubinstein x Weltmeyer) who received a very generous 8.72 for a test with tension.

In the 6-year old division, Florencio was just a league of his own. Under the Dutch Hans Peter Minderhoud, the dark bay stallion showed bounce beyond compare in the trot. Both the collected and the extended walk were outstanding and the canter work was just lovely. The two flying changes were ok. With 9.38 the duo is well on its way to prolong their title of World Champions.