Wednesday September 13, 2006

Sir Donnerhall and Farewell III Win 2006 Bundeschampionate

Farewell III Beats World Champion Damon Hill NRW

The 6-year old division caused some excitement in the final round in which the Westfalian branded stallion Farewell III beat the current double World Champion Damon Hill NRW. German eventing champion Ingrid Klimke put down two outstanding preliminary rounds aboard Mr. Becks' Westfalian stallion Damon Hill (by Donnerhall x Rubinstein). She won both qualifiers with 9.1 and 9.4, but a mistake in the flying changes in the final round caused Sandra Kotter and Farewell III to pass them by in the ranking and top the leader board.

Owned by the Klatte stallion station, Farewell III (by Fidermark x Rubinstein) is a very unpredictable dressage horse with outstanding basic gaits but a temperament one can not rely one. At the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf, Farewell fortunately had his act together having left his rambunctious attitude at home. In the Finals, he scored 8.62, with an 8.70 for trot, 8.00 for canter and 9.00 walk. This was enough to become the 2006 German Young Horse Dressage Champion.

Klimke and Damon Hill earned the reserve champion's title with a minimal point difference. They got 8.60 in total and scored 10 for trot, 8.50 for canter and 7.80 for walk. The bronze medal went to Frank Mohr on the Rhinelander bred Lancelott. Mohr totaled 8.54 points on Lancelott and his mount got 9.5 for trot, 8.5 for canter and 7.2 for walk.

The American owned Hanoverian stallion His Highness (Hohenstein x Donnerhall) placed seventh under Inga von Helldorff. Doug and Louise Leatherdale's black beauty scored 8.30 overall and got good notes for his gaits: 8.5 for trot, 9.0 for canter and 7.0 for walk. The judges gave him 8.5 for suppleness and 8.5 for general impression.