E-Mail This Page

Wednesday August 8, 2007

Cayenne and Deveraux, 2007 World Young Dressage Horse Champions

Revanche de Rubin and Noble Dream Take Silver and Bronze

The silver medal went to Juliane Brunkhorst on the delightful Revanche de Rubin, an Oldenburg stallion by Rubin Royal x Landadel, bred by Harli Seifert. The bay stallion, who was doted his name out of "revenge" because the Oldenburg licensing committee did not accept him as a breeding stallion, has a beautiful silhouette with a gorgeous top line and a naturally uphill conformation. The trot tour was very clean and well regulated as well as balanced. In the canter, the horse showed fantastic ground covering extensions.

The judges commented that Revanche de Rubin showed huge potential for the future and stood out in the trot work with his beautiful transitions. Brunkhorst and Revanche scored an 8.52 in total, good for silver.

The young Juliane Brunkhorst said, "I can hardly believe this. I came here with no expectations and never thought it would be possible for me to win a medal."

A delightful surprise was the French Jessica Michel winning the bronze medal. Year after year, the Germans and Dutch have dominated the World Championships and it was a relief to see a rider from a smaller dressage nation storming to the top and taking the spotlight on her own account with fantastic dressage.

Aboard Mrs Dallara's Oldenburg bred mare Noble Dream (by Caprimond x Donnerhall), Michel scored 8.34 in total which ranked her third. The mare is a very elegant, light footed mover and the rider was able to keep a super light, soft contact the with the bit that was truly a text book example.

Michel was ecstatic about her bronze medal. "I'm very happy to be here. My goal was to qualify for the final and with this medal I believe I achieved much for France. I'm happy for the mare, the owner, myself, and especially for France," she said.

The judging in the 5-year old division at the World Championships was easy to follow and hardly disputable. Maybe here and there they were too generous or too conservative with their points, but their general impression of the quality of the horses and their final ranking of the top 14 were very acceptable. It was a pleasure to hear Stephen Clarke put the finger on the wound where the true mistakes in each test lay and which were the strong points of each horse.