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Final Day: Dressage Results

The Dressage competition at CHI AL SHAQAB 2016 started bright and early on the fourth and final day of this equestrian extravaganza.

 Five sections of Para-Dressage started the proceedings at 8am, with 22 riders coming forward to display their Freestyle Dressage in front of the three judges. The contest required competitors to display their own sequence of dressage movements to their own choice of music.

The final Grade 1a was won by Latvian rider Rihards Snikus, who displayed harmony with his young horse King of the Dance. Snikus was born with cerebral palsy and took up riding as part of his therapy, going on to become the first rider to represent his country at the Paralympics, in London 2012. His impressive performance in the Freestyle was awarded a mark of 73.917%. Second on the podium was Norway’s Jens Lasse Dokkan with 73.750% on Cypres, the horse with whom he won both the Team and Individual Para-Dressage competitions over the last two days.

Nicola den Dulk scored her second win in the Grade Ib for the Netherlands with a score of 74.083%. And, after winning on the first day Pepo Puch from Austrian had to settle for runner-up spot, again missing out by a whisker with his score of 74.000%.
Dutch rider Rixt van der Horst posted her first win at CHI AL SHAQAB and another win for her country. Her score of 76.333% was also the leading score of the Grade II and the whole Para-Dressage competition, placing her in contention for a place on the Dutch team at this year’s Paralympic Games.

Grade III saw another new winner, this time South Africa’s Phillippa Johnson-Dwyer, who scored 73.500% to beat the winner of the previous two events, Susanne Jensby Sunesen from Denmark, by 0.5%.

It was the German national anthem that sounded for Grade IV rider Carolin Schnarre’s win in this class. Her score of 71.417 saw her take a healthy 3% lead over yesterday’s winner Camilla Christensen.

The Team Competition was won by the Netherlands, who look to be serious challengers for the top of the podium at the Rio Paralympics. This is a sport which the British Para-Dressage squad has dominated since it’s advent into the Paralympics in 1996. Whilst there were no British competitors this week, results at CHI AL SHAQAB 2016 emphasise that the Dutch are becoming a force to be reckoned with.

It was, however, a case of Rule Britannia in the Grand Prix Special. Alice Oppenheimer put yesterday’s disappointing Grand Prix behind her to claim top spot with her score of 72.431 on a horse bred by her family. Headmore Delegate is known as “Del Boy” after the character in the British TV Series “Only Fools and Horses” because he is a “really big trotter.”

The Grand Prix Special was a consolation competition for the seven riders who had not qualified for the Freestyle from yesterday’s Grand Prix. Oppenheimer was less than satisfied with her horse’s performance last time out, suffering from tension at the beginning of her test. However, he made her long trip from the UK worthwhile with his efforts in the Special.
Her score was nearly 5% ahead of Marina Mattsson from Sweden, who finished second on her horse Beckham with 67.627.

The CDI 5* proved quite literally to be poetry in motion. Spectators were delighted with 15 dressage performances, as entertaining and masterful as might be expected from riders of this calibre.

Grand Prix winner Patrik Kittel’s dominance of the dressage at CHI AL SHAQAB 2016 continued with a fabulous Freestyle win. His score of 82.550 clinched him a comfortable win and top prize of 25,000 euros on his flamboyant mare Deja.

The Swedish rider achieved a number of 8s and even 9s from the five experienced judges, who are all accustomed to judging the elite of the dressage world. Kittel is a regular visitor to CHI AL SHAQAB and had much praise for the event, not just as the best for riders and horses but also for the grooms, the unsung heroes and a vital part of the team behind equestrian sport at this level.

A delighted Judy Reynolds from Ireland scored two personal bests this week, topping her third place in the Grand Prix yesterday with a second in the Freestyle. She is left hoping a score of 79.700 among other creditable results here, have secured her a ticket to Rio. With her horse Vancouver K, Reynolds is in strong contention for one of the final individual dressage places before the cut-off date of March 6th 2016. The pressure was on for her to deliver this week, and deliver she did Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl finished a close third on 79.475 with ‘Zaire’, a horse she rates as potentially one of her best yet.

At the post-show press conference, the riders were united in their praise of the hospitality, facilities and competition at CHI AL SHAQAB, and fully intend to return to this special event.