Source:  News Release

The wow-factor of world champion Sezuan

ERMELO - He was already a two-fold world champion, and the Danish Warmblood-stallion again proved to be invincible in the first Longines World Breeding Dressage Championships for seven-year-old horses. With this result the Blue Hors Zack-offspring, bred by Linette Jaeger, made history in Ermelo. What an expression and what a power. Dorothee Schneider rode the black pearl of Gestuet Peterhof in a technical masterpiece to the winning score of 89.005%: a hat-trick for the black stallion that received a 10 for perspective by the judges.

 “Wow!”, summarized spokesperson of the judges Mariette Sanders-Gansewinkel the assessment of the jury. “Sezuan has a very energetic, swinging and uphill trot in which he shows a good cadence: a 9.8. The fantastic walk has a beautiful four-beat and also receives a 9.8. The canter is his best gait, with enormous power. But today he was a little tense right before the flying chances, therefore ‘just’ a 9.4. A technical piece of art, but the tension in the changes and the hind legs together in the first pirouette result in a 9.3 for the submission. And the perspective… well, that could only be a 10!” Dorothee Schneider was on cloud nine with her third world championships title: “This is something extraordinary. I want to thank the owners that I can ride him. Sezuan is a sensational horse with three excellent gaits that always wants to work with me in the test and always wants to make me happy. I have been working at Gestüt Peterhof for about 3.5 years now and I think it’s incredible to ride such a horse. The Nurnberger Burg-Pokal is probably also on the planning for next year. Afterwards we will work on the piaffe and passage and prepare for the next step. We take things slow and let Sezuan be a horse. We will see when the time is right and he is ready for the next level.” In addition to the prize money, Dorothee Schneider also received a magnificent watch of Longines. “I would like to thank the sponsor for and compliment the organization on this beautiful world championships. It was amazing, well done! “ 

The silver medal went to the SWB-gelding Fiorucci HT. Sire Florencio won the 2004 and 2005 World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses. The chestnut that was bred by Absolut Dental AB, was presented impeccably by the pregnant Jeanna Hogberg – she is due of twins this November – and scored 80.253%. The highest grade was for submission, no surprise after the lovely test of the Swedish rider. A fantastic horse to watch: the fluent trot has a beautiful silhouette, in which Fiorucci remained nice contact: 8.7. An 8.5 for the fluent canter with lots of balance. The walk deserves some attention and received a 7.2 because it could show a tad more activity and more consistent length of strides in the collection. However, the 9.2 for submission and 8.8 for perspective brings the total to a great score, enough for silver. “Fantastic, I was already surprised to place third in the qualification and now we even got silver! He is such a nice horse and performs the test with such ease, so I am really happy with this result.” 

Stefanie Wolf presented the by Herberth Werth bred Saphira Royal (RHEIN) and obtained the bronze medal. The daughter of San Amour out of a dam by Monteverdi suffered from tension in the qualification, which resulted in a mistake in the canter, but today the bay mare made her comeback. In a focused and harmonious test she showed her quality in the three basis gaits: an 8.4 for the expressive trot, an 8.9 for the walk and an 8 for the canter. The submission was rewarded with a 9 and for the perspective mare of Johan Hinnemann received an 8.7. The average of 78.641% resulted in a place on the podium. “Today I tried to ride her like I normally do. This went well, it is unbelievable that actually won a medal. Simply amazing. Saphira Royal was fantastic and honestly I still cannot believe it.”  

Result Longines final seven-year-old dressage horses:
1) Sezuan (DWB, Zack x Don Schufro) – Dorothee Schneider (Ger) – 80,005%
2) Fiorucci HT (SWB, Florencio I x Rubinrot) – Jeanna Hogberg (Swe) – 80,253%
3) Saphira Royal (Rhein, San Amour x Monteverdi) – Stephanie Wolf (Ger) – 78,641%

With the prize giving ceremony of Sezuan and Dorothee Schneider the first edition of the Longines World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses had a magnificent ending. Aat Both, chairman of the organising Foundation: We look back on a very successful first edition of the Longines World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses in Ermelo. For four days we have enjoyed the best young dressage talents. We congratulated a dream of a champion of the five-year-olds and the two world champions of the previous edition both showed their progress and proved to be invincible once again. As a matter of fact, we saw a lot of quality across the entire field of participants. 

 “Verden” is a phenomenon, this competition has a fantastic reputation, so we realized that we brought quite a challenge upon ourselves. One we happily sunk our teeth in. We are very proud to have been the first to organize the championship for seven-year-old horses. Thanks to Longines and the Province of Gelderland we were able to organize a well-rounded event, during which we wanted to provide the riders and their horses with the best facilities and offer the visitors an attractive programme on a beautiful site with plenty supply of food, drinks, shopping and a vibrant atmosphere. We have received great comments from the participants, exhibitors, officials and visitors and we hope to welcome everyone back next year in Ermelo.

Project coordinator Joris Kemperman is also content with the event. “We, as the organization, are very satisfied. We can rely on our sponsors that agreed to supports us all three editions in Ermelo. Additionally, many enthusiastic entrepreneurs have expressed their interest for our exhibitor village. They also enabled us to provide the visitors with a wide range of beautiful products: from riding gear and jewelry to Dutch ‘poffertjes’ and smoothies.” 

“Numerous participants showed interest in the classes for five- and six-year-olds: so much that there were no spots left to hand out the wildcards. Also the championship for seven-year-olds featured a large field of competitors. Compared to last year, we were able to double the prize money to a total sum of 50.000 euro. We also had the first World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses at which Longines could award one of their magnificent watches to a dressage rider. But above all, we are extremely happy that people from all across the globe came to Ermelo to celebrate this first edition in the Netherlands. The whole terrain was filled with a buzzing crowd and the seated tickets for the main arena were sold out for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In total, we welcomed nearly 20.000 visitors from 27 different countries. We are satisfied about the event, although we still would like to implement some improvements for next year so we can offer the visitors even better facilities next edition. We hope that everyone enjoyed this Dutch version of the World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses and that they will come back to Ermelo next year, then during the first weekend of August. 

Jan Pedersen, president of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses responded: “When it was decided to organise the World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses in Ermelo, I was a bit sceptical. Verden has always been a great success and has been able to develop over many years. However, I must say this is rather fantastic. The whole venue looks impeccable and it is well-organised. I received solely positive reactions from both the riders and the audience. It is obvious that the organisation invested a lot to make this a grand success. Especially the main arena looks incredible and the horses also seem to like it, they are all very calm.”

“Every year I am impressed with the quality of the horses, it appears to improve each edition. Remarkable, because you would expect it to stop at a certain point. It proves that our breeding is still developing. This year we also saw absolutely fantastic horses, it is definitely more normal now to have horses scoring over 90%. Every year there are a few horses that stand out. In the five-year-old class the winning mare is truly something special, but also the 6- and 7-year-olds have a phenomenal top horses. By now we have established a strong connection between successful young horses at these championships and their future in the Grand Prix. I expect to see most of them back in the Grand Prix and lots in future Olympic Games.” 

Next year’s Longines FEI/WBFSH World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses in Ermelo takes place from the 3^rd to the 6^th of August.