The three Bundeschampionats for dressage horses came to an end with the final of the six-year-olds. Tessa Frank led the Oldenburg stallion Maxi Kraft's Barcelo OLD to the title. The score of 8.7 was enough to relegate the winner of the preliminary competition, Boa Vista FRH with Greta Heemsroth, to silver.
50 dressage horses competed in the six-year-old class, 16 of them qualified for the decisive round, some of them via the small final. The "race" was open, a clear favourite as in the seven-year-old horses could not be identified so clearly in this group. The winner remained in the eight-grade range: Maxi Kraft's Barcelo OLD secured the title and thus the gold medal with a score of 8.7. Tessa Frank masterfully presented the bay son of Bon Coeur (dam's sire Caprimond) bred by Kristine Munch Nielsen. Dr. Dietrich Plewa, who commented on the dressage competitions for the audience for the last time and was officially given a farewell gift by FN Secretary General Soenke Lauterbach, had many words of praise for the new Champion.
"We have seen a decidedly dynamic horse here, with a high degree of elasticity, plenty of ground cover, good impulsion and a consistent cadence on curved lines." For canter and overall impression, the jury awarded 9.0 each (8.7 overall). Behind Barcelo's name addition Maxi Kraft's is the company Maxi Kraft Kran- und Schwermetalllogistik, owned by Maik Kanitzky. The well-known Brandenburg breeder of Sir Donnerhall I and II, among others, bought the horse and made him available to Tessa Frank. "I have been riding Barcelo for one and a half years now. It was love at first sight. I have never had a horse that is always so willing to perform one hundred percent," the 36-year-old enthuses. And the best thing: Maik Kanitzky has promised her that she will be allowed to train the horse in the long term and present it in sport.
The silver medal was secured by the Hanoverian Boa Vista FRH with Greta Heemsroth, who won one section of the qualifier. Last year's Bundeschampioness, who, by the way, descends from Bon Coeur like Barcelo, showed the best trot of the field (9.5), but small faults such as a lunge in the cross canter and imprecision in the walk pirouettes lowered the score for permeability, so that it was "only" silver this time. Nevertheless: another nice success for the breeder and owner Ingo Pape, who was also the Vice-Champion in the classification of five-year-old dressage horses. The stallion Macchiato was also presented by Greta Heemsroth.
Lucie-Anouk Baumgürtel was somewhat unlucky. The 18-year-old highly successful Junior and Young Rider Champion presented the Hanoverian mare Zinq First Vienna FH. The bay Vitalis daughter out of a First Dance dam belongs to her family's Freiberger Hof in Nottuln. First Vienna stepped onto the dressage ricks, stumbled briefly, but then continued the test undeterred. Apparently the mishap had affected Lucie-Anouk's concentration, in any case she took the wrong path on the arena. Dr. Plewa certified that the mare moved "incredibly energetically at the trot and showed significant reinforcement". In the canter, the collection ability is very well visible. The score: 8.7, minus breaking, resulted in 8.5 in the end and thus the bronze medal.
