Horses and Dreams meets Great Britain at Hagen was a great experience.
As the guest nation Britain had a big presence at Hagen so it was understandable that the competition between the German and the British riders in the dressage arena was pretty hot. The hosts for the show, the Kasselmann family created a marvellous venue with super conditions for both riders and spectators. It was extremely luxurious if one was lucky enough to experience the VIP area and thanks to a very kind Hayley Beresford, we were able to do just that. The VIP marquee was situated between the competition and warm up arenas so you could watch the competitors as they went through their warm up and into the competition. Plenty of food and drink make this very pleasurable, especially when you are watching some of the world’s best dressage riders.
The competition was divided into two sections, Grand Prix for the GP Special and Grand Prix for the Kur. Australia was represented in both sections with riders wanting some competition experience at this level before the selection event at Mannheim this week - probably a good idea as only Lyndal Oatley managed to put together a test that would warrant selection.
The winner of the Grand Prix Special was indeed special with Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro winning with a world record breaking score that certainly put a big smile on the faces of the British team. What was also great to watch in the other section was the return of Totilas to his absolute best. Since his change of ownership the new combination of horse and rider has been the subject of much discussion but he is still very much a crowd favourite, proved by the fact that there was no standing room to watch his test. Certainly we were not disappointed and the battle for Olympic medals will be fierce.
The trade show section was amazingly diverse; fashion, stone garden furniture, wines and of course all the saddlery and riding ware. We have managed to access some of these products for Birds Equisports which we will be showcasing at Equestriad and the Melbourne Three Day Event.
On returning to the UK we were devastated to learn that Badminton had been cancelled. Of course this was very disappointing for us but it is having a huge effect on the local economy as they are pretty geared to having a huge influx for this event. We tried to get back to Germany for Mannheim but this sadly proved way too hard. Let’s hope the weather is kinder so we can enjoy the Windsor Horse Show next week.
Cheers Mim and Bird
