The opening ceremony on Tuesday evening was a spectacular official start, as always, to the World Equestrian Festival and the main competition is now well and truly underway
Each year Aachen nominates a partner country and this year it is Denmark. Of course Australia has strong ties with Denmark through Tasmania’s very own Mary Donaldson, also known as the Princess Royal Mary of Denmark.
Each year on the day before the opening ceremony, the partner country is bid a traditional welcome in the market square of Aachen, a beautiful old square in the historic part of the town. The Princess Royal Mary was accompanied by the Royal Danish Hussar Regiment and the Danish Royal Bodyguards dressed in their striking uniforms.
On Wednesday evening the Princess Royal together with Princess Benedikte of Denmark drove into the Main Stadium in the Landau Carriage of the Danish Royal Family to officially open the CHIO Aachen. As a part of the impressive Opening Ceremony, Emmelie de Forest, the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest from Denmark provided musical entertainment performing live, among others, her winning song ‘Only Teardrops’
Video clip courtesy of Horse&Country TV
The Danish theme is continued with The Danish Village in the CHIO-Village where you get a chance to experience the offerings of Denmark including autograph sessions with the Danish equestrian teams, interviews, food tastings and even Royal visits. You can visit Living Home - a real size, modern Danish holiday home that not only gives its visitors a feeling of what holiday in Denmark is like but also represents the best of Danish design and sustainable energy solutions. Among the Danish exhibition stands are also an ECCO pop-up lifestyle store and a static display of three Royal coaches, including the famous Gold State Coach. The Royal Stables have brought three Royal coaches to Aachen; the famous Golden Coach (1840), Christian IX and Queen Louise’s Golden Wedding Coach (1892) and the Landau (19th Century) giving a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the coaches outside Denmark
The ECCO FEI European Championships 2013, the European Championships in jumping, dressage and para-dressage, are to be held in Herning, Denmark in August this year. This will be Denmark's biggest sporting event of 2013 so there is obviously a lot of focus on promoting the Championships at another of the world’s biggest equestrian events, here at Aachen.
On the competition front yesterday the dressage divas took centre stage in the Deutsche Bank stadium with the Prix St Georges and the Grand Prix CDI. In the Prix St Georges Victoria Max-Theurer of Austria riding Della Cavalleria OLD (above) took the top spot just ahead of Patrik Kittel, Lydal Oatley’s husband and therefore honorary Aussie, riding Deja.
Click here for full results of the Prix St Georges
The Havens Horse Feeds Grand Prix CDI saw the return to the top of the 12 year old stallion Desperados ridden by Kristina Sprehe for Germany. The impressive horse that won team silver at the London Olympics sustained a muscle strain at the 2013 World Cup Final in Gothenburg in April and has since been rested from top competition. Yesterday he won the main class on a score of 73.72 ahead of Victoria Max-Theurer, having a good day this time riding Blind Date (72.61), and Hans Peter Minderhoud riding Glock´s Romanov (72.59)
Click here for full results of the Grand Prix CDI
In the show jumping Alvaro de Miranda won the Preis der StädteRegion Aachen in memory of Landrat Hermann-Josef Pütz riding Show Show (above). Ireland’s Dermott Lennon on Hallmark Elite was second, just 0.15 seconds behind the Brazilian rider known as Doda and the very in-form Laura Kraut of the USA riding Jubilee d´Ouilly was third.
Talking of in-form, British superstar showjumper and Aachen debutante Ben Maher won the WARSTEINER-Prize, Prize of Europe in the main arena. Riding his recently acquired mount, the grey mare Cella by Cento (who won many great events at Aachen and was officially retired here in 2006) Ben raced around the jump-off round to win the two round class on a time of 44.07, ahead of Dutch rider Harr Smolders riding the mare Exquis Walnut de Muze and third place went to French rider Pénélope Leprevost riding yet another mare Nayana.
Click here for full results of the WARSTEINER-Prize, Prize of Europe Jumping
After the dressage phase of the Four in Hand Driving, Australia’s Boyd Exell (above), a winner here last year, was in second place behind America’s Chester Weber in the individual competition. The CAIO-4 continues today with the Prize of Martello Immobilienmanagement GmbH & Co. KG, where drivers will perform a second dressage test as the first phase of team competition.
32,700 people attended the event today, including 7,500 children who were there at the invitation of Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein for the traditional CHIO School Children’s Day.
The eventers are settling in to their home for the next few days and Thursday sees the first horse inspection so you can be sure that Libby will have her Canons poised!
Click here for our full photo gallery from Wednesday
Live streaming video from Aachen here
