Aachen: Blind Date Tenth at his EM Debut
Brilliant EC debut: In their very first international championships, Blind Date took tenth place with 75.20 percent in the Grand Prix of Aachen/GER.
Fotos: Holcbecher
This dressage competition takes place - just like it did at the WEG 2006 in Aachen - in the show jumper stadium and that is a very impressive backgroud for the horses. It was also oppresively hot and humid – but Beate was highly motivated throughout the test, very concentrated and tried hard not to make any mistakes.
I decided on Blind Date for the EC since my EC fifth placed and WEG sixth placed Augustin OLD will not be able to make the trip to the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio/BRA. As in 2008 at the WEG in Lexington/USA, there are very stringent restrictions that prohibit us from bringing the feed that we need for him since Augustin needs a very strict diet after his colic operation. To give Beate a chance to gain some championship experience, we took her with us to Aachen and were very pleased with her. We hoped to qualify for the Special – and we not only managed to do that but also ranked among the top ten which is a great prerequisite for the Special. But then also no reason to get too high spirited. If you watched the Nations Cup both days, you know how high the level is that is ridden here.
For our Austrian team consisting of Astrid Neumayer, Alexandra Slanec and Evelyn Haim-Swarovski, a total of 211.52 points meant ninth place behind the winning team from the Netherlands (235.62 points) as well as the silver winning team from Great Britain (234.22) and the bronze medal winners from Germany (230.91). Unfortunately, Austria just missed directly qualifying for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio/BRA by just 1.2 points.