Online Magazine: The International Horse Show Olympia.

Imke wins Kür at Olympia

 Imke Schellekens-Bartels, Winner.

The rider ranked 10th in the world, Imke Schellekens-Bartels, won the Grand Prix Freestyle to Music at The International Horse Show Olympia, held from the 12th to the 18th of December 2006.

Imke, 29, was riding Sunrise; the beautiful 11 year old Hanovarian mare by Singular Joke. This up and coming duo danced to perfection to gain a score of 79.550% for The Netherlands. In second place came the legendary Isabell Werth with the aptly named Warum Nicht FRH. With a name that translates to Why Not? it was clear that this partnership exuded confidence and were never going to be far from the number one position. Gaining 79.400% for Germany on this 18hh Chestnut, Isabell-who is ranked 2nd and 3rd in the world-has maintained her iconic status.

 
Kyra Kyrklund from Finland took 3rd place with 78.400% on her part owned Max. It was clear from the beginning that she found it hard to contain her excitement throughout this whole event, which was lovely to see. Her smile lit up the arena and ensured she was one of the evenings top crowd pleasers.

Our 4 British Riders; Laura Bechtolsheimer on Douglas Dorsey, Spencer Wilton on Dolendo, Stephanie Croxford on Mr. President IV and Wayne Channon on Lorenzo CH did the nation proud by coming 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.

 Kyra Kyrklund, 3rd Place

This is the third year that Olympia has played host to such world class equestrian performances which were sponsored by The Berkeley Group plc and supported by, "the bible" of all equestrian magazines, Horse and Hound. Carl Hester and Sandy Phillips provided the commentary during this event, courtesy of Olympia FM. This was the first time that a live radio broadcast was available to any spectators that bought the headsets.

 15 horse and rider combinations from around the world were put through their paces and wowed the audience with their delightful dressage displays of passage, piaffe, pirouettes, half passes and flying changes.

To the untrained eye all the entrants performances were impeccable but top judges Mrs Cara Whitham, Mr Stephen Clarke, Ms Minako Furuoka, Mrs Jennie Loriston-Clarke and Mrs Mariette Withages-Dieltjiens did their job superbly by spotting the minute mistakes that the rest of us were oblivious to.

Earlier that evening Imke gave a Master-class on how to prepare a horse for Grand Prix Dressage, riding the stallion 007. The horse was relaxed and keen to perform, just as well really, as Imke was so engrossed in talking to the crowds in the packed out arena that she lost her way when trying to perform a sequence of flying changes, at canter, across the diagonal of the arena.  The dressage enthusiasts were not put off by her lack of concentration though,  in fact I think she endeared herself to the crowd more in that moment by showing she was human and not infallible.

Isabell Werth,  2nd.

World number one-Anky Van Grunsven, who is 6 months pregnant and thus unable to ride-was also there to give the audience an insight into what makes the best Dressage to Music display. One of her tips was to keep things simple so that you can show the horses strengths to the full without compromising on the beauty element of the test, she said: "Sometimes I think people make the Kür so difficult that it is not nice to look at." As for memorising the test she told us that  paying attention to the music will ensure that you know when the next movement is due, "I really use the music," she said. Her parting words on the subject were, "I really think you should go for emotion." I completely agree and from watching Imke Schellekens-Bartels breathtaking test this week I predict that we have another Anky and Bonfire in the making. 

 

By Melissa Volpi