Less than 2% splits top two nations in FEI Nations Cup at Global Dressage Festival

The pressure was on Christoph Koschel as Germany took the win in the FEI Nations Cup CDIO3* at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival for the second year in a row.

Christoph was unaware of what he needed to score in order to propel Germany to the top spot on the podium. He pointed out an expensive mistake in the half-pass.

“I knew that my score would drop a lot,” he acknowledged. “I was aware that there was no mistake allowed in the canter, so I tried to do my best there. It worked out.”

Leading the team as a rider as well as the chef d’equipe was Michael Klimke alongside teammates Christoph, Lars Ligus, and Frederic Wandres.

“Last year it was a really big surprise, and it motivated us for this year,” Michael said. “We all had a top day yesterday, and today it got very close again, a little bit like last year where Christoph had to ride to a certain point to win. It was a lot of fun to ride here again with these colleagues. We are very happy that we won.”

Germany took the top spot with a final team score of 433.337%, while the team from USA were just behind in 432.265% for silver. Canada won the bronze medal with 409.091% in a contest over two days.

“The first day, I had a really good and clear test. I was very happy,” said Michael, who said Harmony’s Sanrino RHP is competing in only its third CDI.

“He’s a little bit nervous. I must say I was also really happy until the half-pass to the right,” he said of yesterday’s performance attaining scores of 72.652% in the grand prix CDIO3* and 70.755% in the grand prix special CDIO3* (both scores including the +1.5% for competing in the large tour classes).

“I lost it a little bit in the change to the right,” he continued. “I was a bit disorganized. He’s already 13, but he has not much experience. I was more happy with my horse today than with me.”

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