August 9, 2010–It is no exaggeration to say that Germany has been a titanic force in Olympic and World Championship dressage. The German team has won Olympic gold eight times and is undefeated since 1992. The first World Dressage Championship was held in 1966, and since then 11 team gold medals have been awarded, of which Germany has won 10. The team was beaten only once, in 1970, by the Soviet Union. Germany has a long cultural tradition of breeding and training the world’s best dressage horses, but the emergence of superstars from their Dutch neighbors to the west has shaken the Germans’ hold on the podium. Germany regained its superior position at the 2008 Olympics, one year after an unfamiliar silver medal result at the 2007 European Championships. At the 2009 European Championships in Windsor, England, Germany slipped to bronze–behind the Dutch and an ecstatic silver-medal-winning British team.
Klaus Roeser is the head of the German team selection committee for the WEG 2010. He will be the team’s chef d’equipe. Realistic about his team’s greatest rivals, he has faith in his country’s riders and horses to rise to the occasion yet again. “Totilas and Parzival are incredible horses. There is absolutely no doubt about it,” he says. “For us this is a new situation and we have to face it. For the sport itself, it’s the best thing that could happen. Every day it’s a new game and a new chance. The only thing we have to do is go for it.”
Immediately before the 2009 European Championships, the German team lost several key pairs to unlucky circumstances, the most high profile of which was the doping suspension that sidelined Isabel Werth. Werth’s ban with the German Federation was lifted in time for her to ride on the German Nation’s Cup team at CHIO Aachen in early July. It was an important outing for potential WEG team members with the selection committee watching performances closely as the date for announcing the team approached. Roeser says that Werth’s suspension didn’t affect her relationship with the members of the selection committee: “I think everybody will be happy to see her back on the team. We really need her. There is no doubt about it.” Werth is one of the most successful international dressage riders in history with five Olympic and six world championship gold medals.
A member of the gold medal WEG team in 2006, she is also the defending world champion in the Grand Prix Special with Satchmo. She has been competing both of her top horses Satchmo, who is now 16, and Warum Nicht, 14, and could be headed to Kentucky with either horse.
In response to the Dutch threat, the Germans have revised the structure of their selection process and have added trainers to the team program. The selection committee consists of Roeser, team trainer Holger Schmezer, veterinarian Dr. Cordula Gather, Reinhardt Wendt, of the German Federation, and breeder Ulrich Kasselmann. “The riders from the Netherlands are really in front of it, and that’s a new situation for us,” says Roesler. “As long as you are successful everything is good. If not, you have to work hard and look after the structure and know what must be changed to have success in the future again.”
Schmezer remains as the team trainer, but he is now in charge of two other team trainers who work on a daily basis with the riders: Jonny Hilberath is in charge of the top riders and Jurgen Koschel is responsible for riders under 25 years old. Roeser says the Germans are also working with the German Sport University in Cologne. “One point is the mental fitness and the other is the physical. The sport is getting more and more complex,” he says. If the Germans have been lagging behind the Dutch in this respect, they are making every effort to catch up.
In the past, up-and-coming riders in Germany often had the impression they had no chance to make teams because the cadre structure was quite rigid. But when so many of the senior combinations were unable to compete at Windsor, Germany had to turn to its younger talent. The new Cadre lists will now be revised more often, according to riders’ recent results. As of April 2010, the first level of the German Cadre, the Championship Cadre, included only the names of the four riders who competed at the 2009 European Championships: Susanne Lebek on Potomac, Ellen Schulten-Baumer on Donatha S, Monica Theodorescu on Whisper and Matthias Alexander Rath on Sterntaler Unicef and Triviant. At 25, Rath represents the future of the German team, and Windsor was his first team appearance.
With Werth back in competition in June (she also gave birth to a son last October), she is sure to return to the first tier of the Cadre once she is again permitted onto the German team.
The German B Cadre is a much longer list and includes the names of both past team members and newcomers: Anabel Balkenhol/Rubin Royal and Dablino, Alexandra Bimschas/Wito Corleone, Gina Capellmann-Lütkemeier/Baldessarini, Carola Koppelmann/Le Bo and Insterburg TSF, Christoph Koschel/Donperignon, Anja Plönzke/Le Mont d’ Or, Ulla Salzgeber/Wakana, Hubertus Schmidt/Donnelly, and Alexandra Simons-de Ridder/Wellington.
The B2 Cadre includes Sabine Becker/Lamarc WRT, Marion Engelen (Kerken)/Diego, Ingrid Klimke/Damon Hill NRW, Dieter Laugks/Meggle’s Weltall VA, and Ludwig Zierer/Weltino. The cadre lists don’t include Werth’s 2008 Olympic teammates Heike Kemmer on Bonaparte and Nadine Capellmann on Elvis because neither pair has been competing recently. Bonaparte suffered a minor injury last summer, but Kemmer hopes to bring back the 17-year-old for one more World Championship appearance in 2010.
The cadre lists will be revised once the first round of outdoor CDIs is over. As Roesler points out, everyone has a chance to make the team, even those who have not been in the results over the last few months. “Our spirit is that everyone has the same chance, and no one is too young or too old. New names could always come onto the list,” he says. Compared to any other country in the world, the Germans are still world leaders in one very important respect, and that’s depth.
Selection of the German WEG dressage team members is a discretionary one, based on observation of performances at major CDIs through the spring including CHIO Aachen, and culminating with the German National Championships in early August. The German team will be named a few days after that and will have a training camp in Germany. The horses fly to Kentucky with most of the other European horses just 10 days before competition begins.
Roeser says that while the Germans understand the magnitude of the challenge they face against their rivals, he looks forward to watching this next great contest unfold. “For me personally it is important to have a good team spirit like we had at Windsor,” he says. “In spite of our problems, the team stuck together very well, and it was a fantastic atmosphere.” Whether Germany successfully defends its world championship title for an eleventh time or not, one thing is certain: It will send some of the world’s best human and equine dressage athletes to compete at the WEG.
