|
Belgian
Dressage News
Belgian Young Riders excel in Ksiaz
 The
1999 European Championships have been a success for
the Belgian Young Riders' Team. Even though no medals
were awarded to any of our young riders, some very good
performances have been set by Lawrence Raemdonck and
Veronique de Baecker. While the Dutch Young Riders'
team claimed that in Ksiaz the situation was "as primitive
as Europe looked like 50 years ago", the Belgian team
was full of praise towards the organisation of the 1999
EUYRC. "The organisation was super, although we feared
for it as the event was in the east-block country Poland,"
Veronique de Baecker commented.
All medal chances disappeared when triple Belgian Young
Riders' Champion Vicky Smits withdrew her 13 year old
Belgian warmblood from the competition. Illuster, who
is known for his typical stallion behaviour, enjoyed
crawling over the trellies of his stall during his stay
in Ksiaz. With two swollen knees Illuster could not
compete at his usual top level. Vicky chose to pull
Illuster out of the competition. The pair only rode
the preliminary test and scored 63.67%. 1999 was Vicky's
last year as young rider and she never won an individual
medal as young rider (she won silver as junior rider
in Helsinki). Last year's individual fourth place could
thus no longer be turned into a medal position. Vicky
Smits told junior-riders that she is aspiring to start
at Grand Prix level the upcoming year.
It was Veronique de Baecker and Lawrence Raemdonck
who eventually stole the show for Belgium. Veronique
de Baecker made a successful come-back during the 1999
national show season by winning the Prix St. Georges
at the CDN Brussels. In Ksiaz she and her Dutch warmblood
gelding Herrzas scored 64.44% in the preliminary test,
65.17% in the team test and later won the consolation
finals with a 67.06 percentage.
Lawrence Raemdonck, who is borrowing his sister's horse
Mozart while she's in college, was the only Belgian
competitor who made to the individual finals. With a
63.42% the combination set for thirteenth position and
became best performing Belgian Young Rider in Ksiaz.
Ona de Wagenaere competed below her usual level as
she didn't get over a 63.38% score. While she won the
consolation final at last year's European Championships,
the Oldenburger Apollo could not find the right condition
in Poland.
The Belgian Championships for Pony, Junior and Young
Riders are being held 11th and 12th September 1999 at
Domaine Mon Souhait in Braine L'Alleud
Complete
scores of the 1999 European Young Riders' Championships
|
