2000 European Pony Championships

German Pony Dames Rock the House in Mother Country Land

True riding potential was present amongst the German pony team dames. In the lead was Marion Engelen on Dornik B who won both the preliminary and team championship test. The approved breeding stallion has such spectacular movements that no judge can miss. Eva-Maria Sprehe came in second twice on the experienced euro championship pony Cash and Go. Third place went to the Aachen citizen Christine Thomas on the 7-year-old Diddi Keeps Cool NRW. Title defender Kira Kroncke settled for a fourth place after two test. In the preliminary Kroncke had to ride on a tough footing which became deep and heavy after a severe rain storm during the first competition day.

The final results were a complete spin-off of the first two tests. Individual gold was for the beautiful Dornik B who was professionally ridden by Marion Engelen from Kerken, Germany. The combination Eva-Maria Sprehe/Cash and Go, trained by Nicole Uphoff, received silver. "Eva-Maria is a very good rider who will definitely make the difficult change to the junior riders division next year," trainer Uphoff said. The bronze eventually went to Kira Kroncke on Conrad. The combination had a difficult start, but was able to switch gears and move up to a fourth spot in the team test. In the finals the bronze was theirs but there should have been more in store for the experienced pair. "Her test was too careful in order to score really high," Endres explained. Danish Lisbeth Pedersen scored constantly on Cha Cha, a pony which has a whole string of euro championships entries on its achievements' list as a Swedish team pony. Christine Thomas dealt with a rather tired Diddi Keeps Cool in the individual test and had to give in two spots. An overall fifth place was a bit disappointing for this very strong and upcoming pair.

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