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2006 World Cup Finals
Laura Bechtolsheimer Wins Consolation Finals in Amsterdam
April 23, 2006
 The
21-year old Laura Bechtolsheimer won the consolation
finals at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, April 22, 2006. Aboard her father Wilfried's
Hanoverian gelding Douglas Dorsey (by Donnerhall x
Salem), Laura scored 73.525% and placed first in a
field of
six riders who rode the B-Finals Kur to Music in the
RAI expo center Saturday morning.
Riding to Elvis Presley tunes and 'Big Spender', Bechtolsheimer
and "Doug" excelled in passage - extended trot
combinations and lovely piaffes. The massive liver
chestnut gelding became a bit strong in the hand at
the end of the ride and the collected trot looked too
passagey, but Laura's ride stood out by its nice choreography
and fluency.
Bechtolsheimer was beaming during the award ceremony
and the 15-year old Douglas Dorsey behaved like a gentleman
when the trophy was handed over, but he transformed
into a frolicky youngster during
the
victory
lap. He was a fox on the run and it took two rounds
for Bechtolsheimer to collect him again, but her smile
quickly returned on her face. "It was the most amazing
experience of my life with horses," she was quoted
saying.
 American
Leslie Morse and her Swedish warmblood stallion Tip
Top (by Master) placed second with 71.450%. Morse
rode her Pirates of the Carribean kur which has a high
degree of technical difficulty. Half passes in passage,
extended
canters followed by double pirouettes, tempi's on the
circle; the sturdy Tip Top did it all. Although the
dark bay
did lose some impulsion in the piaffes, overall
Morse put
down a very decent ride with her 12-year old stallion.
"For him [Tip Top] to come to a venue
of this size; he did a great job," said a lively Morse
in the press conference. "I changed my warm up and
philosophy for the ride today. He's a hot horse and
the temperature difference between the warm up and
the arena is 12°. I put ice water on points to refresh
him. I have to keep trying different things so he can
step up. It's all about 6 and a half minutes. The whole
master game is where to build highlights in your test
and know how to build an audience," she philosophized.
 Swedish Kristian von Krusenstierna, who found out
two weeks ago that he got a spot in the World Cup
Finals, placed third with 71.200%. Von Krusenstierna
put in a very clean ride in which the constant soft
and light contact with the bit was a pleasure to see.
Unfortunately, Wilson made a mistake in the two tempi's
and there was some loss of impulsion in the piaffe.
Russian Elena Kalinina ranked fourth with the Russian
bred Royal Black Label (Randa x Weston). The winner
of the Central European League Finals expected more
from her World Cup Finals in Amsterdam, as she did
not make it to the A-finals. In the B-finals, she
rode
a mistake
filled test with errors in the tempi's changes and
a loss of rhythm in the extended trot. Trained by Jan
Bemelmans in Germany, Kalinina rode the Pradar owned
Royal Black Label to a 70.950% score.
View more photos of the B-Finals here
by Astrid Appels
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