2006 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

August 8, 2006

After Uzzo's finals ride, commentator Christoph Hess praised the horse for its "elegant and lightfooted" way of moving. The panel of judges scored him 9.0 for trot, 7,8 for canter, 8,6 for walk, 8.7 for submissiveness and 8.8 for general impression. Their overall mark was 8.58.

8.58 was an excellent score, but the field was still open and everybody was certain they hadn't seen the winning ride yet. Anne Svanberg's Hermes, Ulf Möller's Sir Donnerhall, Minderhoud's Uptown and Sjobeck's Shantiana were still to come and most of them were horses with the potential to beat Uzzo. However, one after the other got a lower score and when Shantiana was about to enter the ring, one thought came to mind "Is Uzzo going to win this?" and yes he did. Shantiana got 8.48 and placed fourth. What a thrilling finals, it's just wonderful when the outsider wins once in a while.

Van der Meer was ecstatic and could not believe what just happened. The award ceremony was, therefore, a beautiful, emotional prize giving and a couple of hours later during the press conference, van der Meer was still beaming. "Never would I have thought that I would come here and become the world champion," he said. "It's unbelievable."

Text and Photos copyrighted Astrid Appels/Eurodressage - No reproduction allowed without permission

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