German team takes the lead in the ARAG Grand Prix

Source :  2006 WEG Aachen

Germany's Heike Kemmer & Bonaparte Photo - 2006 WEG Aachen

After the first half of the ARAG Grand Prix, the German dressage team is holding a comfortable lead of almost five percent. Heike Kemmer achieved the best result of the day (75.792 percent) with her 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding, Bonaparte, in the Nation's Cup, the team classification. Hubertus Schmidt had already "contributed" to the result in the morning with a score of 69.208 percent. The team trained by the national coach, Holger Schmelzer, is thus heading the field in front of the Netherlands (140.042%) and Great Britain (134.917%).

Heike Kemmer was ecstatic: "The atmosphere here in the stadium is fantastic, it really gave me the right motivation." The second best result in the individual classification (71.542%) was achieved by the Dutch rider, Imke Schellekens-Bartels with the Dutch-bred Hanoverian mare, Sunrise. The 29-year-old rider, who came eleventh at the Olympic Games in Athens, was also overjoyed with the good start at her first World Championships tournament. "I am totally happy and I must say I really do have a wonderful mare."