Caroline Roffman and Sagacious HF (Stockimageservices.com)
Weber Maintains Lead Following Cones Phase, Roffman Is Second in CDI-U25
Aachen, Germany – Strong performances continue from the U.S. competitors at the 2013 CHIO Aachen. In the CAIO-4 competition, Chester Weber maintained his Individual lead following the cones phase. Caroline Roffman rode Sagacious HF to a second place finish in the CDI-U25 Grand Prix Test, while Laura Kraut had a second place finish of her own with longtime partner Cedric.
Dressage
Caroline Roffman made quite a statement in Aachen’s Deutsche Bank Stadium with Sagacious HF in the CDI-U25 Grand Prix. With the Hyperion Farm, Inc.’s 14-year-old Royal Dutch Warmblood gelding, Roffman (Wellington, FL) rode a lovely, flowing test with quality piaffe and passage movements. The pair earned a score of 68.953% as the first combination to come down centerline in the Preis der Liselott und Klaus Rheinberger Stiftung class to finish in second place.
In the CDI4* Big Tour competition, Susan Dutta and Currency DC performed the Grand Prix Special in the Lindt-Preis class. She and Tim Dutta Inc.’s 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding moved well between the challenging sequences of movements in the test, earning a 67.042% to finish in sixth place.
Roffman withdrew her own Her Highness O from Aachen CDI4* Intermediaire I competition for veterinary reasons. Roffman, Team Veterinarian Dr. Rick Mitchell, and Chef d’Equipe Robert Dover had the welfare of the horse as top priority.
Driving
CAIO-4 competition continued Friday in Aachen with the Prize of Soers cones phase, which counted towards Individual standings, and following its completion Chester Weber remains atop the leaderboard.
Weber (Ocala, FL), driving a team he co-owns with Jane Clark, left all the balls in place but collected 1.19 points for just exceeding the time. The four-time FEI World Championship medalist was the winner of both Wednesday and Thursday’s driven dressage phases and looks to continue his domination in Aachen.
Weber leads the individual standings on a score of 32.39, two points ahead of reigning FEI World Champion Boyd Exell of Australia.
Also competing for the U.S. is Jimmy Fairclough (Newtown, NJ) with a leased team from Koos de Ronde. He stands in 25th place after collecting 22.09 points in the cones on Friday.
Competition continues Saturday with the marathon, which will be the final phase in Individual competition and the second portion of Team competition.
Following Thursday’s driven dressage, the U.S. lies second on a score of 98.5 behind the Dutch Team who lead on 87.29.
Jumping
Laura Kraut continued her streak of success this summer with a second place finish in Friday’s RWE-Preis von Nordrhein-Westfalen. On Cherry Knoll Farm Inc.’s Holsteiner gelding Cedric, Kraut (Royal Palm Beach, FL) cleared the lengthy sixteen-obstacle course of German course designer Frank Rothenberger with a clean, efficient first round.
She carried that success into an exciting jump-off and put together an aggressive, nimble round, but wasn’t quite able to catch Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum. On Chaman, Beerbaum’s 38.12s effort was almost a half second faster than Kraut and Cedric’s 39.77s round.
Also representing the U.S. were Beezie Madden and Abigail Wexner’s Cortes ‘C’. They had a couple of unfortunate rails down and finished in 27th place (from a field of forty-eight) with eight faults.
Eventing
The fifth and final discipline hosted at the 2013 CHIO Aachen kicked off Friday, with many of the top eventers from throughout the world going head-to-head. Two of the three phases of CICO3*competition were held as elite combinations performed their dressage tests and went to task over a demanding show jumping track.
The U.S. will head out onto Saturday’s cross country in sixth place with all to play for. The four Land Rover Competition Grant recipients represented the U.S. admirably on Friday in Aachen’s electric atmosphere.
Follow the 2013 U.S. Teams here.