Britain’s Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris won the grand prix and grand prix special at Hagen CDI in Germany, 22-26 April 2009, beating Germany’s Matthias Alexander Rath riding Sterntaler Unicef as well as Nadine Capellmann on Elvis VA.

 

The 14-year-old 17hh Danish Trakehner gelding “Alf” won the grand prix with 72.681% and then the special with 74.375%.

 

“This was our first outdoor show of the season. He was so relaxed in the grand prix, I was a bit slow to make sure there was enough energy in the canter work. In the special, he was there for me immediately and his work was really expressive and powerful,” said Bechtolsheimer.

 

She also competed Andretti H, who took fourth place in the grand prix with 68.553% and was fifth on 71.35% in the freestyle.

 

“It was about twenty-five degrees when I was warming him up for the freestyle and I basically overcooked him a bit. We are still getting to know each other. He is an absolutely top horse and has a lot of potential that has yet to be realised. It is easy to ride a faultless and correct test on him, but I need to reproduce that in the competition arena,” she said.