Werth, Rothenberger and Dufour shine at freestyle dressage

Yesterday’s performances in Gothenburg provided a lot of emotion during the final freestyle dressage which again saw the gold medal (the third for her in this European championship) to the German rider Isabell Werth on Weihegold OLD with a stratospheric percentage of 90.982%.
This was the European championship that has confirmed the quality of young athletes like Sonke Rothenberger: just 23 years who after the gold in Rio 2016 took silver on Cosmo with 90.614%. Werth’s team-mate already took gold in Gothenburg and having started out in show-jumping pushed Werth all the way in the European Freestyle. Danish rider Cathrine Dufour has also made the step up from the junior ranks, like Rothenberger took part in Rio and also being European junior champion in 2012 and 2013 with the Danish team. Riding Atterupgaard Cassidy it was an impressive bronze medal  on her debut at the European seniors – a second after the Special GP, finishing ahead of well-known names such as British Carl Hester (4th ranked with Nip Tuck 80.614%) or Swedish Patrik Kittel (9th with Delaunay 77.350%).
Cathrine Dufour and Atterupgaard Cassidy (Caprimond) are the new mix of dressage specialties, loved by the public for the symbiosis and the empathy that they show in the rectangle in each of their performances, not only representing the best Danish performance in this discipline, but they occupy the seventh position in the world rankings.
23-year-old Sonke Rothenberger and 25 years old Christine Dufour, German and Danish, have overturned the dressage habits where the outcomes are often locked up ahead of the final, with their thrilling performances, fueling the suspense and turning on the excitement to raise the technical level amongst the young riders who are beginning to make their mark in the discipline.
 The complete ranking
Cathrine DUFOUR (DEN) riding Atterupgaards Cassidy
Photo FEI / Claes Jakobsson
Marzia Cucchetti