There are a few "must-do-in-your-lifetime"
dressage vacations in the world. One is surely Vienna for the Spanish
Riding School. Another near the top of the list is where I went
this July: Aachen, Germany, for the annual Weltfest des Pferdesports.
The Aachen show universally ranks as the largest in the world
for the FEI disciplines with riders from more than twenty countries
taking part. Running nearly a week, it features Nations Cup show
jumping with teams and individuals competing in front of over 70,000
spectators. It has a full CAIO for four-in-hand Combined Driving.
And at the same site, in its own plush, close-to-the-action stadium,
it offers dressage from Prix St. Georges to Grand Prix, with teams
from many countries competing in the GP and GP Special. Crowds for
dressage are smaller but still huge by US standards. The evening
performance of the German Quadrille Championships and Sunday’s culminating
Grand Prix freestyles filled the stands with more than 6,000 fans
who seemed to have a pretty clear idea of what they were watching.
Many of the riders whom you probably saw at the Atlanta Olympics
competed, often bringing their younger horses along for the St.
Georges and I-1 or the "little Grand Prix" (as opposed
to the CDIO class where we saw the entire German team). Unfortunately,
only a few Dutch riders showed this time. Reportedly, Anky and Co.
are saving their head-to-head battle for Sydney with the hopes of
an upset Gold Medal in September. (Interesting: Isabell and Gigolo
won the freestyle with an 84+%. A few weeks before in Holland, Anky
and Bonfire had recorded an 86%!) Anyway, we did see a fairly strong
looking Danish team and, continuing on from Atlanta, some very pleasing
rides from the Spanish.
I don’t know about you, but whenever I want to re-create my
Atlanta Olympic experience, I put the tape in my VCR and set it
out in the front pasture. Then I adjourn to the living room couch
and try to watch the specks moving around in the distance! Aachen
isn’t anything like that. The Warm ups are always accessible, and
on one rainy day when the PSG was moved indoors, we were closer
to the arena than you are indoors at Canterbury.
Aachen also includes a great trade fair where you can buy a
mink coat, a Mercedes, a vacation in the Greek Isles, a $2000 custom
top hat and just about anything your horse could ever want or need.
And besides the competition, there are frequent exhibitions to please
the crowd: Andalusians, Friesians, carriage parades, long-reining,
cossacks, even mares with foals running loose at their sides.
The town of Aachen itself sits near the Belgian/Dutch border
and welcomes the show each year with very open arms. Many of the
shops fill their windows with horse-theme displays and the plaza
in front of the cathedral and town hall where Charlemagne was crowned
nearly 1200 years ago is decked out with flags of all the nations
attending.
I speak only a scant few phrases of German and I survived just
fine. It’s a wonderful week of culture and horses and something
you should really make a point to try and see.
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Underlying
Relationships - Kyra's ABC's From the May 1999 issue