The first thing a visitor of the 2004 Belgian Dressage Championships should have noticed this year was the remarkable amounts of people that came to Het Azelhof in Lier to watch the Belgian Championships. Never before have I seen the stands so filled up as this year. Finally dressage seems to be alive in Belgium. And there is more positive news..

Pleasantly Surprised
The level of competition was really high this year in certain divisions. The junior riders' category is filled with promising up-and-coming combinations such as Caroline Bommers, Elisabeth Palmero, Leslie Goethals and Veronique van Haegenborgh. These riders all had several mistakes in their tests and inaccuracies in their riding, but they showed talent and potential to become top junior riders. This is also because they are riding horses which are not restricted in their movement and conformation.

The Junior riders division was won by Leen Cools on Le Primo van het Gestelhof. This Belgian warmblood horse is not so brilliant in his movement, but was correctly and elegantly ridden making hardly no mistakes in her freestyle ride while maintaining a steady contact with the bit. The silver medal went to the talented Leslie Goethals on Lian Epona, the bronze was for Yoni de Souter on Pentagon.

Yoni de Souter on Pentagon

The competition in the young riders division was once again a very exciting one. This year's group of 21-year olds have been battling each other since their FEI Pony days and they are all stepping on each other's heels to take the number one spot. Unfortunately one of the strongest Belgian YR horses Hannelore Volders' Jakko could not attend the Championships. The KWPN gelding suffered a severe colic attack prior to the event and had to be operated one. "This is really tragic because the horse was Grand Prix ready," mother Suzy Volders explained. "Hannelore planned on competing at the CDI-W Mechelen." Volders was present in Lier with her second horse Real Magic (by Rubinstein). She finished in a silver medal position behind Arnaud Reper on Fortissimo.

Hannelore Volders on Real Magic

Tough Year for the FEI Pony Riders
Unfortunately, the pony riders' division was not so tremendous this year. What is missing in Belgium right now are those great ponies that are able to win medals at the European Championships like six years ago (Noble Casper, Arastou S, Crack Drum, Destry, Fuego). There are only few FEI ponies competing right now with the movement potential of those great ones from days forlorn. Nevertheless, the attitude of the current Belgian FEI pony riders is applaudable. At the Championships they continued to be happy and at ease with their sometimes disappointing scores and Hanna De Wit was the deserved winner of the gold medal this year. Aboard her German bred Derengo, De Wit rode a nice freestyle that earned her a 68.40%. Magali Bastaens won the silver medal on Willeke, a pony who's a bit quick and runny in her movements and limited in her frame, but who shows a lovely extended trot and who is a very solid performer. The bronze medal went to Kendra Vercamer on Renoir F van het Juxschot. Though Vercamer was very unquiet with her hands and constantly working in the mouth of the pony, Renoir F is a pony with very nice gaits and he showed a lovely canter tour in his kur to music.

How to braid and not to braid a horse

The Belgian FEI pony riders had a very tough year this year. Although the pony riders and their parents put in so much effort, time and money for them to excel and experience Pony Dressage at all possible levels, the KBRSF federation is restricting them in their liberties as much as possible. This is once again the incomprehensible and kafkaesque situation of Belgian Dressage. There were two combinations, Hanna de Wit on Derengo and Shanna Imbrechts on Annache van het Noorddauweland, who competed at CDI competitions in Europe this year and who were the shining pony stars on the Belgian firmament. To great sadness, Annache passed away after a colic attack at the end of September at could not ride in the Belgian Championships. Hanna de Wit was refused to compete at the 2004 European Pony Championships. This provoked much disappointment, drama, and unbelief in our little dressage country.

Hanna de Wit rode her necessary qualification scores this year in order to be selected for the European Championships. However, the "Dressage Commission" decided not to enter her for the Europeans because they believed "their had to be a feasible chance of her reaching the Finals." The financial support from Belgian Equestrian Federation to compete at CDI's is negligible and even when parents propose to pay everything for the trip, the KBRSF refused to let Hanna de Wit go to the Europeans.

"We were shocked to hear that Hanna was not allowed to go," Hanna's mother Linda de Wit said. "We planned the entire show season with aim of going to the Europeans. The Dressage Commission told us that their decision was based on a "well thought through evaluation of her results," but if you compare Hanna's scores to the results of other riders who have been sent to European Championships before, there is no difference," De Wit explained. Hanna's parents were also wondering why Chef d'Equipe Laurence van Doorselaer was not involved in this decision, while she is the official KBRSF representative assigned to follow up on the performance of the pony riders.

Van Doorselaer responded to this as following: "This decision has been taken by the national Dressage Commission in which Chef d'Equipes do not preside and the decision is a consequence of an evaluation of Hanna's results. Even though one pony rider [Hanna] reached the qualification norm, the Dressage Commission believes that the norms have to be reevaluated every year. The chairman of the Dressage Commission intends to propose a new minimum quota for the participation at the European Championships next year [2005]. It seems that this "new quota" is already instated this year, which I regret very much because it is my belief that pony riders should get the opportunity to gain experience at a very young age. Children often perform irregularly and that's because they are still children, but they also the riders of the future."

Junior-riders.com believes it a disgrace the way the Dressage Commission has treated Hanna de Wit and her parents. Not only does their decision lack professionalism (rules should not be changed unofficially), but mainly the Dressage Commission's attitude and its vision on the future is a pure disappointment. FEI Dressage Committee Chairwoman Mariette Withages explained to Junior-riders.com that "qualifying to compete at the Europeans does not mean that you are "selected" to compete there. The Dressage Commission has the final decision. It is my belief that you do not go to a European Championships to "gain experience" but you only go their to reach the finals." Junior-riders.com considers it absolutely necessary for riders to be sent to big Championships shows in order to gain experience there even if they will be dangling at the bottom of score board. You select the best riders in your country and give them the chance to prove their worth. Why else are 50 riders selected to compete at the Olympics Games, when everyone knows that only 15 make it into the Kur to Music??? Shouldn't the Olympic Games be restricted to 15 riders then, because the others are not allowed to "gain Olympic Experience" or prove their worth at such a big championship?

Anyway, back to more positive news...

Sophie Baetens Prix St Georges Diva
The Flanders Open Cup is the official Belgian Championship at Prix St Georges/Intermediaire I level. Expected winner was Sophie Baetens van Lent aboard her Hanoverian mare Dark Diamant (Davignon x Matador). The combination has been reigning at several national shows this season and did well at the CDI Saumur. It was expected of them to pique at this national championship and they did. Baetens won the Prix St Georges with 69.10% and the kur to music with 71.65%. Dark Diamant has developed into a really elegant dressage horse. She's long legged, naturally uphill and has three very good basic gaits.

Placing second in the Flanders Open were Larissa Pauluis and her Rhinelander gelding Dream Boy. The pair is eye candy to watch. This gorgeous combination hardly made mistakes and scored 66.70% and 69.40%. In third position was Tom Franckx and the black gelding Babalou. They scored 66.50% and 67.40%.

Tom Franckx on Babalou

Belgium has some very, very nice Prix St Georges horses. The riding is not always as correct as one likes to see, but one can not deny that the quality of the horses is surfacing. Junior-riders.com especially liked watching Francoise Hologne's Born, Dominique Mohimont's Palermo and Tom Franckx' Sir Lui van de Zuuthoeve.

No Competition at All at Grand Prix level
If you look at the Junior's Riders Rider' Profiles of the Grand Prix riders in Belgium, you can count 21 (!!!) Grand Prix riders in Belgium. Miraculously 18 of them vanished from the face of the earth because at the Belgian Championships there were only a lamentable three combinations registered to compete. OK, we have to take into consideration a few exceptions: Johan Zagers lost his ride on Mister Saygon and is no longer riding this horse, Ludo Verbraeken's Juturn unfortunately passed away in September, Vicky Smits' Illuster has been retired, and Regina Moldan can still be considered to be an Austrian native instead of a Belgian, just as Philippe van den Berge is actually a French native. And then there are Carmen de Bondt's Alzac who to our knowledge is no longer with Carmen and Veronique de Baecker's Herzas, no idea what's going on with him. This means that there should still have been 11 combinations in the Belgian Grand Prix Championship instead of 3. Peter Spahn preferred to compete his Adel at an obscure CDI show in Hungary, of which we can hardly pronounce the name. The Duke of Newcastle, organizers of the Belgian Championships, is very upset that only three Grand Prix took the time to come Lier and has announced it will taking repercussions for next year. "If they want to compete at CDI's, they"ll have to show at the Belgian Championships first," one of the organizers said in a rage of disappointment.

With only a field of three competitors, of which one (Stephanie Van Tieghem) scratched for the GP Special, Mieke Lunskens had free rein to take the national title. Riding Reiko Newton's Jade, Lunskens rode a lovely Kur to Music to very boring music. Jade is abounding in talent and is a horse to watch in the future. The Trakehner by Ressort has a beautiful piaffe-passage but is very hot. The transitions were still a bit messy, but, nevertheless, Lunskens was able to keep the lid on the cooker and Jade stayed under her control. With scores of 62.38%, 64.44% and 69.45%, Lunskens is again Belgian Champion. The silver medal went to Dominique Mohimont on the forgiven Be a Winner, a wonderful Grand Prix schoolmaster.

Anky van Grunsven lures the crowds
With so many people in the stands (the arena was half filled), it makes you wonder whether the audience came for the Belgian riders or just to watch the Anky van Grunsven clinic on Saturday evening. Van Grunsven, who is now almost five months pregnant and no longer riding, brought her student Dominique Filion on Naughty Boy to demonstrate the principles of her controversial training system. Van Grunsven explained her riding deep (rollkur !?) system: open up the hands, place them low and hold them still in a slightly resistant way until the horse relaxes on the bit, than the hand should be soft again and higher on the withers. Filion, who has been thoroughly schooled by Van Grunsven, showed the Anky system with great ease and her Naughty Boy was a very good boy, demonstrating it really well. The horse shifted easily from a deep neck position into an elevated uphill one. Anky stressed the fact that horses who liked to be deep should not be ridden like this too long, and horses who like to push their head up high should be ridden deep a bit longer. Filion and Anky showed how to do flatwork and then they did some FEI exercises such as flying changes, tempi's and pirouettes.

Dominique Filion on Naughty Boy

At the end of the clinic Anky's West Side Story kur (Bonfire - WEG Rome 1998) and Esprit de Chanson kur (Salinero - Athens) were shown on the big screen. Mariette Withages and Anky talked about the music very briefly and that was it. The audience was given the chance to ask questions, which they did during the Filion training session, but after the projection of the freestyles, no one asked a question. There were several raging in my head, but I didn't have the guts to step up to the plate and provoke a controversy at the Azelhof in Lier .. next time maybe ;)

Text and photos copyrighted: Astrid Appels for Junior-riders.com

View 2004 Belgian Dressage Championship Scores