Western European League 2011/2012 (dressage riding)

The Western European League of the FEI World Cup Dressage 2011/2012 (Reem Acra FEI World Cup ™ Dressage 2011-2012 Western European League) is the 27th season of the Western and Central European League of the FEI World Cup Dressage . The World Cup is the most important tournament series in the indoor season in the Western European League.

Course of the tournament series

The 2011/2012 season of the Western European Dressage League consists of nine tests. The tournaments in which the Western European League takes place are advertised as CDI 5 *, the highest category in dressage riding. They are marked with the addition -W (i.e. CDI 5 * -W) to identify them as World Cup tournaments.

The series runs from October 20th to February 22nd in the 2011/2012 season. The best nine riders of the Western European League and possibly additional participants ("extra competitors") qualify for the 2012 World Cup finals . The main sponsor of the Western European League and the World Cup finals is the fashion designer Reem Acra .

The World Cup tournaments each consist of two dressage tests : First, all riders must compete in a Grand Prix de Dressage . From this, the 15 best horse-rider pairs qualify for the Grand Prix Freestyle . This is the World Cup special test of the tournament.

With the 2011/2012 season, valuation tests of the Western European Dressage League will be held for the last time at two tournament locations: Frankfurt am Main and Mechelen lose their World Cup status as part of the streamlining of the Western European League. The reason for this in Frankfurt was also the overlap with the World Cup in London.

media

The FEI broadcasts the World Cup competitions of the Western European League for a fee via its Internet portal FEI TV. In addition, Eurosport, as a pan-European TV broadcaster , showed summaries of the Mechelen and Gothenburg World Cups as part of the Wednesday evening program.

The exams

1st test: Odense

The first World Cup of the Western European League has been taking place in Odense, Denmark, for years. This was also the case in 2011, the tournament was held from October 20 to 23, 2011. The World Cup freestyle was held on October 23rd at 2:40 p.m.

Hans Peter Minderhoud , who came third in the Grand Prix, won the Grand Prix Freestyle by one percent. The examination was endowed with 33,000 euros.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Netherlands Hans Peter Minderhoud	tango	79.300%	20th
2	Germany Helen Langehanenberg	Responsible OLD	78.300%	17th
3	Sweden Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén	Don Auriello	75.925%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

2nd test: Lyon

The Equitá Lyon has been a world cup tournament in dressage and show jumping since 2009. This took place in 2011 from October 26th to 30th at Eurexpo in Lyon .

The Grand Prix Freestyle took place on October 28th from 7:00 p.m. After three of the best four riders were Germans in the Grand Prix de Dressage, the first three places in the Grand Prix Freestyle all went to Germany. The freestyle examination was endowed with 40,000 €.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Germany Ulla Salzgeber	Herzruf's legacy	81.625%	20th
2	Germany Isabell Werth	Why not FRH	80.075%	17th
3	Germany Monica Theodorescu	Whisper	77.375%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

3rd test: Stockholm

The second Scandinavian stage of the Western European League took place from November 25th to 27th 2011 as part of the Stockholm International Horse Show in Stockholm . On November 27th at 1:15 p.m. the Grand Prix Freestyle was held as a World Cup special test.

After there was already a clear dominance of Scandinavian riders in the Grand Prix, this continued in the freestyle. Overall, there were clear inconsistencies between the individual judges in terms of the placements (for example, Helen Langehanenberg was placed in ranks three to nine by the individual judges), which, however, also resulted from a large number of roughly equally valued rides in the middle of the final result - between the places four and eight was only a difference of 1.025%.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Sweden Patrik Kittel	Toy story	79.475%	20th
2	Sweden Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén	Don Auriello	79.375%	17th
3	Germany Isabell Werth	Why not FRH	78.475%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

4th test: London

Just before Christmas, the Olympia London International Horse Show took place in London from December 13th to 19th, 2011 . Due to an overlap with the fifth tournament of the Western European League, the dressage world cup competitions took place here early in the week, from Tuesday to Wednesday (December 13th and 14th).

After Dutch riders had always dominated the London World Cup dressage in previous years, the British riders showed themselves to be strong in 2011. Already in the Grand Prix, the victory went to the young Briton Charlotte Dujardin with Valegro with a clear lead of almost two percent , an individual best with 81.043%. The British riders also proved in the freestyle that they have a very serious chance of winning individual and team medals at the upcoming Olympic Games in their own country - places one to four in the freestyle went to British riders. The victory here went to Laura Bechtolsheimer, who with Mistral Hojris showed a much more harmonious performance than at the European Championships .

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	United Kingdom Laura Bechtolsheimer	Mistral Hojris	83.975%	20th
2	United Kingdom Charlotte Dujardin	Valegro	83.700%	17th
3	United Kingdom Carl Hester	Uthopia	83.450%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

5th exam: Frankfurt am Main

In the same week as the fourth tournament of the Western European Dressage League, the Festhalle riding tournament in Frankfurt am Main was the fifth world cup tournament. In 2011, the tournament will last from December 14th to 18th, 2011; the special test took place on the final day of the tournament.

Isabell Werth won the Grand Prix as an individual test for the freestyle with her gelding Don Johnson, who was only nine years old (75.085%). In the Grand Prix Freestyle she was the last to start, but had a few mistakes and was only seventh with 74.100%. With Dorothee Schneider, a rider represented the organizing Frankfurt riding and tournament stables Schwarz-Gelb, which competed here for the first time in a World Cup freestyle. with Diva Royal she reached third place. The victory went to Valentina Truppa, who had already won the World Cup finals for young dressage riders in Frankfurt from 2005 to 2007.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Italy Valentina Truppa	Eremo del Castegno	79.950%	20th
2	Germany Monica Theodorescu	Whisper	78.200%	17th
3	Germany Dorothee Schneider	Diva Royal	77.025%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 14 participants)

6th test: Mechelen

The last major tournament of the equestrian year traditionally takes place in Mechelen , Belgium . As part of this world cup tournament, called Jumping Mechelen - Vlaanderens Kerstjumping, the sixth evaluation test of the Western European League, as in previous years, was held from December 26th to 30th. The World Cup Freestyle took place on December 28, 2011 at 2:45 p.m.

Starting as favorites in the tests, Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival were also able to fulfill this role: in the Grand Prix de Dressage on Tuesday they won with 78.851 percent and thus more than three percent ahead of the runner-up. They expanded this dominance again in the freestyle on Wednesday: The lead was more than five percent for second and even more than eight percent for third place. The Grand Prix Freestyle was endowed with 33,000 euros.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Netherlands Adelinde Cornelissen	Parzival	85.325%	-
2	Sweden Patrik Kittel	Scandic	80.050%	20th
3	Germany Nadine Capellmann	Elvis VA	76.950%	17th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

7. Exam: Amsterdam

In 2012 the Western European Dressage League was continued at the tournament in Amsterdam called Jumping Amsterdam. The date for this was the period from January 19 to 22, 2012, the exam took place on January 21 from 12:30 p.m.

As in Mechelen, Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival were able to prevail as winners in the Grand Prix as well as in the World Cup in front of their home crowd . In the freestyle, the lead over the runner-up in Amsterdam was almost four percent. A total of three riders achieved results of over 80 percent, six more achieved over 75 percent.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Netherlands Adelinde Cornelissen	Parzival	87.050%	-
2	Germany Helen Langehanenberg	Damon Hill NRW	83.150%	20th
3	Germany Isabell Werth	El Santo NRW	81.625%	17th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

8th exam: Neumünster

The VR Classics in Neumünster are the eighth World Cup tournament in the Western European League in the 2011/2012 season. The tournament was held from February 16 to 19, 2012 in the Holstenhallen . The World Cup Freestyle was held on Sunday as part of the morning dressage program, the test started at around 10:00 a.m.

As in the Grand Prix, the local riders dominated the freestyle in Neumünster. The victory in the test went to Helen Langehanenberg with the Westfalen Damon Hill NRW , who was given a B mark of at least 85 percent by all judges. Isabell Werth came in second with El Santo NRW , who again showed clear weaknesses in the piaffe and received grades between five and six. Uta Gräf achieved third place with her black horse Le Noir . This was rated very differently by the judges, in the A grade there were ratings of 68 percent to 78.5 percent. The successful British rider Laura Bechtolsheimer also took part in the freestyle . She competed in an international freestyle test for the first time with the Swedish warmblood Tellwell , but remained below 70 percent in terms of scores .

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Germany Helen Langehanenberg	Damon Hill NRW	83.300%	20th
2	Germany Isabell Werth	El Santo NRW	80.975%	17th
3	Germany Uta Graef	Le Noir	77.475%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

9th test: Gothenburg

The Gothenburg Horse Show marked the end of the Western European Dressage League. The tournament in Gothenburg took place from February 23 to 26, 2012.

At the last World Cup freestyle of the season, the majority of riders started from the Scandinavian countries. The top field did not reach the quality of other special stages, only two riders achieved results of over 75 percent in the freestyle. The victory went to the Swede Patrik Kittel, who lives in Germany, who qualifies as leader of the Western European League for the World Cup finals. The oldest horse by far, the 20-year-old KWPN gelding Krawall , presented Jenny Schreven and achieved fourth place.

	equestrian	horse	percent	scoring points
1	Sweden Patrik Kittel	Toy story	78.525%	20th
2	United Kingdom Richard Davison	Hiscox Artemis	75.850%	17th
3	Denmark Lone Jörgensen	FBW De Vito	74.875%	15th

(Places one to three out of a total of 15 participants)

Overall rating

The overall ranking shows which nine riders from the states in the Western European League qualify for the final. In addition, other riders from other countries can qualify for the World Cup finals via the Western European League, provided they live in the Central / Western European League.

The riders can also collect points in the Central European League and in the North American League of the Dressage World Cup (see “others” in the table below). As the previous season's World Cup winner, Adelinde Cornelissen is pre-qualified for the finals, but cannot collect any points this season.

The regulations can be found in the main article on the Dressage World Cup .

	equestrian	Odense	Lyon	Stockholm	London	Frankfurt	Mechelen	Amsterdam	Neumunster	Gothenburg	Further	scoring points
1	Sweden Patrick Kittel	-	(9)	20th	-	13	20th	-	-	20th	(12)	73
2	Germany Helen Langehanenberg	17th	-	13	-	-	(12)	20th	20th	-	-	70
3	Italy Valentina Truppa	-	13	-	-	20th	-	13	-	-	20th	66
3	Germany Isabell Werth	-	17th	15th	-	(11)	-	17th	17th	-	-	66
5	Sweden Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén	15th	-	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	30th	62
6th	Netherlands Hans Peter Minderhoud	20th	12	-	-	12	15th	(8th)	-	-	-	59
7th	United Kingdom Richard Davison	(10)	-	-	13	-	-	10	-	17th	15th	55
8th	Germany Nadine Capellmann	-	-	-	12	-	17th	11	11	-	-	51
9	Denmark Lone Jörgensen	-	-	-	-	9	-	-	12	15th	12	48

Places one to nine

World Cup Finals

Together with the show jumping World Cup final, the dressage world cup final will take place from April 18-22, 2012 in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.