By winning the Paris Bercy World Cup freestyle dressage test, Germany’s Olympic team gold and individual bronze medallist Ulla Salzgeber and her Russian-bred gelding, Wall Street, who had earlier taken the grand prix, rose to the head of the Western European league.
These were Ulla’s first ever victories at this venue and she has yet to decide whether to ride her Olympic horse Rusty or Wall Street at the final in Denmark.
She calls Wall Street, who plays to the crowd and has excellent paces, her “dancing horse”.
He injured a leg here last year and did not come back into training until the autumn.
Ulla, who scored 79.67%, rode to a music from Disneyworld Paris, an idea conceived when she was paying the amusement park a visit with her daughter.
Olympic Champion Anky van Grunsven was runner-up with Gestion Olympic TCN Partout, who scored 77.44%. This was Partout’s first competition since the stallion was injured in 1999 and the pair performed to a throbbing tango beat.
Gonnelien Rothenberger finished close behind on Jonggors Leonardo Da Vinci.
She is trained by her husband, Sven, who is currently too busy with his job to compete.”I’m happy that Leonardo has progressed so well,” said Gonnelien. “He couldnt cope with the kur before, as he was so wild.”
