The VR Classics in Neumünster/ Germany will be playing host to the Dressage World Cup in the Holstenhallen for the 29th time. From 12th to 15th February, riders will be battling it out in the dressage arena at this traditional north-German tournament for World Cup points, while the focus on the show-jumping course will be on world ranking points. And the field of competitors promises quality and variety in equal measure. German stars in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup include Isabell Werth (Rheinberg) and current leader Fabienne Lütkemeier (Paderborn), as well as Ulla Salzgeber (Blonhofen) and Nadine Capellmann (Würselen).
Neumünster’s VR Classics is the seventh out of a total of nine qualification stages in the world’s most important indoor dressage series. The goal is the final in Las Vegas in the USA in April. The pressure is mounting for those riders who have collected few points thus far, since there are just three more stations to go: Neumünster, Göteborg und s`Hertogenbosch.
The longest-standing stage of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup is celebrated in the renovated Holstenhallen, and quite literally celebrated, as every year the spectators provide the riders and horses with a large and rapturous backdrop. Crackling tension gives way to tumultuous celebration! It’s no coincidence then that many riders love this tradition-steeped arena, and in Las Vegas too the audience is right up close to the riders and horses. “I love this hall and this atmosphere,” says Ulla Salzgeber openly, and Isabell Werth almost never leaves the VR Classics out of her path to the World Cup final. The top German rider has won the World Cup Freestyle in Neumünster five times.
So far, riders from eleven different nations have signed up for the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage in Neumünster, including old hands such as the Netherlands’ championship rider Hans-Peter Minderhoud with Glock`s Flirt and his compatriot Patrick van der Meer with Uzzo, as well as young Danish championship rider Anna Kasprzak with Donnperignon.
The excitement will really fizz on the morning of Saturday 14th February, when qualification for the World Cup Freestyle will be decided in the Grand Prix de Dressage, the Madeleine Winter-Schulze Prize. The best 15 pairs will then compete in the race for points for the Reem Acra FEI World Cup on Sunday from 10.00 in the Holstenhallen; The Grand Prix Freestyle, presented by VR Bank Neumünster and the Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall, is sure to provide fantastic sporting highlights and a great deal of emotion.