Hello everyone!
Friday began with the 6yr old qualifying class,  Second to go was Woodlander Farouche so we arrived early to watch the warm up.  One thing I like about Verden is the accessibility.  We stand just a few meters away from the warm up ring and hear the coaching (not much is in english but . . .)
Farouche impressed me on so many levels.  Her walk is so perfect it is almost poetic.  From the time she entered the warm up area her topline was relaxed and her strides enormous,  Michael Eilberg, her rider, very calmly suppled her in the walk with leg yields and half pass.  Then picked up a trot in a stretched frame and continued suppling work.  He took several walk breaks and built her collection slowly and methodically,
Believe it or not, this contrasts with most other riders.  They spend most of their time on the rail riding very forward, sometimes deep with fewer breaks.
They went on to ride a beautiful test scoring 9.4 (which I thought was conservative from that judge group) and won the class easily.
Is there a take home message here?
I liked other horse in this class as well.  Bordeaux 28, Eva Moeller's mount, is surprisingly a KWPN horse by United out of a Gribaldi mare. He is quite talented and I think we'll see more of this horse. Eva is a veteran young horse rider and gets the most out of her horses in the test.
In the same category is Emmelie Scholtens from the Netherlands who rode Borencio to second place with a 9.16
Those horses that didn't make the cut rode in the "Small final" today.  The top three will go on to the large final tomorrow and include USA rider Jennifer Hoffman on Florentinus V who is possibly my FAVORITE STALLION of the show so far,  I base this on gaits and temperament and my gut feelings!
Our other USA rider (who is really German like most of them) was Sabine Schut-Kery, formerly of Texas,  She rode Alice Womble (still Texan) horse Senceo did not make it.