{"id":7256,"date":"2015-12-07T17:07:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/?p=7256"},"modified":"2015-12-07T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T16:08:17","slug":"7256","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/7256\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny gives Isabell the perfect REEM ACRA Christmas present"},"content":{"rendered":"
Germany\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Isabell Werth and Don Johnson FRH produced one of the finest performances of their career together to win today\u00e2\u0080\u0099s fifth leg of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup\u00e2\u0084\u00a2 Dressage 2015\/2016 Western European League at Salzburg in Austria. From a distinguished field of starters that included many of the sport\u00e2\u0080\u0099s top stars, they emerged for a convincing victory ahead of The Netherlands\u00e2\u0080\u0099 Edward Gal and Glock\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Voice while the only other German contender, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, lined up third with Unee BB.<\/strong><\/div>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI\u00e2\u0080\u0099m feeling really, really happy, Johnny was fantastic today and I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m very proud!\u00e2\u0080\u009d, Werth said after claiming the maximum 20 points and moving into equal-seventh spot on the league leaderboard alongside Gal and Portugal\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Goncales Carvalho.<\/p>\n

Chasing
\n<\/b>It was Gal\u00e2\u0080\u0099s score of 80.900 that Werth was chasing when she entered the arena as last rider to go, the Dutchman producing powerful trot extensions and great elevation in passage and trot half-pass from the 13-year-old stallion with which he won the opening leg of the current Reem Acra series in Odense, Denmark in October.<\/div>\n

But from the moment Werth set off she had winner written all over her, the often-naughty Don Johnson completely under her spell and responding to every instruction with enthusiasm and accuracy as he racked up a massive score of 84.125. High artistic marks were the order of the day, with the Ground Jury recognising the harmony between this pair who have sometimes missed out on the big moments because Johnny was in cheeky mood and just wouldn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t concentrate. It seems those days are over now, and at last the 46-year-old rider is being repaid for her patience.<\/p>\n

She said today that she has now enjoyed three great performances with this horse, at the FEI European Championships in Aachen (GER) this summer, at the third leg of the new Reem Acra series in Stuttgart (GER) where they finished second behind Spain\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Delgado, and then again today. She puts it all down to maturity in the horse in which she never lost faith.<\/p>\n

More serious
\n<\/b>\u00e2\u0080\u009cHe has a bit more experience with age so he has become more serious. He has settled down and he are I are growing together now – we know each other really, really well\u00e2\u0080\u009d said the 46-year-old athlete whose extraordinary list of career accomplishments includes double-gold at the Atlanta and Beijing Olympic Games, five gold medals from the FEI World Equestrian Games\u00e2\u0084\u00a2 and eight from FEI European Championships. \u00a0She said the horse she calls \u00e2\u0080\u009cJohnny\u00e2\u0080\u009d has matured in both body and mind. \u00e2\u0080\u009cHe\u00e2\u0080\u0099s in great shape and he\u00e2\u0080\u0099s much easier to ride now because he has become one horse. A year ago it was difficult for him to carry his whole body in balance, but now he\u00e2\u0080\u0099s really one complete horse and the picture is totally different to how he was two years ago\u00e2\u0080\u009d she added.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI said it felt really good two weeks ago in Stuttgart and now we have done three great Freestyles in a row which is just fantastic. I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m especially happy because Johnny has often been in the shadow of my other horses but now he\u00e2\u0080\u0099s standing in his own light! He has a very strong personality and he\u00e2\u0080\u0099s really special. He is always positive, and yes he has been a bit naughty but he can always make me laugh. It has been a case of trying to balance his big character with his body so that he could do his best work. He\u00e2\u0080\u0099s right there now, and he feels settled, so for me this feels just great!\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n

Don Johnson FRH can now look forward to an eight-week holiday before Werth brings him back out for an run or two ahead of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup\u00e2\u0084\u00a2 Dressage 2016 Final in Gothenburg, Sweden next March. With 37 points on the board she\u00e2\u0080\u0099s now confident she\u00e2\u0080\u0099s going to get there and she\u00e2\u0080\u0099s already looking forward to it. But today she was just feeling happy and grateful – \u00e2\u0080\u009cJohnny\u00e2\u0080\u0099s given me the very best Christmas present!\u00e2\u0080\u009d Werth said this afternoon.<\/div>\n

\nResult: \u00a0<\/b>1, Don Johnson FRH (Isabell Werth) GER 84.125; 2, Glock\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Voice (Edward Gal) NED 80.900; 3, Unee BB (Jessica von Bredow-Werndl) GER 80.075; \u00a07, Glock\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Romanov (Hans Peter Minderhoud) NED 75.825<\/div>\n

Source and picture: FEI<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Isabell Werth and Don Johnson FRH produced one of the finest performances of their career together to win today\u00e2\u0080\u0099s fifth leg of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup\u00e2\u0084\u00a2 Dressage 2015\/2016 Western European League at Salzburg in Austria. From a distinguished field of starters that included many of the sport\u00e2\u0080\u0099s top stars, they emerged for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7258,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7256\/revisions\/7258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jumpingamsterdam.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}