Birthday present
Chester Weber celebrated his 36th birthday on June 3 with the victory in the dressage competition at Vecsés. The five O-judges, chaired by Dr. Franz-Josef Vetter from Germany, were impressed and unanimously awarded Weber’s test first place. Weber used Jane F. Clark’ s two KWPN-geldings Uniek and Splash, which previously formed the pair of U.S. pair driver Keady Cadwell. Before the dressage, Weberr had some discussions with his trainer Michael Freund about whether or not to use the new horses at Vecsés, but Weber decided he had to try them somewhere. Weber got his way, the team went beautifully and put down a fantastic performance. József Dobrovitz came second in the dressage, ahead of Zoltán Lázár.
Marathon heat
The marathon was won by Werner Ulrich of Switzerland. Ulrich drove his team of three Lusitanian horses and a Swiss-bred gelding very fast through the eight difficult obstacles, designed by Gabor Fintha from Hungary. The thermometer at the start of the marathon indicated no less than 39 degrees Celsius, but the Portuguese Lusitanian horses proved that they are used to the heat and took Ulrich into first place. Koos de Ronde had to take an extra loop in the last obstacle which cost him precious seconds and the victory in this exciting phase. Zoltán Lázár finished third in the marathon. Weber was further down the order in sixth, but still held onto the overall lead going into the cones.
Exciting cones competition
József Dobrovitz, in third place after dressage and marathon, was the first to drive a double-clear round in the arena today. Dobrovitz put the pressure on De Ronde, but the team gold medallist from the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Kentucky kept his head cool despite the heat and crossed the finish line with a double clear round as well. Chester Weber was four penalty points ahead of De Ronde but showed his confidence in his very good cones team and equalled ‘Dobro’s’ and De Ronde’s clear rounds. Weber has been the USEF four-in-hand champion eight times, but this was his first CAIO win in his very successful career so far. Weber will compete at several shows in Europe this summer and hopes to qualify for the FEI World Cup Driving™ season 2011-2012.
Family business
The Hungarian team in Vecsés was made up of Hungary’s top four-in-hand drivers - Zoltán Lázár, József Dobrovitz and Dobrovitz’ 18-year-old son József Dobrovitz Jr., who celebrates his 19th birthday June 6. Dobrovitz Jr. has been competing with a pony four-in-hand for several years and recently made his debut in the horse teams class. Father and son hope to be on the Hungarian team for Aachen 2011. Dobrovitz Jr. has another goal this year and is bidding to qualify his pony team for the FEI World Driving Championships 2011 - Combined Ponies in September in Lipica, Slovenia.
Individual results CAIO Vecsés (HUN) 2-5 June 2011:
1. Chester Weber (USA) 145.51
2. Koos de Ronde (NED) 149.63
3. József Dobrovitz (HUN) 150.22
4. Zoltán Lázár (HUN) 151.70
5. Werner Ulrich (SUI) 152.08
Team results CAIO Vecsés (HUN) 2-5 June 2011:
1. Hungary 301.92
2. The Netherlands 320.46
3. Germany 369.63
Standings FEI World Cup qualification after 4 of 14 competitions:
1 Koos de Ronde NED 35
2 Zoltán Lázár HUN 33
3 József Dobrovitz HUN 28
3 Werner Ulrich SUI 28
5 Chester Weber USA 25
6 Boyd Exell AUS 20
7 Herman ter Harmsel NED 19
8 Jozsef Scheik HUN 17
8 IJsbrand Chardon NED 17
10 Tomas Eriksson SWE 16