Three tests over 80 percent, one just under: The Grand Prix Spécial, the MEGGLE-Prize was both star-studded and extremely exciting – the winners were ultimately Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB.

The double Olympic gold medallist, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, was self-critical after returning from the Deutsche Bank Stadium with her partner in success with the best score of the day (81.021 percent) in the MEGGLE-Prize: “I made two wrong decisions which ended up in two big mistakes. In the transition from the collected walk to the piaffe I collected Dalera too much into transition to the piaffe And with the one-tempis on the centre line I waited too long and that made her think it was the transition into the one-tempis,” is how the 37-year-old explained the two mistakes that the duo made in the Grand Prix Spécial: In the first piaffe Dalera almost engaged her hindlegs too much and slightly lost the balance, then later the one-tempis between the pirouettes went wrong. The rider from Bavaria said both mistakes were her fault: “Dalera was amazing, I wasn’t,” she said with a wink.

The British three-time Olympic gold medallist, Charlotte Dujardin, demonstrated once again with her ten-year-old KWPN gelding, Imhotep, what a good competition rider she is and steered her bundle of energy (he has so much of it that he is out at grass all day at home) to the mega score of 80.787 percent and second place. The just 10-year-old Everdale son was active, dynamic and always in rhythm. Presented wonderfully by his rider, he gave the crowd in the Deutsche Bank Stadium a glimpse of where the journey could be headed, if the three-time Olympic gold medallist can demonstrate his full potential. “He is making such good progress as the moment and is gaining more and more strength and expression,” the young mother explained, looking forward to the future with the KWPN gelding.

Third place went to the best Danish pair, Nanna Skodborg Merrald with the Oldenburg-bred gelding,  Zepter by Zack with a score of 80.340 percent. The pair are phenomenal. The chestnut horse is already 15 years old, but he seems to be enfolding his full charisma at this late age. He was schooled by Daniel Bachmann Andersen. But when he left the Blue Hors Stud, Zepter didn’t find the right rider at first. He was intended as a schoolmaster for a young rider at the Blue Hors Stud. But he also left for new pastures. So the meanwhile head rider of the stud, Nanna, took over the gelding – the perfect fit. Claiming a sensational second place recently at the World Cup Finals in Omaha (USA), the shooting stars of the past months demonstrated in the MEGGLE-Prize, that the development curve is on a steep ascent.