Laura Bechtolsheimer was the sole rider waving the British flag at the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage qualifier in Neumunster, Germany this weekend.

Host cleans up

Laura was riding her father’s 12-year-old Wilfried’s Tellwell, whom she has been bringing on slowly for the past three years. This was their first international competition and the pair scored a respectable 65.489% in the Grand Prix and 68.80% in the Kur (freestyle).

However, it was the host nation that cleaned up at the eighth leg of the series, taking five of the top six places in the Kur, led by Helen Langehanenberg who scored a very impressive 83.3% with her stallion Damon Hill NRW. in the previous day’s Grand Prix, Germany took four of the top five spots, with Isabell Werth and El Santo NRW leading on 77.213%.

High hopes

H&C caught up with Laura to find out more on this exciting prospect: 

Wilfried’s Tellwell also represented Sweden as a five- and six-year-old at the World Breeding Championships and won the 2009 Medien Cup qualifier with Swedish rider, Patrik Kittel.

The competition in Neumunster was the penultimate opportunity to qualify for the FEI World Cup Dressage final in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands in April. The final qualifier takes place at Gothenburg in Sweden on 25 February. Laura has already qualified for the finals on Mistral Hojris, after the pair won the freestyle at Olympia in December last year.