DOROTHEE Schneider secured the third successive German victory in this season’s FEI Dressage World Cup Western European League when coming out on top with DSP Sammy Davis Jr in Madrid, Spain on Saturday night.

Spain’s Claudio Castilla Ruiz (Alcaide) lined up second for the host nation ahead of The Netherlands’ Hans Peter Minderhoud (Glock’s Zinardi) in third.

At the opening leg of the 2019/2020 qualifying series in Herning, Denmark in October it was the home side’s Cathrine Dufour who reigned supreme, but Schneider’s compatriot’s Isabell Werth and Jessica von Bredow-Werndl dominated at the next two rounds.

Schneider made it a back-to-back German hat-trick, but it wasn’t all plain sailing for the partnership because Sammy was really on his toes. “He was very good in the Grand Prix yesterday, but in the beginning of the Freestyle today he felt really fresh and we made one mistake in the extended trot and then in the two-tempis,” Schneider said.

“I know him so very long now, I’ve been riding him for five years and he has a lot of his own ideas about how we should be doing things! But that’s one of the reasons I love him – he has so much character, we have a great feeling together and he just keeps getting better all the time!”

Castilla Ruiz blew the competition wide open however with a spectacular ride on his handsome 14-year-old stallion Alcaide when fifth-last to go. Kicking off their floorplan with one-handed one-tempi changes, and consistently producing quality piaffe/passage, they completed with a confident final halt to raise the bar all the way up to 80.230.

That was always going to be challenging, and when Schneider’s average was hovering around 79% it wasn’t clear if her double of errors was going to leave the double-Olympian vulnerable. But the pure quality of Sammy’s work, scores edged the pair up to a final tally of 82.295 which clinched it definitively.

Second-last to go, Dutch star and 2016 FEI Dressage World Cup champion, Hans Peter Minderhoud scored 78.350 with the 15-year-old grey stallion Glock’s Zinardi to finish third and move up to the top of the league table. “With today’s points I’m now almost qualified for Las Vegas. I’ve been there three times before and I would love to ride there again!” he said.