Dressage-News

LONDON, Dec. 15–Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival won the Olympia World Cup qualifying Grand Prix Freestyle before a packed house Wednesday night, handily beating Britain’s world championship silver medal stars Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris.

Adelinde of the Netherlands and the 13-year-old chestnut gelding scored 83.650 per cent to take their second straight West European League qualifier for the Final in Leipzig, Germany at the end of April. They won in Stockholm in November.

Laura and her 15-year-old chestnut gelding finished with 80.050 per cent, their lowest freestyle score in almost two years, while Holland’s Edward Gal and Sisther de Jeu placed third on 77.050.

America’s Catherine Haddad on her 10-year-old World Equestrian Games U.S. team reserve mount Winyamaro posted their highest score to date with 74.800 per cent in a ride to music by Pink that excited the crowd with a combination of one-tempi and two-tempi changes on half circles and a one-handed final passage.

With Wednesday night’s result in the fourth of 10 World Cup qualifiers in the West European League, Catherine goes to the top of the standings with 52 points, ahead of Adelinde on 43 points and Germany’s Isabell Werth on 40 points. Those rankings are almost certain to change by week’s end when Isabell competes at the qualifier in Frankfurt, Germany, marking the halfway point in the only annual global championship for dressage.

The sellout crowd of 7,000 spectators buzzed with excitement about the showdown between Laura, the biggest star in the history of British dressage, and Adelinde and Parzival who was at the top of the world rankings for a month last year, in their first head to head competition since the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in September. There, Laura and Mistral Hojris won three silver medals while Adelinde was awarded a team goal because the pair started for Holland but Parzival nicked his tongue enough to draw blood and thus be disqualified from the Grand Prix.

In the Grand Prix on Tuesday, Laura and Mistral Hojris were clear winners but the Briton admitted that in their first competitions since WEG and their first indoor show of the season, she was nervous about their freestyle performance. It turns out she had reason to be so as the horse she calls “Alf” spooked in a corner during the passage and there was a loss of rhythm in the collected walk in a series of small mistakes.

However, they completed the test with their trademark spectacular passage–among the movements that earned them 19 marks of 10 during the Grand Prix when everything clicked for the pair.

“It was a little bit tricky,” admitted Laura. “He’s not really made for the indoor season. He did some fantastic work, and is so powerful that even with a few mistakes he can still get a good mark.”

The two young women–Adelinde is aged 31 while Laura is 26–would be No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the world if the FEI rankings reflected the sale of the Moorlands Totilas and the assignment of Germany’s Matthias Alexander Rath to replace Edward Gal as the rider.

The last of 15 riders from six nations, Adelinde rode Parzival to music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to show off confident and relaxed extended canter, clean tempi changes and their final passage that Adelinde punctuated with a fist pump knowing they had performed well.

“I was lucky to have a good draw (last to go), but the main thing was to get the horse relaxed and then I didn’t have to take any risks,” Adelinde said.

Complete Grand Prix scores:

1.	13	Jerich Parzival	Cornelissen, Adelinde	NED		6600 EUR	83.650 points
	chest 13y.G /Jazz/Ulft/KWPN/NED08261/ Cornelissen,W.P.J. & M.A.
2.	6	Mistral Hojris	Bechtolsheimer, Laura	GBR		4710 EUR	80.050 points
	chest 15y.G /Michellino/Ibsen/DWB/DEN02686/ Bechtolsheimer,Dr Wilfried
3.	14	Sisther de Jeu	Gal, Edward	NED		3770 EUR	77.050 points
	bay 11y.M /Gribaldi/Amor/KWPN/NED08027/ Jeu,Emma de
4.	16	Winyamaro	Haddad, Catherine	USA		2360 EUR	74.800 points
	chest 10y.G /Walt Disney I/Trapper/HANN/GER42878/ Haddad,Catherine
5.	12	Macbrian	Stovold, Amy	GBR		1890 EUR	74.050 points
	dchst 13y.G /Bjorsells Briar/Brabant/SWB/GBR42599/ Stovold,Maggi
6.	8	Hiscox Artemis	Davison, Richard	GBR		1790 EUR	73.750 points
	bay 11y.G /Florestan/Delphi/WESTF/CAN02525/ Countess of Derby
7.	3	Skovlunds Más Guapo	Lindh, Mikaela	FIN		1700 EUR	73.200 points
	black 12y.G /Master/Cannon Row xx/DWB/DEN40427/ Elsass,Alexandra
8.	5	Louis D’Or	Andersen, Henriette	GBR		1600 EUR	71.350 points
	bay 13y.G /Heslegard’s Louis/Grandis/DWB/GBR14571/ Mrs P Potter
9.	7	Mr President	Croxford, Stephanie	GBR		1510 EUR	70.750 points
	dchst 16y.G /HACK/GBR13293/ Croxford,Stephanie
10.	11	Pegasus MK	Ross-Davies, Anna	GBR		1410 EUR	70.350 points
	black 13y.G /Elcaro/KWPN/GBR12237/ Bowles,Peter
11.	10	Fitzcerraldo	Harvey, Judith	GBR		1320 EUR	69.750 points
	bay 12y.G /Feuerbrand/Ajan/BRAND/GBR13111/ Mr R W Heley
12.	2	Rubel 13	Verliefden, Fanny	BEL		1230 EUR	68.450 points
	black 15y.G /Rubinstein I/Tin Rocco/OLDBG/BEL10737/ Fanny Verliefden
13.	1	Rintje V	Meganck, Hans	BEL		1130 EUR	67.950 points
	black 13y.S /BEL40820/ Arie van Vugt
14.	4	Helio II	Serre, Arnaud	FRA		1040 EUR	67.700 points
	grey 15y.S /Flamenco XII/Banquero VI/PRE/FRA07898/ Fresnillo+Roziere
15.	9	Elmegardens Marquis	Faurie, Emile	GBR		940 EUR	retired
	bay 11y.G /Michellino/DWB/EST40062/ Mr E Faurie