Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Aug. 21–Adelinde Cornelissen brought her best ever performance on Jerich Parzival to capture the freestyle before her home crowd Sunday, to win the second individual gold medal at these European Championships to go with the two golds they won at Windsor in 2009.

The sellout crowd of 7,000, much of it draped in orange, erupted in a huge cheer when the score of 88.839 per cent was announced for Adelinde and the 14-year-old KWPN gelding by Jazz with only Totilas ridden by Matthias Alexander Rath of Germany left to go of the 15 combinations to start the freestyle. It beat their previous best of 87.900 per cent set at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, in March this year.

Great Britain’s Carl Hester and Uthopia performing a freestyle they had never ridden before and received from the composer only six days ago, was second on84.179 per cent to continue the dream of adding to their haul of an historic team gold and silver for the Grand Prix Special.

Patrik Kittel and Watermill Scandic H.B.C. won bronze with a personal best of 83.429 per cent and Sweden’s first European Championship medal since Jan Brink on Borsells Briar won silver at at Hickstead in 2003.

Adelinde said that her ride felt good from the very beginning. “It felt particularly good in front of my home crowd, but I had to tell myself to concentrate because, after yesterday, I didn’t want to forget my programme!” she admitted, referring t the error of course in the Grand Prix Special.

“Parzival was good again today like he has been all weekend, and today I was also good!  When I started the test he put his head up and his ears forward and I had to say ‘no, don’t enjoy yourself too much, we have to work now’!”

She said tht Parzival will not get time off while Adelinde decides on a winter schedule, but the focus will be on next year’s Olympics.

“I am planning a new Freestyle for the Olympic Games next year,” she said. Her Nutcracker freestyle will o longer be.

“She did a wonderful job, and was the clear winner of the day,” said Ground Jury President Ghislain Fouarge of France after the competition.

And then came Carl Hester with Uthopia, whose extended trot is the stuff of dreams.

With floating half-pass and great piaffe, combined with the happiest, bounciest canter imaginable, they registered 84.179 to put it up to the remaining three.

Carl reflected on the spectacular results he has achieved in the past few days–team gold, and silver in both the Special and Freestyle.

“I didn’t think, six weeks ago, that it could be possible to win an individual medal here, my horse has improved beyond all recognition,” he said ,” at Hickstead he found a new gear and now here I am.”

When asked what he is doing next with Uthopia, Carl said: “In three weeks I go to the British Championships, then there will be a few shows at home before Olympia. After that he will have a rest and we will start preparing for the Olympics next May.”

Will Uthopia be sold before next year’s Olympic Games? “No, we are hanging on with our fingernails until London!.”

Spanish showman Juan Manuel Munoz Diaz set the arena alight with a truly entertaining performance from his gray stallion Fuego de Cardenas that included fabulous one-tempi changes on a left-handed circle and a daredevil one-handed one-tempi parade up the center line.

The spectators could not contain themselves even though there was plenty more of the test to come, and broke out into spontaneous applause in time with the music.

His leading score of 80.982 per cent held for only a moment however, as Patrik Kittel quickly swept it away with a stunning ride on Watermill Scandic H.B.C.. The 12-year-old stallion has often shown rhythm and precision, but this test took those elements to another level altogether as horse and rider blended into a single unit that was completely in harmony with their Depeche Mode musical score.

Scandic looks like he could do perfect passage all day long and that, accompanied by wonderful piaffe, helped achieve a personal-best score of 83.429.

“I’m so happy sitting here with a medal around my neck!,”Patrik said. “I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a kid and it’s very special. Today my horse went better than ever and because I went early I was sitting there waiting to see everyone else. Watermill Scandic is unbelievably good at the moment. When he was doing his last piaffe/passage today I was thinking ‘is this real?’.”

Complete results of Grand Prix Freestyle

RK		HORSE – BREEDING SEX\COLOUR\BORN\SIRE X SIREDAM\		€	K	E	H	C	M	B	F	%
		RIDER OWNER			TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC	TECHNICAL ARTISTIC
1		Jerich Parzival – KWPN G \ Chestnut \ 1997 \ Jazz x Ulft		15000	87.25	86.50	83.00	88.25	83.75	88.25	82.75	88.839
		Adelinde  Cornelissen(NED) W.P.J. & M.A. Cornelissen, H. Jerich			92.00	91.00	90.00	95.00	94.00	91.00	91.00
2		Uthopia – KWPN S \ DarkBay \ 2001 \ Metall x Inspekteur		12000	83.25	79.00	81.00	81.75	79.00	83.75	74.75	84.179
		Carl  Hester (GBR) Mrs S Stewart, Mr D Harrison			91.00	84.00	88.00	91.00	89.00	88.00	85.00
3		Watermill Scandic H.B.C – KWPN S \ Chestnut \ 1999 \ Solos Carex DVH 609 x Amiral ZW.P.S.		9000	80.75	79.00	81.00	78.75	79.50	79.25	75.75	83.429
		Patrik  Kittel (SWE) J.W. Greve & HBC Stal			89.00	87.00	87.00	90.00	89.00	87.00	85.00
4		Mistral Hojris – DWB G \ Chestnut \ 1995 \ Michellino x Ibsen		7000	80.50	79.75	78.75	79.00	81.75	77.25	82.25	83.018
		Laura  Bechtolsheimer(GBR) Dr Wilfried Bechtolsheimer, Ursula Bechtolsheimer			87.00	84.00	85.00	89.00	88.00	83.00	87.00
5		Totilas – KWPN S \ Black \ 2000 \ Gribaldi x Glendale		5000	79.25	78.75	76.75	79.25	75.75	81.25	75.75	81.696
		Matthias Alexander  Rath (GER) Paul Schockemöhle, Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff			83.00	84.00	87.00	88.00	88.00	83.00	84.00
6		Fuego de Cardenas – PRE S \ Grey \ 1998 \ Utrerano VII x Elegido III		3000	80.25	76.50	74.75	75.50	78.50	76.50	71.75	80.982
		Juan Manuel  Muñoz Diaz (ESP) Miguel A. de Cardenas			88.00	84.00	85.00	87.00	88.00	84.00	84.00
7		El Santo NRW – RHEIN G \ Bay \ 2001 \ Ehrentusch x Rhythmus		2500	80.75	73.25	74.00	81.50	79.50	80.50	77.00	80.536
		Isabell  Werth (GER) Madeleine Winter-Schulze, Isabell Werth			87.00	76.00	82.00	86.00	86.00	82.00	82.00
8		Damon Hill NRW – WESTF S \ DarkChestnut \ 2000 \ Donnerhall x Rubinstein I		2000	80.00	78.00	77.00	77.75	77.50	77.75	76.25	80.446
		Helen  Langehanenberg(GER) Christian Becks			84.00	81.00	83.00	85.00	87.00	82.00	80.00
9		Valegro – KWPN G \ Bay \ 2002 \ Negro x		1500	80.50	78.50	76.25	77.75	76.00	79.00	77.00	79.357
		Charlotte  Dujardin(GBR) Rowena Luard			79.00	78.00	79.00	83.00	85.00	83.00	79.00
10		Digby – DWB G \ DarkBay \ 1997 \ Donnerhall x Sandro		1000	79.50	75.75	73.00	75.00	76.00	75.75	74.25	78.804
		Nathalie zu  Sayn-Wittgenstein (DEN) Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein			82.00	79.00	81.00	84.00	84.00	83.00	81.00
11		Exquis Nadine – KWPN M \ Chestnut \ 1995 \ TCN Partout x Roemer		800	74.50	74.75	71.75	72.50	74.25	72.75	70.75	76.589
		Hans Peter  Minderhoud (NED) Team Exquis			81.00	78.00	80.00	80.00	83.00	78.00	81.00
12		Martini – PHBA G \ Bay \ 2001 \ Deryl SP x Madryt		800	74.50	73.00	74.00	71.50	73.75	70.75	71.75	74.446
		Beata  Stremler (POL) Inter-Api Sp. z o.o.			77.00	77.00	77.00	76.00	79.00	70.00	77.00
13		Eremo del Castegno – SI G \ Bay \ 2001 \ Rohdiamant x Weltmeyer		800	71.50	70.75	71.00	69.75	72.25	64.00	69.50	73.054
		Valentina  Truppa(ITA) Gavan s.r.l.			75.00	76.00	78.00	77.00	81.00	70.00	77.00
14		Jonstrupgaardens Raneur – DWB G \ Bay \ 1999 \ Ragazzo x Schwadroneur		800	70.25	70.00	70.75	69.50	71.00	70.25	71.00	72.268
		Lisbeth  Seierskilde(DEN) Gert Seierskilde			74.00	72.00	73.00	73.00	76.00	76.00	75.00
15		Favourit – RHEIN G \ Chestnut \ 1999 \ Fidermark x Worldchamp		800	70.50	68.25	65.50	69.50	71.75	66.00	63.50	70.500
		Tinne  Vilhelmson-Silfven (SWE) Lövsta Stuteri			72.00	71.00	74.00	76.00	76.00	74.00	69.00