Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands, April 20–Adelinde Cornelissen spent a sleepless night worried about a veterinary re-inspection but it did not stop her from claiming victory on her Jerich Parzival in the World Cup Final Grand Prix Friday serving notice that the pair are focused on repeating as champions for the second year in a row.

The world’s top ranked partnership were so synchronized that when the background music in the arena stopped as the pair were near the end of their final centerline of passage that Parzival halted and Adelinde had to get him going again to finish in the right place.

Despite the mistake that she later joked about, the Dutch pair scored 78.024 per cent with Germany’s Helen Langehanenberg on Damon Hill NRW second on 76.125 per ent and Italy’s Valentina Truppa on Eremo del Castegna third on 75.106 per cent.

The death of the internationally popular German national dressage coach Holger Schmezer on the eve of the Final cast a pall over the competition and the riders and officials paid tribute to him with a minute’s silence in the arena at the end of the Grand Prix.

One of the riders who seemed deeply affected was Isabell Werth of Germany whose ride on El Santo NRW contained several mistakes, including spooking twice at a television camera near a corner of the arena. The two-time World Cup champion finished 10th with a score of 69.802 per cent.

And there was widespread criticism of the the open draw in which all 18 names were placed in a basket and assigned a starting position by a draw regardless of world ranking as Adelinde and Parzival started second when normally they would be in the final group, and Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill were sixth to go.

Parzival, a 15-year-old KWPN chestnut gelding (Jazz x Fidora x Ulft) who, failed the veterinary check Thursday and had to return for a veterinary re-inspection Friday, just three hours before the start of the Grand Prix, but it passed with no questions.

Adelinde said after the Grand Prix that she was still a little rusty as the pair have competed only twice in the past four months, at the World Cup qualifiers in Mechelen, Belgium, and in Amsterdam.

“We don’t have the rhythm yet,” she said.

She said she still did not know why the horse failed the first vet check, but thought that it might be because Parzival was “being stupid and biting.” She rode the horse later Thursday to see if she could feel anything wrong, but could feel nothing.

“It was a hell of a night,” Adelinde said. “It was not the best preparation. I could have used a few more hours of sleep.”

The format of the draw was re-introduced to dressage this year with the aim, according to Trond Asmyr, dressage director at the International Equestrian Federation, that all entrants in the World Cup Final should have an equal opportunity in the starting order for the Grand Prix. The results of the Grand Prix determine the starting order for the Freestyle which decides the World Cup.

Adelinde was the first to be asked about the draw.

“I prefer the draw in which I am in the last group,” she said.

Gerrit-Jan Swinkels, the organizer of the ‘s-Hertogenbosch competition, said:  “in my oinion, it’s very bad. This way is not a good way.”

Spectators, he cited as an example, left the stands after Adelinde’s ride to go shopping rather than fill the arena for the final group.”

The CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle was won by Denmark’s Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby with a score of 80.900 per ent with The Netherlands’ Imke Schellekens-Bartels and Hunter Douglas Toots second on 76.625 per cent and Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén and Favourit third on 76.000 per cent.

Results of the World Cup Grand Prix: