Dressage-News

MECHELEN, Belgium, Dec. 28, 2014–Danielle Heijkoop rode Siro N.O.P. to victory in the World Dressage Masters CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday, beating Adelinde Cornelissen on Jerich Parzival for the first time and posting a personal best score.

Danielle, coached and mentored by Dutch superstar Anky van Grunsven, scored 83.000 per cent on the 15-year-old KWPN gelding that she began competing at Grand Prix 2 1/2 years ago. The pair placed third in the Grand Prix Saturday.

Parzival, who had won the Grand Prix Saturday, placed second on 82.050 per cent in the final competition of the year and three days before officially turning 18 years old. Sweden’s Patrik Kittel on Watermill Scandic was third on 77.600 per cent.

“I am a super proud trainer,” Anky declared of the performance by Danielle and Siro.

Danielle and Siro were placed first by four of the five judges, one awarding Adelinde the top spot.

The previous best Freestyle result for Danielle and Siro was 81.300 per cent at this same show a year ago.

Sunday’s Freestyle was the ninth time Danielle and Siro have competed in the same international event against Adelinde and Parzival, beginning with three events at the the European Championships in Herning, Denmark in August, 2013 then twice more at both Rotterdam in June and Stuttgart, Germany in October this year and the Grand Prix here.

The pair were successful in Under-25 competition before moving up to international senior Grand Prix in 2012 and notching their first victory at that level the same year.

Their first big success was at the European Championships at Herning, Denmark in 2013  when the duo beat out Dutch team veteran Hans Peter Minderhoud to qualify for the final 15 in the Freestyle.

They achieved their goal of being named to the Dutch World Games team in Normandy this summer, but had to withdraw beforehand when Siro was injured.

Siro and Danielle, now 27 years old, have since returned to form with placings in the top five in major European World Cup qualifying events.

Although this event did not count in qualifying for the World Cup Final in Las Vegas in mid-April, Adelinde disclosed that she still is weighing whether to make the journey to n Las Vegas in mid-April.

The two-time World Cup championship gelding not only will be 18 years old, Adelinde pointed out, but he underwent treatment for a heart problem.

If the pair do not compete in Las Vegas, the Final will be lacking two recent champions–Helen Langehanenberg of Germany, who won the title in 2013 on Damon Hill NRW gave up the ride after their World Games team gold medal performance.

Julie de Deken on the 13-year-old Lucky Dance claimed the Grand Prix Special with 72.765 per cent, a personal best and the second win for the Belgian World Games team pair since starting Big Tour almost two years ago.

Patrick van de Meer of the Netherlands on Uzzo placed second on 71.882 per cent and Belgian’s Francoise Joux-Hologne on Wodan was third on 70.882 per cent.

Julie, now 29 years old, is a former Belgian team Young Rider and competed the Hanoverian stallion on Belgian teams at the 2011 European Championships and Nations Cups in France and Germany.

Results:

Grand Prix Freestyle

Mechelen CDI5* GPFS

Grand Prix Special

Placed competitors							(E)	(H)	(C)	(M)	(B)	Total
1.	557	Lucky Dance	de Deken, Julie	BEL		4500.00 EUR	368.5	368.0	382.0	368.5	368.5	1855.5 points
	dbay 13y.S /Lucky Lionell/Placido – Sun/HANN/102OE64/ De Deken – De Vos						72.255 %	72.157 %	74.902 %	72.255 %	72.255 %	72.765 %
							1.	1.	1.	1.	2.
2.	573	Uzzo	Meer, Patrick van de	NED		3500.00 EUR	368.0	356.0	370.5	367.0	371.5	1833.0 points
	bay 13y.G /Lancet/Indoctro/KWPN/NED40460/ Trainingsstal de hoeve						72.157 %	69.804 %	72.647 %	71.960 %	72.843 %	71.882 %
							2.	2.	2.	2.	1.
3.	567	Wodan (nl)	Joux-Hologne, Francoise	BEL		2600.00 EUR	361.0	356.0	362.5	364.5	363.5	1807.5 points
	bay 11y.S /Gribaldi/Pion/KWPN/FRA46608/ Niclaus Jean						70.784 %	69.804 %	71.078 %	71.470 %	71.274 %	70.882 %
							3.	2.	3.	3.	3.
4.	551	Vitana V	Barbancon, Morgan	ESP		1600.00 EUR	350.0	339.0	343.5	359.5	356.0	1748.0 points
	bay 12y.M /Donnerhall/Hemmingway/KWPN/103CD42/ J.Cuppen						68.627 %	66.471 %	67.353 %	70.490 %	69.804 %	68.549 %
							4.	5.	6.	4.	4.
5.	570	Star Wars	Liegard, Bertrand	FRA		1100.00 EUR	339.0	347.5	341.0	345.5	339.5	1712.5 points
	bay 12y.G /Show Star/Rosenkavalier/SCSL/103GH88/ Liegard Bertrand						66.471 %	68.137 %	66.863 %	67.745 %	66.569 %	67.157 %
							5.	4.	7.	5.	6.
6.	569	Vian Stallone	Kovan’ko, Alisa	UKR		900.00 EUR	334.5	336.5	345.5	340.0	336.5	1693.0 points
	bay 15y.G /Lancet/Symfonie/KWPN/103EF13/ Llc Vian Group						65.588 %	65.980 %	67.745 %	66.667 %	65.980 %	66.392 %
							6.	6.	5.	6.	7.
7.	552	Amorak	Brieussel, Stephanie	FRA		800.00 EUR	330.5	330.5	346.5	334.5	340.0	1682.0 points
	bay 9y.G /Special D/Inspekteur/KWPN/103ZQ10/ Madame Stephanie Brieussel						64.804 %	64.804 %	67.941 %	65.588 %	66.667 %	65.961 %
							7.	7.	4.	7.	5.