USA & Netherlands Tied at Top Midway Through Rotterdam CDIO5* Nations Cup

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, June 23, 2022–The United States and the Netherlands were tied at the top of the CDIO5* Nations Cup Friday midway through the team competition with Dinja van Liere and Hermès posting a personal best near-80% score .

Dinja and the 10-year-old stallion Hermès scored 79.739% to finish atop the Grand Prix standings with Ashley Holzer of Wellington, Florida leading the United States to place third individually with a score of 72.957%. Patrik Kittel of Sweden on Blue Hors Zepter was second individually on 76.130%. Emmelie Scholtens on Indian Rock, a nine-year-old KWPN stallion, was fourth on 72.783%.

Team standings after the Grand Prix with the Special and Freestyle set for Saturday: 1. USA & Netherlands tied on 19. points; 3. Sweden 29; 4. France 35; 5. Great Britain 45; 6. Switzerland and Belgium tied on 47 points. Two of three German horses were pulled from the competition though Nicole Wego-Engelmeyer rode Saphira Royal as an individual to place fifth on 72,457%

USA team scores to count were Ashley on Valentine, Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, New Jersey on Serenade MF, a nine-year-old American-bred Hanoverian mare, was seventh individually on 71.239% Katie Duerrhammer of Greenwood Village, Colorado on Paxton,  11-year-old Westfalen gelding, was 11th on 70.456%. This was the first European competition for both horses. Alice rode Candescent at Aachen, Germany and Katie competed Quartett at Achleiten, Austria last year. Katie and Quartett won the national Grand Prix here Wednesday and will be on the American team at the CDIO5* Nations Cup in Aachen next week.

This event was one of two Nations Cups this week and next that are selection trials for the world championships in Herning, Countries that have teams here and at Aachen, Germany next week include USA, Holland, Sweden, Great Britain.

Dinja smiled broadly and said she was happy this Nations Cup as distinct from a year ago when she was dropped from the Dutch team selected for the Tokyo Olympics because Hermès was mistakenly identified by a bureaucrat as German and not Dutch.

And, she said, she is “very, very happy” with performance of the horse and wants to fix some tiny things so the pair can breach 80%.

Ashley described Valentine as “very green” at top sport with only 10 CDI Grand Prix starts in the past two years, all at Wellington’s Global Dressage Festival before this first Big Tour in Europe.

“She’s never seen anything like this and is a very sensitive mare,” said Ashley who is well known in Europe for competing for Canada until switching to ride for the U.S.in 2017. he rode Havanna at the World Cup Finsl in Leipzig, Germany in April, her first championship for America.

Alice Tarjan said of her ride: “I think it’s the best thst we have done putting it all together for a more consistent test and keeping her with me throughout the whole test. I’m just happy that I was able to keep her with me for the most psrt for the whole test.”

Results:

CDIO5* Nations Cup Grand Prix