Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival recorded their fourth victory of the 2010/2011 Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage season at Gothenburg, Sweden on February 26 and jumped to the top of the Western European League leaderboard.
The 32 year old rider and her 14-year-old horse produced a more harmonious test than ever before, and Cornelissen declared herself delighted with the result. Sweden’s Patrik Kittel finished a close second however with a personal-best result from his stallion Watermill Scandic HBC, while Germany’s Isabell Werth and Warum Nicht FRH had to settle for third.
In a competition that was very much “a game of two halves,” many of the early riders produced low scores. Ground Jury President, The Netherlands’ Wim Ernes, said “tonight we saw some bad tests… but the top riders did a good job.” He added “we saw today in the first group a lot of riders who did not have enough impulsion and so made a lot of mistakes.”
Watch this excellent video of Dressage competitor Anky Van Grunsven on Keltec Salinero at the 2006 Freestyle Dressage Final performance WEG2006.
Anky Van Grunsven is a Dutch dressage champion who won the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics with her horse Bonfire and gold in the 2004 Olympics and in the 2008 Olympics with her horse Salinero which she is riding in this video.
As of late 2008, Salinero now competes under the name “IPS Salinero,” changed from the former Gestion Salinero, and Keltec Salinero. Keltic Salinero is now 16 (2010) and retired from the big shows.
An old, but wonderful video of the late and legendary Blue Hors Matine being ridden by Andreas Helgstrand.
This ride took place at the WEG2006 Freestyle Dressage Final performance of award-winning Danish dressage rider Andreas Helgstrand, and is really quite an amazing clip to watch.
Blue Hors Matiné was retired from competition shortly after this video, in 2009 but had not competed since before the 2007 World Cup final, where she was injured in an accident before the event. She was put down after breaking her leg in a paddock accident.
As reported by horseandhound.co.uk, The Netherlands own, Edward Gal is leading the world of dressage riders after breaking his own previous record at the 2009 Olympia.
He learnt to ride at the age of 14, training at Rien van der Schaft before moving to Anky van Grunsven’s yard. He still trains with Anky and her partner Sjeff Janssen, as well as his own business partner Nicole Werner.
In 1998 Edward placed fourth at the PAVO cup — a young horse championship — with Kappuccino. Since 1999, Edward has been highly successful on the international scene, training four horses up to grand prix level — Gestion Risky Business, Gestion Kappuccino, Geldnet Lingh and Gribaldi.
He finished second at the 2005 Wold Cup finals in Las Vegas on Lingh, and came home with team silver from the 2005 European Championships in Turin as well as the 2006 World Equestrian Games at Aachen.
However, Edward’s most successful partnership has been with Moorlands Totilas, son of Gribaldi. At Olympia World Cup qualifier 2009, they broke their own world record score in the grand prix freestyle with an outstanding 92.3%. Possibly the most extraordinary horse and rider combination to date, all eyes are watching Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas.
Edward and business partner Nicole Werner currently manage a dressage stable in the Netherlands, where Edward coaches other top riders. He works alongside partner Hans Peter Minderhoud, supporting each other in training and competitions.
As reported by yourhorse.co.uk, there is a new British website available which allows you to compete in Dressage from the comfort of your own home; the program works by Dressage competitors submitting to the website for judging.
If you’re struggling to get out competing at the moment there is a new online dressage competition site that has just been launched. Dressage Anywhere is an exciting new competition website which allows you to ride a British Dressage test of your choice and have it judged by a top British Dressage judge without even leaving the yard!
The idea came from British Dressage List 1 judge and trainer Nereide Goodman together with partners, Lucinda Freeman and Ruth Chappell. They have been developing the project over the past 18 months, working closely with British Dressage. Their first competition schedule is now open. It’s simple to enter, ask a friend to video your test, upload it to www.dresssageanywhere.com following the simple on-screen instructions. When judging is completed you can download your score sheet from the website and see your result on the scoreboard.
There is prize money and rosettes so it is just like you are going out to compete but you don’t have the early start! You can chose to ride the test as training, this will still be judged by a British Dressage judge but one who is also a trainer. They will give you additional feedback to help to improve your performance in the arena.
This is a great new resource for all of the Dressage enthusiasts out there wishing to get to the next level of competition.
