The Dutch equestrian yearbook L’Année Hippique has proclaimed Edward Gal the 2009 Rider of the Year. The award recognizes not only notable achievements but also rewards consistency through the season.
The Rider of the Year Award would be handed to Gal at the 2009 CSI Maastricht last week, but Gal could not attend the festivities due to the flu.
"It was such a bummer that I couldn't be there," Gal said, "but I had a fever and it would have been irresponsible of me to have left my house. I really regret not being present for the award ceremony but that does not make me less proud. I'm honoured and grateful to have been proclaimed Rider of the Year."
Until mid-summer, the favourite for this year’s Leading Rider prize was undoubtedly World Cup winner and Aachen champion Steffen Peters who had an outstanding 12 months with the 11-year-old bay gelding Ravel. There were certainly landmarks. Not only was Peters the first US citizen in 23 years of the indoor championship to win the Cup crown outright, but also the first American since 1960 to claim the esteemed Aachen championship.
But just a few weeks before Aachen, the dressage cognoscenti were talking about a new combination -- a horse so impressive observers were finding it difficult, nigh impossible to find appropriate language to describe him. At Rotterdam, in his first international Grand Prix, Kees and Tosca Visser’s nine-year-old stallion, Totilas, scored a remarkable 79.149% under the expert guidance of Edward Gal. Significantly, it was more than six percentage points higher than the result achieved by Olympic champions Anky van Grunsven and Salinero.
On July 26th at Hickstead, Gal set a new world record for the Kur of 89.40% on the black son of Gribaldi, eclipsing the old record set by van Grunsven by nearly two percent. But that was just child’s play because a month later, at the European championships, as one 10 after another lit up the scoreboard, Gal and Totilas made the record books redundant, establishing the new frontier of 90% in the freestyle.
Talk about the WOW factor? This engaging couple is the best thing to hit dressage EVER. The well spoken, personable Gal is a credit to his profession and Totilas, well, he’s just as sociable, photogenic and relaxed in the spotlight as his rider. All in the sport hope that is where they can thrive and remain for a long time to come.
Photo copyrighted: Astrid Appels/Eurodressage
Related Links
Edward Gal Rides Grand Prix Record Score, The Netherlands Win Team Gold
Edward Gal Wins Kur to Music Gold Medal at Windsor Europeans
Edward Gal and Totilas Conquer 2009 Dutch Dressage Championships
Gal and Totilas, 2009 Dutch Indoor Dressage Champions