Adelinde Cornelissen and her Grand Prix horse Parzival will make a show come back at the 2014 CDI Arnheim on 7 - 8 June 2014. The duo has not been out to a competition in nine months with their last show being the 2013 CDI Vienna in Austria in September 2013.
Cornelissen plans on vying for a spot on the Dutch team for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, France, and by-passed the entire indoor and World Cup circuit to spare her 17-year old Dutch warmblood gelding Parzival (by Jazz x Ulft).
"I'm almost afraid to say it. Parzival is 17 years old now and each time I think I got the maximum out of him, he improves himself again," Cornelissen stated in a press release. "
Cornelissen and Parzival won team gold and Special Gold at the 2009 European Championships, they were the 2012 Olympic individual silver medallists, 2011 and 2012 World Cup Winners, and they won team silver and double bronze at the 2013 European Championships.
In 2013 Parzival was diagnosed with cardiac arrhyhtmia and was operated on. He returned back to fitness being trained with a heart monitor. To spare the horse he was not shown this winter.
"This was according to plan," Cornelissen commented about her self-imposed 9-month show break. "If you do the indoor season, you have to ride the world cup shows. If you want to make a chance to the Finals, you have to ride them all if possible as The Netherlands only has three tickets for the Finals. The Finals are at the end of April and then you have to give your horse a show break to get him fit again for the World Championships at the end of August. I made a decision and I chose for the World Equestrian Games in Normandy."
Cornelissen added that she has been training hard this winter to improve her horse.
"I've tried a few different things, like a new bit. If you go to a show, you can't do that. But if you do what you did you get what you got. That's why this show break is so important. If you change your technique, it takes time. Parzival is not a 4-year old and I'm also used to a certain system. If you change small things, it has big consequences for the rest. Now I'm slowly test-training and am looking forward to Arnheim."
Photo © Astrid Appels
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