The Dutch team made a strong start at 2018 CDIO Rotterdam on Thursday 21 June 2018. After the Grand Prix, the first part of the FEI Nations Cup, team captain Rien van der Schaft’s riders are in first place. In the individual ranking, Edward Gal (NED) and his number one Zonik scored the highest. Therese Nilshagen (SWE) came in second place with Dante Weltino Old and her compatriot Patrik Kittel finished third with Well Done de la Roche CMF. The Swedish team are in second place at the moment, ahead of the United States.
Highly unusually the CDIO Grand Prix competition was not ridden in the big main stadium, but for the first time was relegated to the smaller B-arena in the forest where there is less room for the crowds to sit and which does not give that big "major competition" feel to the event.
Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED) started the competition for the Dutch team on Dream Boy and scored 73%. Second Dutch rider Emmelie Scholtens improved the team result with her 74.261%. Edward Gal and Zonikwere third and posted a winning 76.975% on the board. Holland's fourth ride, Madeleine Witte-Vrees on Cennin, were last to go but they made too many errors, which led to a rather disappointing score of 70.522%.
Edward Gal was very pleased with Zonik. ‘'Last year I rode Zonik here for the first time in an international Grand Prix and I see we haven’t just improved a great deal but that there is room to keep on improving’’, said the winner. ‘'And the judges like to see Zonik perform, that’s nice too!''
Therese Nilshagen also hopes to keep improving with her 11-year-old gelding Dante Weltine OLD. ‘'If we do, we could compete here next year at the European Championships’," said the German based Swedish rider. Patrik Kittel was also pleased with his results: ‘'It's not easy to be the last to start and my mare is still young. Still, she performed very well today.''
Dutch team trainer Rien van der Schaft is satisfied with his team’s performance. ‘'This is a good start’’, he said. ‘'Three out of four have performed really well. It was what I had hoped and expected. If you can win here with a score like Edward’s then that’s a great achievement of course. Only Madeleine Witte-Vrees didn’t perform as well. Her horse Cennin all of a sudden was spooky and tense, something he normally never is. In training everything seemed to be going really well, so this of course is a setback, but I’m sure they’ll get past this and then we’ll give it our all again.''
The Nations' Cup in Rotterdam is decided over three rounds. In the first round, the team result is made up by he three best Grand Prix scores per country. On Saturday, the FEI Nations Cup will continue. Two riders per country will compete in the Grand Prix Special and two in the Freestyle. Again, the scores of the three best combinations per team will make up the overall team score.
Photo © Lily Forado
Related Link
Scores: 2018 CDIO Rotterdam