It was exciting down to the wire at the FEI European Championships in Aachen today (August 13), where Edward Gal led the Dutch dressage team to gold in tightly fought battle for the top spot.
Great Britain still secured a podium finish to claim team silver, followed by host nation Germany who picked up bronze.
Top team
The four-strong Dutch team of Patrick van der Meer, Diedriek van Silfhout, Hans Peter Minderhoud and Edward Gal put in world class performances across the board – without a single rider dropping below a score of 70%.
But it was Edward Gal who stole the show with 15-year-old gelding Glock’s Undercover N.O.P., who seemed completely relaxed in the spectacular arena to score a whopping 82.229%.
Team chef d’equipe Wim Ernes said: “I think I have a top team here with me. We had a lot of fun and also did a good job.”
Gal – who made world headlines with Totilas before he was sold to the Germans – said more experience had made all the difference to Undercover’s performance.
“He did Las Vegas and here you don’t notice what’s outside the arena so much because there are so many judges houses,” he added. “It feels actually very small.
“For him it was quite a good atmosphere and the people are far away. In the ring it felt quiet and he was good.”
Another medal for the Brits
It was a great day for the Brits who were beaten to the top spot by less than 1.5% to take her home their seventh medal in the last seven years of championships.
In one of the most anticipated showdowns in dressage history, world and Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro went head-to-head with dressage giant Totilas and came out on top.
Despite making some costly mistakes in the half-passes and one-time changes, the remarkable combination still managed to pull off the highest scoring test of the day with a mark of 83.029%.
But Totilas – who is back at championship level after a long break due to injury – was marked firmly in the 70s scoring 75.971% under German rider Matthias Rath.
New team member Fiona Bigwood really pulled it out of the bag for the team, collecting a mark of 75.8% with top horse for the future Atterupgaards Orthilia.
All to play for in Rio
Team stalwart Carl Hester, who posted a score of 75.4% with Nip Tuck, said he was thrilled to collect silver and said the Brits are in strong position ahead of the Olympics in Rio next year.
“For us we always try to remember where we have come from – the bottom,” he added. “Germany and Holland have always been our aspirations so it’s great we can finally be included in a group like that.
“The most interesting thing for us is we have now managed to win medals for seven years which is a great achievement.
“To have a new rider on our team is really exciting for the future. We have Fiona with an amazing horse so that makes our country even stronger. We are looking forward to next year because looking at the results from today it could be any team that could win a gold medal in Rio.”
Richard Waygood, team chef d’quipe, said: “We are very proud of all our riders. We have got some great potential for the next year and it will make the Olympics very exciting.”
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