The Dutch team scored a decisive win at the home leg of the FEI Nations Cup dressage series in Rotterdam, with Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival leading the way.
Parzival is the prince
Adelinde and the 17-year-old chestnut have only recently returned to top level competition after a absence of nine months, following surgery to correct a heart arrhythmia. They netted the highest score of the day in Rotterdam with 81.480%.
“We came back out at Arnhem two weeks ago and there were too many mistakes. The last time we were out [before then] was in Vienna last September and since then we have just been training and training. I wanted tochange some stuff and if you do competitions it’s not possible,” said Adelinde, who missed the World Cup in order to concentrate on preparing for the World Equestrian Games.
Top squad
The Netherlands were fielding their strongest combinations in Rotterdam, with the view of observing the riders ahead of this summer’s World Equestrian Games.
Team hopes must now be high when Adelinde and her team mates Edward Gal, Danielle Heijkoop and Hans Peter Minderhoud took the top four individual placings as well as winning the team competition.
With such consistency, the World championships in Normandy look set to become an epic battle – with Germany and Holland both likely to field extremely strong teams, while Great Britain boast the not-so-secret weapon of Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro.
Nations cup
Denmark finished second in Rotterdam, 10 points behind the Dutch team, while Sweden was third. Great Britain fielded a team that did not feature any of our recent medal-winning riders, and finished in fourth place.
There are two legs of the FEI Nations Cup series left to go – Aachen in Germany, before the series concludes at Hickstead.