Equestrian Championship at S'Hertogenbosch

Hi everyone! 

I had such a nice weekend I can’t writte about Amsterdam again, but only about what I did: I went to S’Hertogenbosch (30 minutes by train) to an equestrian competition. 

(Let's go to S'Hertogenbosch!)

But not any: It was the last step of the World cup of dressage and jumping before the finale! 

So many famous riders were there: the current Olympic champion of jumping Steve Gerdat, the current European champion of jumping Roger-Yves Bost, Isabell Werth: 7 Olympic medals, 6 times winner of the Dressage World Championship, ….. And several others!

Just to let you know, in dressage, riders and horses do figures, and each figure is graded. At the end the score is given in percentage. In jumping, each refusal or knockdown adding four faults to a competitor's score. The aim is to have a clean score, and be as quick as possible.

I arrived Saturday in the morning. In the morning there was Grand Prix freestyle CDI-4* (international level). And at 13h30 the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage – freestyle. 

The freestyle is the last step of a championship: “Movements and figures are choreographed to meet the technical requirements of the particular level with carefully chosen music that highlights the horse/rider combination.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_kur ). So it’s very entertaining. 

At this level, very difficult figures are realized. Here are some videos that I registered there, with some movements.

Kristian von Krusenstierna and Biggles1015 :

every-strides changes :

Double pirouette :

I was really happy to be there, for I saw my very favorite dressage rider: Edward Gal. Moreover he is from Netherland, and performed very well (as usual). 

I also watched Isabell Werth (one of the most medaled rider of the world. 

A French rider was there too (Marc Boblet, ridding Nobal Dream), and did a very nice representation (his mare is very expressive!). 

Marc Boblet and Noble Dream :

beginning, piaffe and passage:

double pirouette and every stride changes:


half-pass at canter and 2 strides changes:


extended trot, passage and piaffe:


half-pass at trot and passage, ending:






Edward Gal won with 86.700%, which is really huge (I think only for three or four others couples could do such a performance currently)

(final results of the Dressage World Cup  of S'Hertogenbosch)

In the afternoon there was an indoor Derby, and in the evening an international jumping, with jump-off (all the riders that made a clear round qualified and make another tour to determine their best). 

Five French riders took part, and two qualified in the jump-off. Finally the last rider that tried the jump-off made a clear round with the best time . . . And that was a French rider (Simon Delestre with Napoli du Ry) who won!

The day after, there was the national finale of jumping,category ponies. I didn’t watch and preferred to wander in the rooms. And I found something surprising: A stand of the university Avans! 

(Avans university at S'Hertogenbosch?)

Then I came to the paddocks, where everybody can see all the riders warm-up before going to the path. This is really interesting to see them do that, very instructive for riders.

(Empty at this moment, but I saw the riders and the horses, walking just on the other side of the barrier)

After that I came back to have a good seat for the two last competitions:  the Liliane founds Prijs and the Rolex Grand Prix. In this last one, the height of the fences is1m60 (this is my height!). There were plenty of very famous riders again. The two first riders who qualified for the jump-off were French! Sadly one of my favorite riders, Olympic champion Steve Gerdat, made 8 points of penalty, so he couldn’t do the jump-off. Finally five riders qualified for the jump-off. The two French did a clear round, and the faster did it in 42.96 seconds. But everybody knew the very last rider (Marco Kutscher, German) was very fast. And he did be fast … everybody thought at the moment that he had beaten the French guy, but he did 42.95 seconds! 1 hundredth of a second!

(First German rider to try the Grand Prix Rolex, Lars Nieberg and Casallora)

So finally he French won the big Grand Prix of the day (again).

That was really a great weekend. I look forward to watch the finale of Dressage and Jumping in April!