Three-time golden girl Anky van Grunsven
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Tonight’s Grand Prix Freestyle saw history rewritten when Anky van Grunsven for the Netherlands became the first ever rider to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals for dressage, beating her long-time adversary Isobell Werth by just over two percentage points: 78.68% to 76.65%, even though Werth went into this final round in first place. Heike Kemmer, also for Germany, clinched the bronze medal ahead of the USA’s Steffen Peters.
The top 15 riders from the Grand Prix Special qualified for this evening’s Freestyle which opened with Denmark’s Princess Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein dancing through music from West Side Story with the 11-year-old gelding Digby, bred by her mother, Princess Benedikte. Although the test was a little cautious lacked strong technical difficulty, and included a spooky moment, dropping her from 12th to 15th place, it was well choreographed and synchronized well with Digby’s light, elegant character. Apart from a moment’s confusion in the two-time flying changes and a lack of cadence during the passage and piaffe sequences, the test was conservative. “He spooked as he got in front of the big screen. He must have seen himself. Being the first rider makes it difficult. But I’m happy with my performance, bearing in mind this is only the second time I’ve taken part in a Freestyle.”
Heavy rock music was the choice for Andreas Helgstrand – “which better suited Don Schufro’s power, than something light,” and the stallion certainly exhibited his strength during a long passage sequence which ended with a 360-degree piaffe-pirouette. However, he also showed a lot of tension throughout much of the test, especially in the walk, which lost valuable marks, and there were also some uncertain transitions. The pair improved their position, moving from 14th to 11th with their combined scores from the GPS and Freestyle. “I’m pleased with my horse today. It is not easy to get high marks at the beginning of a Freestyle. That’s how it is.”
The best way to describe Ashley Holzer’s music was symphonic, but it didn’t especially compliment the character of Pop Art’s performance that was lacking a high degree of technicality, and the choreography was also a little uninspiring. “The horse was a little sluggish at the beginning. He has never been to a competition like this before. He’s always a good boy. Honestly, he’s a bit tired.”
Anky van Grunsven riding Salinero
Sweden’s Jan Brink chose an ethnic mix of music, primarily Spanish and Greek, to which Briar performed some floating half passes, but his piaffe lacked cadence and the walk was tense. Sadly, the music wasn’t inspirational for a horse with 17-year-old Briar’s presence, but Brink drew out the stallion’s strengths in the collected paces which were well rewarded. “I’m very happy with him, he is very fresh, he is feeling at home. It’s nice to end a big competition like the Olympic Games in this way. This is his last championship, but if he is fresh and can qualify for Las Vegas (the 2009 World Cup Final), then he will take part. I will retire him when he is fresh, not when he is fading.”
Among the middle group, three riders were competing in their first Olympic Games, Courtney King (USA), Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED) and Bernadette Pujals (MEX). For the first two, King dropped from 8th to 13th following a performance that lacked commitment and synchronization with the dull music. Meanwhile, Minderhoud’s choreography and Nadine’s bubbly character were well suited to the orchestrated pop songs from the sixties and seventies, with very accurate transitions and a relaxed walk. Although the pair was a little behind the music for the one-time flying changes, they finished with a superb passage/piaffe sequence and ended with a double pirouette. “Today was really good. I was a bit slow with the canter, but all my exercises were good.”
Unfortunately, despite some beautiful choreography, Bernadette Pujals and Vincent lacked synchronization with the flamenco-style music on several occasions, and some of the transitions misfired. A semi-circle of one-time flying changes worked well, there were some nice changes in direction and exceptional canter work, but overall the test lacked the harmony required for a Freestyle and Pujals dropped from 6th to 9th place. “It’s always something with a horse. You can’t push them. Then I didn’t work in-between because he was in a bad mood and not willing to work. I think also it was my nerves because I knew I did the same mistake with the half pass in April and did it again. I was nervous about that and couldn’t do it much better. He got ahead of me in the half pass, then I felt he was going to canter, and then he got long, then the music went over me and I thought ‘oh no!’ now what do I have to do? Really, overall I’m happy, although this mistake was really big, and if I hadn’t done it I could have been really high. When I ride to this music I have the feeling that I don’t really trust my rhythm, which is why I’m looking for the music and am too hectic. Really I don’t like to ride to music and confidence is based on repetition and having success before.”
Meanwhile, six-time Olympian Kyra Kyrklund for Finland can always be relied upon to produce an entertaining Freestyle, and this test was no exception as Max danced his way through tunes from the musical, Cabaret. However, the pair struggled with piaffe, became muddled at the beginning of the two-time flying changes, and produced a little too much swing with the hind end in passage. But overall, there were some nice half passes and pirouettes and they moved up from 10th to 8th. “I ride every day and compete against muyself, so it feels good to come to the Olympics and get into the final competition.”
Entering to the opening music for Gone With The Wind followed by other well-known Hollywood tunes, Russia’s Alexandra Korelova produced a smooth test that was full of expression and suited Balagur’s jaunty character, but with a lower degree of technical difficulty, they lost one place and dropped to 6th overall.
As the three groups draw for starting order, Isabell Werth followed with Satchmo and flowed to beautiful classical music punctuated with operatic vocals. However, just like in the Grand Prix Special, during a piaffe-pirouette sequence, Satchmo threw himself into rodeo mode for several seconds, although Werth soon regained control and completed the test without further histrionics. In fact, after this rocky start, and aware of losing marks for disobedience, the pair threw caution to the wind and took risks that paid off, and they were rewarded with a mark of 78.10% – a 76.65% average for the GPS and Freestyle. “I can’t give a clear answer why he did this. During the first piaffe in the Grand Prix Special he was scared, and today started good so perhaps I took too much risk with the piaffe pirouette, but you have to take risks to try and win. My challenge now is to give him back his confidence of the last three years, but he’s very sensitive, so this is my first goal.”
Germany’s Heike Kemmer had a tough act to follow, and also chose pop music which suited Bonaparte’s light paces, but there were several errors, notably before the half passes, and what appeared to be some communication issues during transitions, but the walk was regular and there was some well-balanced and rhythmic canter work that proved good enough for the bronze medal.
Competing in his second Olympic Games, American Steffen Peters produced a delightful test that began with drums and percussion, and progressed to stylized electronic music with a samba flavour. Overall, the choreography was very eye-catching and benefited from great synchronization and sharp transitions, but their 76.50% was insufficient to promote them from 4th place to a podium position. “I did not get a bronze, but I was very, very close. Sometimes you have dreams, and today I felt like I was in a dream that I could be in charge of. Discipline is the bridge between dreams and accomplishments. I think it paid off today. The welfare of horses always comes first. After the Olympics I have promised to build a small paddock just for him [Ravel].”
And so to golden girl Anky van Grunsven. To very powerful music composed especially for Salinero by Dutch maestro Wibi Soerjadi, the pair began with a superb passage-piaffe sequence, and although they produced disappointing half passes and a rather skittish walk, their strengths always produced a huge advantage when it came to scores and overall it was a gold medal test.
Asked how much additional pressure she was feeling as she was looking at a historic victory, van Grunsven responded by saying; “It was a horrible week with a lot of pressure. In Athens I had nothing to lose so I was relaxed, but this time I felt I really had to have a medal. I didn’t want to put to much pressure on Salinero in the Grand Prix Special, but I tried more and made a mistake. Today, I was more relaxed because I know Salinero can do a good Kür, and didn’t have to take all the risks, apart from the final halt … but I thought ‘I’ll forget about that one!’ At the end, I don’t think I did anything different because I felt safe. It’s unbelievable to win three times with two different horses so I consider myself extremely lucky.”
Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the final veterinary inspection for the showjumping horses qualified for Thursday’s individual final, and no competition is scheduled.
Full result: Individual Dressage Freestyle
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/EQ/C73DD/EQX001101.shtml#EQX001101
