Third win Moorlands Totilas and Gal in Freestyle

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The last pair in the Deutsche Bank Prize Freestyle to music Edward Gal and the black stallion Moorlands Totilas again did what was in their possibilities and reached for more than 90% to win the Freestyle to music. In total the pair was awarded the dream score 10 by the judges no less than twenty-four times. The extreme extensions made the audience laugh aloud and Moorlands Totilas just played with all the exercises. The final score for the pair was 90.96 percent. “I almost feel ashamed to say that this is not a record”, Gal said joking. He apologized for over classing, which caused two mistakes. The Gribaldi son took one canter stride in the middle of a piaffe and made one canter stride before an extended trot. “I wanted too much and gave the aids too strongly”, Gal explained.



His horse still continues to astonish him. For the stallion it is the first time he is being used at stud during the competition season. Sperm is taken three times a week. “It was of course a risk to start doing it, but he is extremely cooperative and he continues being very easy in the handling. He is just amazing and I cannot find enough words to describe his specialties,” remarked Gal.
The Dutch also claimed second and third place in the Grand Prix Freestyle. So with Adelinde Cornelissen at runner up position and Imke Schellekens-Bartels being placed third, the ranking wasa remembrance of the 25th World Cup Final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in March, with the same three medal winners.

Adelinde Cornelissen ranked second with her 13-year-old Jazz/Ulft son, Jerich Parzival, with a total score of 85.607 percent. The looseness and relaxation and the easy movements all performed without tension, over the back and the neck as the highest point, really is an example for dressage. The two tempi changes and one tempi changes were performed impressively straight at the centerline. Adelinde had integrated an extremely difficult exercise into her freestyle routine: a half-pirouette in piaffe on the centerline to the right, followed directly by a half-pirouette to the left. The first time she did this exercise had been at the 25th World Cup Final in s‘-Hertogenbosch, now everything went like Adelinde had planned to ride it. “Parzival was totally concentrated in the arena, he didn’t let himself get distracted at all. In the past he was very nervous when he entered a stadium like this. But now he even seems to like the crowds more and more! I don’t know what the difference has made, he just is matured. I was very pleased with his performance here,“ reported Adelinde Cornelissen. Her team colleague, Imke Schellekens-Bartels, finished third (81.000 percent) with her mare owned by the Smarius family, Hunter Douglas Sunrise. “I spent a lot of time in Aachen to think about my riding”, Imke explained afterwards. “In Grand Prix I rode nicely but without the proper expression. Therefore I decided to take more risks and got mistakes. Now in the Freestyle I opted for the ‘risk without mistakes’ possibility and as always, the music always helped me to ride well.”



All pictures Ken Braddick and Ilse Schwarz |Dressage News from Around the Globe to You