Monday April 5, 2004

Anky van Grunsven Wins 2004 World Cup Finals in Dusseldorf

The 2003 Annus Horribilis of Anky van Grunsven is totally over. The Dutch diva is back with a bang, and not just with a small poof. Anky scored a 83.450% for her French chanson inspired kur to music and left all competition far behind her.

While Salinero was tense and nervous in the Grand Prix test on Friday, on Sunday during the finals, the horse had settled down and seemed extremely rideable. Only in the tempi's Salinero seemed to tense up again, but in the piaffe-passage, traversal movements and pirouettes he was brilliant.

"It's my best Kur on Salinero so far," Anky said at the press conference, adding "I'm very pleased with him." Judge at C Volker Moritz, praised Anky's test for its creativity. "Salinero is just breath taking," Moritz confessed.

The generous 83.45% score makes you wonder whether the judges have decided that Salinero is now the better horse compared to Rusty. Rust and Salinero achieve the same marks at this moment, though Rusty is still two regions above Salinero because of his looseness and his overall relaxation in his achievement to be perfect.

Finishing second at the Finals was Anky's student Edward Gal, the new shooting star of the Netherlands. Aboard his KWPN stallion Gestion Lingh (by Flemmingh), Gal rides to very modern, refreshing music based on Indian tribal themes and Gregorian techno music. Lingh effortlessly piaffes and passages through the ring and shows lovely extensions that sometimes could be more engaged from behind.

Dutch Chef d'equipe Bert Rutten was ecstatic about these Dutch achievements. While at the 2001 European Championships, Holland was not even able to qualify for the Special, in Dusseldorf, the nation seemed totally back in the picture. "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched," Rutten said. "We'll see what happens at Athens, but this has been a great moral boost for the Dutch dressage."