By Claartje van Andel dressagedirect and FEI press release

Double European gold medallists, Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival, swept the opposition aside with a convincing victory in the third leg of the 2009/2010 FEI Dressage World Cup™ series in Stockholm, Sweden this afternoon. Pipping runners-up Matthias Alexander Rath and Triviant from Germany by more than a nine-point margin, the crowd-pleasing Dutch partnership and silver Freestyle medallist of the EC in Windsor firmly declared their intention to make their mark on this indoor season with a performance that put them in a class of their own. It was a triumph over the first-day nerves that gripped the 12 year chestnut horse in yesterday’s Grand Prix. “Parzival was terrified by the hundreds of flashlights that went off during his test and he didn’t do himself justice yesterday”, commented Ground Jury president Gustaf Svalling afterwards. “It’s a big problem for the very popular horses, but today he was way ahead on marks, they did a great job”, he added.
Adelinde herself took her time before she returned to the show lights after her incredibly successful EC. As her first international successes have been in Scandinavia in Falsterbo and Adelinde feels very welcome in Scandinavia, her choice to start in Stockholm was no coincidence at all, the more as Holland was chosen as the partner country of the Stockholm Horseshow this year.
“After Windsor Parzival had a good rest. He deserved it”, Adelinde explained. “Since then I’ve just been building him up slowly again.  He’s getting more and more supple all the time, even more than he was at Windsor. Last week was the first time we did any proper exercises. They are just peanuts to him, he finds them so easy!” said the delighted rider. She admitted her powerful chestnut had been tense during yesterday’s Grand Prix indeed. “He was strong and spooky, he finds it much more difficult indoors when the spectators are so close. But he settled well today and we’ve only just started back indoors so after all I’m very happy”, Adelinde concluded.
Her schedule of course is to participate in the 25th FEI World Cup™ Final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in her home country. “Now she is looking forward to compete in London, Mechelen and Amsterdam.

The Netherlands’ Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival, winners of the third leg of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage series in Stockholm (Swe) today Photo: Annica Feltendal/Stockholm International Horse Show 2009

Runner up Matthias Rath was well-pleased with his result.  “Yesterday I was very disappointed with myself. I was a bit passive and didn’t get everything out of my horse but today was a lot better” said the 25 year old. Judge Gustav Svalling backed up those comments. “There was a huge difference between yesterday and today for Matthias, he was too laid back yesterday and much more forward today – that’s the difference between fourth yesterday and second today”, he explained.
Third place went to the home side’s Minna Telde and Don Charly who, like the winners, were also making their World Cup seasonal debut while The Netherlands Aat Van Essen rode Premier into fourth ahead of Germany’s Hubertus Schmidt and Hinnerk in fifth. Hubertus Schmidt also participated in an educational dressage class and is following Swedish successes with his advices.

There was an emotional retirement ceremony during the show for former Swedish team dressage horse Briar, who was ridden to great success by Jan Brink. Picture www.stockholmhorseshow.com

Withdrawals
Just 13 of the 15 qualified horses competed in today’s competition following the withdrawal of Tinne Wilhelmson Silfven’s great old campaigner Solox Carex who became lame during the warm-up while Holland’s Christa Laarakkers and Ovation, third in the Grand Prix yesterday, also suffered an injury.  Hubertus Schmidt held the lead at the halfway stage with a score of 72.30%, until Minna Telde and Don Charly raised the bar when putting a mark of 73.60% on the board.  The softness of Don Charly’s movements were complimented by his rider’s subtle aids but Minna admitted to some mistakes afterwards. In fact she had to think quickly when a change of plan was suddenly required. “After the extended canter I should have done the two-tempis but I forgot, so I quickly decided to do the half-pass instead - I was hoping nobody noticed!” she explained.  She intended to bring out the 12 year old horse which she has been riding for the last seven years for the opening leg of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage season at Odense in October but Don Charly who unfortunately returned home injured from the WC Final in Las Vegas wasn’t ready. “So today I consider that we did a really good job because he’s not at top level at the moment and he was much better today than he was yesterday when we finished fifth!", pointed out the rider who will celebrate her 35th birthday in three weeks time. She had an extremely busy time and she will have over the next few weeks because she just bought a farm and is in the middle of renovating it. The farm is 20 minutes from Lund and 30 minutes from Malmo, in the south of Sweden. “We have moved into the house but the horses are not there yet. I hope we will have them moved in by Christmas!”, Telde said. 

There seemed little chance that any of the remaining three would come anywhere near that target score but Holland’s Aat van Essen and Premier, who were second in the Grand Prix yesterday, scored 73.05% and that was good enough for fourth place today while Rath and Triviant snatched runner-up position with a mark of 74.35%. 
Having shot up to second in the 2009/2010 FEI World Cup™ Dressage rankings behind leader Anky Van Grunsven who won both Odense and Lyon, Rath now heads for the German leg of the series in his home town of Frankfurt next month while today’s victors, Cornelissen and Parzival, join a star-studded cast for the fourth leg of the series at London’s Olympia in just under three weeks time.

FEI WORLD CUP™ DRESSAGE 2009/2010 - STANDINGS AFTER THIRD LEG AT STOCKHOLM: (Provisional)
1. Anky Van Grunsven  (NED) 34
2. Matthias Alexander Rath (GER) 27
3. Jeannette Haazen (NED)  24
3. Monica Theodorescu (GER) 24
5. Hubertus Schmidt (GER)  23
6. Adelinde Cornelissen (NED) 20
6. Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven (SWE) 20
6. Peter Gmoser (AUT)  20
9. Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED) 19
10. Pierluigi Sangiorgi (IT)  17
10. Edward Gal (NED)  17   

The results of CDI-W Stockholm have already been send to you. Stockholm International Horse Show rose to fame as the biggest indoor equestrian event in the world when, in 2003, it attracted 77,000 spectators over three days. Find more news at www.stockholmhorseshow.com