Canadian Dressage Team Wins Bronze at CDIO Rotterdam

Ottawa, ON – The Canadian Dressage Team comprised of Ashley Holzer, Belinda Trussell and Bonnie Bonnello won the team bronze medal in the Nations’ Cup on June 17, 2010 at CDIO 5* Rotterdam, NED, held June 16 – 20 in Rotterdam, NED.

With a combined team score of 201.74 following the Grand Prix, Ashley Holzer of Toronto, ON, and Pop Art (Amsterdam x Cabochon), a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Rusty Holzer and Moreen Nicoll, contributed the Team’s top score of 68.45%. Bonny Bonnello of Calgary, AB, earned 65.90% riding Pikardi (Point Maker x Daimont), a 13-year-old Canadian Warmblood gelding co-owned by Bonnello and Jean Bell. Newmarket, ON native Belinda Trussell and Anton, a 10-year old German-bred gelding (Antaeous x Saxony) owned by Robyn Eames, received a score of 67.39% to secure the bronze medal.

“I am very proud of Canada’s third place finish in the Nations Cup at Rotterdam,” said Dressage Canada technical coach/advisor, Robert Dover. “Placing ahead of teams like Sweden and Denmark prove we are moving in a positive direction and there is still much room for even more growth. We will continue to train hard both in Europe and North America to evolve into a medal contending team.”

The Netherlands won the team gold medal with a total score of 235.42, and German was awarded silver with 216.60. Sweden finished in fourth place with 200.4, and Belgium rounded out the top five teams with 196.05.

The international judging panel included Evi Eisenhardt (FEI 5*—GER), Ghislain Fouarge (FEI 5*—NED), Linda Zang (FEI 5*—USA), Gustav Svalling (FEI 4*—SWE), Jacques Van Daele (FEI 4*—BEL), Maribel Alonso (FEI 5*—MEX) and Mary Seefried (FEI 5*—AUS).

Following CDIO 5* Rotterdam, the Canadians riders will make their last stop of the European Tour at CDIO Aachen, GER, July 13 – 18, 2010. WEG-declared riders remaining in North America are attending Dressage at Blainville CDI 3* this week June 18 – 20, 2010, in Blainville, QC; and Edmonton Gold Rush CDI3*, to be held July 15 – 19, 2010, in Edmonton, AB, in order to earn WEG qualifying scores.

The European Tour has been made possible through the Own the Podium program, a national sport technical initiative designed to help Canada’s summer and winter athletes achieve podium success at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

For a current listing of WEG standings, please visit the Dressage Canada website at the following link:

http://www.equinecanada.ca/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=833&Itemid=371&lang=en-GB.

The riders currently qualified for the World Equestrian Games are outlined below:

Rider – Horse – Score Average

Ashley Holzer – Art – 72.329%

Belinda Trussell – Anton – 69.596%

Victoria Winter – Proton – 66.543%

Cheryl Meisner – Paganini – 66.500%

Shannon Dueck – Ayscha – 66.447%

Wendy Christoff – Pfalstaff – 66.377%