Dutch riders claimed the first two places in the opening leg of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage 2012/2013 series at Odense in Denmark today where defending champions, Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival, scored a convincing victory.

Edward Gal, series champion in 2010 with Totilas, lined up second with Blue Hors Romanov while Danish riders filled the next two places. Anna Kasprzak, at 22 years of age the youngest competitor in today’s Freestyle, pipped the considerably more experienced partnership of Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Digby when slotting into third, while Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven and Don Auriello lined up fifth for Sweden.

It was an exciting test from Cornelissen whose career highlights include back-to-back Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage titles in 2011 and 2012, double gold at the 2011 European Championships, and individual silver at this summer’s Olympic Games in London, all partnering the chestnut gelding who, at 15 years of age, still sparkles.
Today’s result was all the more remarkable for the fact that the 33 year old Dutch rider is altering her riding technique. Prompted by the words of Olympic Ground Jury President, Great Britain’s Stephen Clarke, who said after she finished behind British gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin at Greenwich Park this summer that Parzival needed to show “more lightness and self-carriage” in order to beat Dujardin’s ride, Valegro, Cornelissen is working on just that. And, as she pointed out today, “it’s getting better and better, and it feels really amazing!”

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