Olympic Dressage: Dutch Medal Winners Celebrate

5 September 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFeskkJqwc4

Adelinde Cornelissen found out that it’s not easy to dance with one–let alone two–Olympic medals hanging around your neck. Check out the backdrop of this huge stage, with a mural of the team.

The staid image of dressage has been blown by The Netherlands. The secret is out: dressage riders can strut their stuff with the best of them on the stage. The sweat from riding hadn’t had a chance to dry before it was replaced by sweat from dancing as the Dutch dressage team was feted at the Heineken Holland House in London at the end of the Games last month. In the past few weeks, Great Britain has celebrated its dressage team with parades and parties from the Channel Islands to Scotland. But they weren’t the only ones. Dutch riders were feted in London and at home as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_-4cNQpiL4

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We learned that night that Edward Gal could ride a crowd as well as a horse as the Dutch fans took him for a crowd surf tour.

When she arrived home in The Netherlands, Adelinde Cornelissen celebrated her silver medal win with some of her favorite people–her fan club. They came armed with dozens of cell phones and said they came to see Parzival, but you can tell (if you don’t speak Dutch), that they were hanging on every word Adelinde said! The tour of her motor home seemed to impress the girls as much as the stable! If Adelinde seems right at home shepherding a tribe of children through her training center, remember that she was a teacher before she left her job to become a professional rider. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrbM9V3kmIM

Have you ever seen so many blond girls in one place at one time?

Meanwhile, Anky jetted off for a vacation with her husband. Edward reports that Glock Undercover (a.k.a. Frits) is having a much-deserved rest, but that he and Hans Peter Minderhoud were right back in the saddle, training their clients’ horses. What’s next for the Dutch team riders? Adelinde and Anky will be giving clinics at the Horse Event at Duerne this weekend, and Anky tweeted today that she has a reining competition coming up. Edward, meanwhile, is off to Austria for the glamorous new event on the world dressage stage, the CDI 4* “Horses and Stars” event at Glock Horse Performance Center in Austria. Glock is Edward’s sponsor, and owner of Undercover, the stallion Edward rode at London. The “performance” in the Glock Horse Center ‘s name may not be limited to horses. The weekend-long event also has a star-studded list of musical and movie stars scheduled to appear, including American actors Burt Reynolds and Don Johnson. Who knows? Edward Gal may surf again! ????????? Fran Jurga is a freelance writer and editor from Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her award-winning blogs include?The Jurga Report for EQUUS Magazine?and?War Horse News?on the 2011 Steven Spielberg film. Fran is the founder of?Hoofcare and Lameness Journal?and writes a specialist?Hoof Blog.? Fran wrote the?WorldRides blog for the Hong Kong equestrian events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics?and the Discover WEG blog for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010.You can?follow Fran on Facebook,?Pinterest?and?Twitter?for more news about the horse world.This blog has a dedicated headline feed of selected dressage, eventing, jumping and paralympic news from all over the world on the ScoopIt platform.

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