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Aat van Essen took the first place in Tapiola Kür Final

Oct 20, 2012

Dutch Aat van Essen and especially his horse Macrider Premier were in shape on Saturday's dressage class, Tapiola Kür Final. 15-years old gelding had mild constipation on Thursday's Grand Prix but today there was no trace of it in dressage freestyle class. The judges rewarded Van Essen with 70,275%. The class was very even, the second was Swedish Malin Hamilton and Fleetwood with 70.150 % and third was Jeanne Hoberg and Liza Minelli (also from Sweden) with 70.100 %.

- Van Essen's show was really a freestyle show. It contained surprises, clear highlights and changes in the levels of difficulty. She for example rode changes with one hand, foreign judge Dietrich Plewa told about van Essen's performance.

The head judge Irmeli Summanen thought that class was very even and the differences were small.

- Swedish riders didn't have exactly the same level of difficulty on their shows as van Essen had, Summanen evaluated the differences.

Finnish rider Stella Hagelstam and her horse Soraya II had to retire, because the horse lift it's tongue over the bit just before entering the arena.

- I thought that is this really must to happen in Helsinki Horse Show, because my horse don't usually do that. I retired for the horse. It's young, motivated and happy 10-years old and I don't want any bad memories to it. This kind of things belongs to riding sport, Hagelstam explained with disappointment.

Source helsinkihorseshow.fi