Anky van Grunsven has been crowned Dutch dressage champion for the 12th time after an outstanding performance at the Dutch National Championships, at which she won both the small and big tour championships.
The dressage diva beat her own world record score during the show when she clocked up an amazing 87.00% to win the grand prix kür with her big tour ride Salinero. Her previous best had been a score of 86.725%, which she collected at the World Cup finals in Las Vegas earlier in the year.
Van Grunsven was also unbeatable with her up-and-coming small tour horse Painted Black, with scores of 73% in the prix st georges and 77.2% in the intermediaire I kür.
Her pupil Edward Gal finished second with Lingh, with strong performances in both classes, but his impressive score of 82.275% in the kür was eclipsed by van Gunsven’s record-breaking performance.
Meanwhile, British-based Finnish rider Kyra Kurlund had a successful weekend at CDI Lingen in Germany, where she rode Max into first place in the grand prix freestyle with a score of 78.5%.
Max is a 10-year-old son of Kyrklund’s famous black stallion Master, and is becoming more established with every outing. He clearly impressed the judges in Germany as much as he did at The College EC Premier Show back in April, when he stole the show in just his fourth grand prix test.
Britain’s Fiona Bigwood travelled to Austria to compete at CDI Achleiten with her new grand prix ride, Mr G de Lully. The long journey proved worth the effort when the partnership came a narrow second in the grand prix, just 0.21% behind Austria’s Victoria Max Theurer, and won the kür with a score of 75.725%.
