DUTCH dressage sensation Adelinde Cornelissen had to withdraw her superstar Parzival from the World Cup final in Las Vegas (17-19 April) due to tendon injury.
The pair were joint favourites for the title, having won three qualifiers in the build-up to the event — including London Olympia (watch their winning dressage test) — beating world number one Anky Van Grunsven.
Adelinde and Pazival made it out to Las Vegas from home in Beilen, The Netherlands, only for the 12-year-old gelding to go lame during a warm-up. The show’s attending vet, Sjef Desmedt, diagnosed a tendon injury in the horse’s near foreleg.
The story echoes what happened to Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand’s ride, Blue Hors Matine, two years ago. The mare, who won silver at the World Equestrian Games the previous summer, fell from the lorry ramp on arrival in Las Vegas, damaging a leg and putting herself out of the competition.
The grand prix, from which riders qualify for Saturday’s kür, takes place tomorrow afternoon in the following running order:
- Jan Ebeling (USA)
- Leslie Morse (USA)
- Marco Bernal (COL)
- Heath Ryan Regardez Moi (AUS)
- Minna Telde (SWE)
- Jan Brink (SWE)
- Ashley Holzer (CAN)
- Jeannette Haazen (NED)
- Michael Rapcewicz (POL)
- Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED)
- Isabell Werth (GER)
- Steffen Peters (USA)
- Anky van Grunsven (NED)
- Monica Theodorescu (GER)
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