Olympia CDIW 2009: Outstanding - Totilas Triumphs At Olympia Kur
After Windsor there was Olympia, and it was another record breaking night for the sport of dressage that happened in Britain. History was made yet again, when on their third visit to the UK this year, Edward Gal and the amazing nine-year-old Gribaldi stallion, Moorlands Totilas scored 92.30% in the grand prix freestyle. A clear ten per cent ahead of the field, once again Totilas had the audience mesmerised by his performance to haunting music.
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Fellow Dutch rider Adelinde Cornelissen and twelve-year-old Jazz gelding Parzival were second with 82.05%, with Carl Hester and Leibling ll heading the Brits with 78.45%. It was a more than respectable night for the host country, Laura Bechtolsheimer was fourth with 77.35% on Andretti H with Richard Davison and Artemis on 75.15% in fifth.
“I should think it was about a third of the way through when I realised that I had just given 10’s.” said president of the ground jury Stephen Clarke of marking the wonder horse’s test. Although he did also give some lower marks, including a seven for the two time changes. “At Windsor many people thought we were so lucky to witness this level of dressage and we were very lucky to see that again tonight.”
Once again Totilas’s rider Edward Gal was almost speechless, “It felt so good it’s not easy to talk about, it just felt really, really good, everyone who saw it knows that. It felt like a fairytale.”
