Netherlands win new format Nations Cup

A team from the Netherlands has won the third leg of the FEI Nations Cup Dressage 2015 series, held on home turf in Rotterdam.

New format

The event, which is now in its third pilot season, was testing out another new format. It started with a Grand Prix team competition on Thursday (18 June), with the five leading nations going through to Saturday’s Grand Prix Special and Freestyle.

The Netherlands won with a team score of 77.195, beating second-placed Sweden by a margin of almost 2.5%. The USA was third (71.019) and Belgium fifth (70.857).

Germany, who only had three riders, was eliminated when Bernadette Brune retired after running into problems with Spirit of the Age OLD in the Freestyle.

‘So proud’

Great Britain and France failed to qualify for the final stages. All of the Brits scored in the mid to late 60s, with Alice Oppenheimer awarded 68.080 on Headmore Delegate, Hannah Biggs and Weltzin scored 69.360, Spencer Wilton and Numberto had the highest score of 69.460, and Hayley Watson-Greaves and Rubins Nite finished on 64.440.

Alice said she was pleased with ‘Del’: “We had a few annoying little things which kept the score down a bit, but still came out with 68%. So proud of him!”