August 9, 2010–With their resounding team victory and individual near sweep of the medals at the 2009 European Dressage Championships, the Dutch are poised to make history at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG). The Dutch have never won team gold in world championship dressage, but with record-breaking horses, such as Totilas and Parzival, cantering down centerline at the Kentucky Horse Park this September, that era may finally be coming to an end.
In spite of the evidence pointing toward gold for his country, Dutch team trainer Sjef Janssen is reluctant to make such a prediction. “We never talk about the medals because it brings bad luck,” he says. “We always live day by day; horses and people can get hurt or sick. We don’t speculate.” Janssen has been the team’s trainer since before the 2006 WEG in Aachen, where the Dutch team won the silver medal, just ahead of the United States and right behind Germany. He may not yet have coached the Dutch team to WEG gold, but Janssen has coached his wife, Anky van Grunsven, to multiple Olympic, World Championship and World Cup victories.
A committee from the Dutch federation (KNHS) oversees the selection process to ensure that rules and statutes are followed, but Janssen is solely responsible for naming the team. It will be chosen based on a combination of results at two selection trials as well as past history and other competitions. “I will use all the impressions I get from training and shows,” he says. “A former team trainer, Jurgen Koschel, also had the power to make the decision by himself, and I also wanted it that way. I want to take full responsibility. If I flunk, they can fire me. But I don’t want to work with committees. I want to take the strongest team possible.”
All of the Dutch A and B Cadre horses and riders will compete at Rotterdam. (The term “Cadre” is used instead of “short” and “long lists.”) A team of four will participate in the Nations’ Cup, and the others will compete in the national Grand Prix with the same judging panel as the Nations’ Cup. A second team trial is at Hickstead at the end of July. The WEG team, with one or two reserves, will be named shortly after that competition, and a training camp for the team will be held before departure to Kentucky in mid-September.
Many, but not all, of the top Dutch riders train with Janssen already. But for those that have their own trainers, he has always had a policy of inclusiveness.
“We are all in the same system,” he says. “I keep an eye on them and give advice.” In addition, Dutch riders also draw on the expertise of physical trainers and sports psychologists. This multifaceted approach to athletic excellence is widely believed to have contributed to the rise of the Dutch team internationally, and several other countries have now copied the practice. However, Janssen points out, “It is all those things that make the final positive result, but you do need a good horse and a good rider. Without that, nobody can win.”
As of May 31, the Dutch A Cadre listed six riders and eight horses; another four horses were on the B Cadre list. The A Cadre includes two of the world’s current dressage stars: Edward Gal and Adelinde Cornelissen.
Gal and Moorlands Totilas have been shattering world records over the past year, winning team and individual gold at the European Championships and taking the World Cup Final. He and the 10-year-old KWPN stallion have brought dressage to a new level with scores in the freestyle breaking 90 percent for the first time in history. Their appearance in Kentucky will be one of the most anticipated performances of the WEG. Gal also has a second horse on the A Cadre–Totilas’ half-sister, Sisther de Jeu.
The only horse and rider to have beaten Gal is his probable WEG teammate, 31-year-old Cornelissen on the 13-year-old Jazz son Jerich Parzival. Cornelissen was victorious in the Grand Prix Special at the 2009 European Championships, setting a new world record of her own with 84.042 percent. She and Parzival also won the Grand Prix test at the 2010 World Cup Final, finishing second behind Gal in the freestyle.
The third member of the Dutch triad that finished one, two and three at both the European Championships and the World Cup Final is Imke Schellekens-Bartels on Hunter Douglas Sunrise. This will be the second WEG for the 16-year-old Sunrise, who was also Schellekens-Bartels’ mount at the 2008 Olympics, where the Dutch team won silver.
Another Olympic pair is Hans Peter Minderhoud and Exquis Nadine, who were fifth individually at the 2008 Games. Sander Marijnissen with Moedwil is the final member of the A Cadre.
The B Cadre lists the following four pairs: Marlies van Baalen on BMC Ojay, Christa Laarakkers on Ovation, Hans Peter Minderhoud on IPS Tango, and Stephanie Peters on Jeff.
The reigning World Champion, Anky van Grunsven, was listed on the A Cadre with her 2006 WEG mount, Salinero, and the KWPN stallion IPS Painted Black, but she has withdrawn. An injury to Salinero’s withers has sidelined the 16-year-old World and Olympic champion, and a minor injury, coupled with inconsistent competition results, has led van Grunsven to also decide not to campaign Painted Black toward the WEG. In the past, her absence from the team would have meant a dip in the results for her country, but with the great depth and strength of her teammates, the prospects for gold for Holland and its thousands of orange-clad fans remain strong.
Another reason Janssen doesn’t like to predict results for his team is for the benefit of the riders themselves. “I don’t concentrate on goals that are very far away but on those in the near future so that it’s more of a step-by-step program,” he says. “It’s easier on the athletes because it puts less pressure on them.” The teams he will be watching closely include the British, who won silver at the 2009 European Championships: “They will be good again, I expect,” he adds. Germany is, of course, also on Janssen’s list of main rivals. How could it not be when it is the one country they have yet to beat at a WEG?
