The Dutch dressage team finished fifth on Sunday at the World Championships in Herning, Denmark. With this, Amazon achieved the weekend’s main goal: securing early tickets for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The team must be at least sixth for that. The title goes to the Danish favourites.

National coach Alex van Silfhout called the goal “very achievable” earlier. A good first day of the World Cup laid the foundation for success. The combination of Thamar Zweistra/Ich Weiss from Hexagon and Dinja van Liere/Hermés together resulted in a score of 77.01 percent. That’s great for first place in the standings, ahead of Germany and Denmark.

On Sunday, Marieke van der Putten and Emmelie Scholtens with their horses Torveslettens Tyranium RS2 and Indian Rock were unable to take the lead. The podium places are shared by Denmark, England and Germany.

youth team

The Netherlands came out in Herning with a very young and relatively inexperienced team, both for the horses and the amazon (this time the riders did not participate). This has to do with the breakup of veteran Edward Gal (52), who became a three-time world champion in 2010 with his horse Totilas at the time. Gal announced in a text message on social media in April that she would stop competing for one year.

Hans Peter Minderhoud (48) who is also very experienced ended up not choosing Herning, after a long list, because he and his horse were not in good shape.

The loss of Minderhoud and Gal initially felt like a “spicy bloodbath”, national coach Alex van Silfhout said before the World Cup. “I thought: God, what should we do this year? But so much has emerged in the last two months. You can now see that there is a new top in the width.”

World Cup Experience

Of the four Dutch amazons in Herning, only Scholtens (36) has had World Cup experience, but on a different horse. Dinja van Liere (31) emerged as the best Dutch rider at the European Championship last year, but this time also riding a different horse. At the European Championships he finished tenth in the Freestyle on a Haute Couture horse, but soon the horse was sold to an American rider.

National coach Van Silfhout was satisfied with the performance of the Dutch amazon team afterwards: It could be that beautiful things will happen at Herning, because the riders are getting better. There is more growth in these horses. We’re here with the young horses, which we really hope for.”

This week, participants from the Netherlands will also take action individually. Dutch champion Van Liere is third in the individual classification, which offers perspective for the days to come. On Monday the riders will ride the Grand Prix Special.