Dinja van Liere rules supreme in Saturday's freestyle
A spectacular night of top dressage action in Rotterdam this Saturday as the home crowd got what they were hoping for: Dinja van Liere closed off the evening by taking the victory in the dressage freestyle. With Hermes N.O.P. she scored an impressive 87.830% to stay ahead of Isabell Werth. The German rider scored 82.850% with Wendy de Fontaine. Emmelie Scholtens and Indian Rock added to the Dutch crowd's delight by coming in third place with 81.340%.
Dinja van Liere was last to start with Hermes N.O.P. The audience in the Rotterdam Arena got to witness Van Liere ride her new freestyle test for the very first time. The test had only been finished this past Tuesday. "I'm thrilled with my horse and my new freestyle. It was really the first time riding it as it was only just finished. I enjoyed every minute of it: Hermes was so relaxed throughout, I could just sit there and enjoy. After the test I almost cried, I was so happy. It's so nice to have Hermes back in business. With every test we ride together, he just gets better."
Van Liere also won the gold in the Nations Cup Dressage with the Dutch team last Thursday. "It has been a fantastic week for me, and for the team as well. CHIO Rotterdam is a great event. The crowd is so enthusiastic, they gave me goosebumps tonight. They all clap and cheer, it's overwhelming to experience. And Hermes likes it. He stands still and looks and listens and takes it all in. He loves people and he loves the crowd."
Germany's Isabell Werth also had a first for the crowd and herself today: she has not been riding the mare Wendy de Fontaine for very long, and today in Rotterdam they competed in their first ever freestyle together. "It was really exciting to see how she would react to the atmosphere in the arena, and she did great. She has such a great mindset, she simply wants to do nothing wrong, and doesn't. If there is a mistake it's only because of me. We're still in the process of fine tuning, but tonight went better than I expected. I love riding to the music in our freestyle as well. I'm very happy with how things went here tonight."
Emmelie Scholtens made good on her performance last Thursday, where she said she had not been feeling well and had made some mistakes because of it. "Tonight's test went much better than Thursday. I'm still not feeling much better unfortunately, but Indian Rock went really well today. We tried our best and went for it." She too praised the atmosphere in the Rotterdam Arena. "It's a really nice feeling to compete in front of a crowd that is so enthusiastic. You can feel it the moment you enter the arena, very special. A lot of people really love our sport."