Exloo CDI 3*: Marieke van der Putten & Zantana RS2 easily win the Grand Prix

Netherlands, Portugal or Hungary, this first weekend in May gives pride of place to dressage. It is logically in the North East of the Netherlands and closed to the German border that Dutch dressage launched today some horses that could well represent one day in a soon future its colors ; a competition that had also been chosen by their leaders: Marieke van der Putten and her Zantana RS2 NOP.

Amsterdam, 's-Hertogenbosch, and now Exloo: Marieke van der Putten has clearly decided to conserve her magnificent Zantana RS2 NOP by not yet taking her outside the Netherlands. Without any major faults, they showed two nice trot half-passes, a seemingly effortless piece of work, even if the transition after the collected walk was initiated a little too early. This didn't prevent them from achieving a solid 75.891%, making them untouchable.

Second place went to Dinja van Liere & Mauro Turfhorst with 73.022%. Very modern and nice, the stallion by Zonik, very much in his sire's mold, clearly came off the bit at the end of his right half-pass and, on the edge of defense, needed some time to continue in his left half-pass. A little too low and closed in the front in the piaffe, he also clearly threw his haunches to the left in the passage-to-canter transition. Further back, we find Thamar Zweistra & Hexagon's Magnum at 71.587%.

Hans Peter Minderhoud presented Mister US and My Toto at this level for the first time. The 9-year-old Oldenburg stallion is undoubtedly a very talented horse, but still very very green. Sometimes unstable, tense in the rein-back, lacking balance in the piaffe, and showing a difficult canter start after the passage, Mister US is nevertheless a very expressive horse due to a particularly pronounced movement of his knees. However, he needs to gain maturity and experience in the ring, as he did numerous faults and was scored 66.761%, placing him 18th. A little later, Hans Peter Minderhoud returned to the ring with My Toto. While the 9-year-old gelding also showed rather abrupt first halt, he was also faulty in the flying changes and, likewise, relatively green. a first performance in CDI judged at 69.391%, i.e. 8th place and an equally certain potential which will need time to fully express itself.

Full results HERE