Jur Vrieling & VDL Glasgow v. Merelsnest. ph: Iita-Maria Ahtiainen
Jur Vrieling of The Netherlands and the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion VDL Glasgow v. Merelsnest (Nabab de Reve x Darco) were victors in the €170,000 Longines FEI World Cup Jumping qualifier, the feature class of the Helsinki International Horse Show CSI5*-W in Finland.
Thirty five horse and rider combinations contested for the 1st place prize on the 13-obstacle-course designed by Brazil’s Guilherme Jorge. A short list of nine returned for the jump-off, which saw Vrieling pilot Glasgow to a winning time of 36.85s on Sunday, October 22, 2017.
“This is now my second win in the World Cup and I have to say I’m a bit surprised because I didn’t really expected to be first today,” said Vrieling. “I tried to get into the top three and today it worked out in the best way possible. Before the jump-off, Eric (van der Vleuten) [told] me that I just needed to let go and be as fast as I could at the last three fences and that’s what I did.”
The two have competed together on the rated circuit since February of 2014.
“I’m really happy to have such great horses. Glasgow has a super mentality and he is really a championship horse, maybe even the best horse I have ever had.”
Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann and the 11-year-old Westphalian mare Mary Lou 194 (Montendro x Portland L) put in two clear jumping rounds to finish in 2nd on a time of 38.41s.
“I’m very pleased with the 2nd place. Vrieling did great job today and I’m not sure we could have been able to beat him even without the stumble in the jump-off. My biggest worry now is that [Mary Lou] is okay after that stumble,” commented von Eckermann.
Third place went to Brazil’s Marlon Modolo Zanotelli and the ten-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare Celena VDL ( Mr. Blue x Chin Chin), who closely trailed von Eckermann with a time of 38.60s.
“We have had a fantastic season so far and I couldn’t be happier with today’s result. The horse was really good already in Oslo and overall I’m really satisfied. It is a bit difficult to get invitations to Europe but I hope to get more of them in the future and hopefully I will get a chance to ride in World Cup Qualifiers more as well,” commented Zanotelli.
The full results can be viewed here.
To view the current standings for the Western European League, visit this link.