![Full house, entertainment and Freestyle for Van Grunsven](https://www.equisport.pt/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/Carlos-Pinto.notavel.jpg)
A special Rotterdam menu with as a starter Kirsten Beckers and Broere Ohio being the guinea pig in their very first Freestyle to music, followed by several nice dishes and a great dessert of three Dutch ladies gave the full house at the Rotterdam CHIO a splendid evening. All the more as the party went on when the horses were finished with a great show of the Dutch lady of jazzy saxophone, Candy Dulfer.
The Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende witnessed growing performances and could in the end congratulate Anky van Grunsven with her deserved win.
The first to reach for more than 70% was British Wayne Channon riding his Dutch bred stallion Lorenzo. Two weeks ago he had been the winner of the Freestyle class in Lipica, Slovenia, now he ended fourth. His score was exactly the same as the score of Belgium Jeroen Devroe. In this case the marks for the artistic part of the Freestyle are decisive. Belgium Jeroen Devroe and his blood-type horse Paganini received the higher marks and therefore became third.
The first Dutch pair that entered the arena was Imke Schellekens-Bartels partnering Hunter Douglas Sunrise. The wonderful and emotional piano music composed by virtuoso Wibi Soerjadi again touched the hearts of the crowds. For this outside performance Soerjadi added some more heavy touches, however the most emotional parts are the parts ‘where tones have left out and the horse fills in’, as the master explained himself. The score of 79,45% was a bit disappointing for Imke, as she thought to have reached the 80% limit.
Keltec Salinero had wonderful parts in his Freestyle, especially in the passage which could reach the mark 10. However Olympic, world and Dutch champion Van Grunsven had her hands full as Salinero seems to have more eyes than two. “I already said, he and me need some more excercise after our show pause in this silent winter before we are full back on track. That’s why we travel to Aachen”, Anky smiled.
Stéphanie Peters and Jeff closed the class with a performance with some tension problems which she solved professionally by immediately taking away the pressure. After a long period of medical problems she was happy anyway to have competed without medical sorrow and ended fifth.