The second international dressage class for the weekend ended again with Finnish celebrations when Friday’s winner Emma Kanerva on Dambacu NI took the win in the International Grand Prix Freestyle Dressage Final presented by LähiTapiola with the result 73,640%. Despite their freestyle program being very challenging and technical, Kanerva and Dambacu NI managed to offer a great performance with very few mistakes.

I’m very happy with our performance today, the horse sometimes felt a little bit tired but he still tried. I had a couple of mistakes today, but for the most part it was okay. Dambacu was super already yesterday and overall I’m really satisfied with the whole weekend, Kanerva commented after her performance.

Emma Kanerva ja Dambacu NI. Photos Satu Pirinen.

 

Mikaela Fabricius-Bjerre on Bellissimo L and Stella Hagelstam on New Hill Julitrea complemented home riders’ perfect day and took the second and third place.

Mikaela Fabricius-Bjerre and Bellissimo L.

I’m more than pleased with the horse, he is really talented and easy with the movements but because of his pure nature, it’s hard to convince him that he can trust me and not look at the surroundings. But I think this program fits him very well and I’m really happy that today he could concentrate the whole time, Fabricius-Bjerre said clearly satisfied with their performance.

My horse was really excited to be here in Helsinki again and it was great to see how one year can make a big difference on how I can control her hot mind. I must say I had to try a few new tricks at the warm up today because she was really really hot but considering that, I’m very happy with our program today though there were some things to work on, Hagelstam summed up the weekend.

Stella Hagelstam and New Hill Julitrea.

The freestyle programs offered a lot of excitement also for the judges.

It was very exciting for us judges as well because there were many horses that did some little mistakes but then there were also highlights, so we didn’t have a winner that we would have known beforehand, said President of the Ground Jury Irmeli Summanen.

International Grand Prix Freestyle presented by LähiTapiola. Started 11, placings 5.

1) Emma Kanerva/Dambacu Nl, FIN 73,640%,2) Mikaela Fabricius-Bjerre/Bellissimo L, FIN 72,870%,3) Stella Hagelstam/New Hill Julitrea, FIN 72,300%,4) Jeanna Högberg/Duendecillo P, SWE 71,975%,5) Anna von Wendt/Denzel, FIN 68,750%,…7) Henri Ruoste/Rossetti, FIN 67,505%,…10) Maria Pyykönen/Zelle, FIN 65,310%