FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 para-dressage medalists (L to R): Team GBR silver, Team Netherlands gold, and Team Germany bronze. | Photo: FEI/Liz Gregg

The Netherlands has turned the established order of international para-dressage on its head today by winning the team competition at the Adequan para-dressage at the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games (WEG) Tryon 2018, underway at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, in Mill Spring, North Carolina. In doing so, the Dutch team not only secured the first team spot, out of three, to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, it also knocked Great Britain off the top of the podium for the very first time at European, world, and Paralympic championship level.

“I feel like I just can’t believe it,” said Joyce Heuitink, the Dutch chef d’equipe. “It’s been a dream since I started this job six years ago after London 2012 and the gap with Great Britain was so big. But every year the gap seemed to be getting closer so we kept working hard and just worked on everything that we can. And then you happen to have four amazing riders that do four amazing tests. But we were so nervous and thought ‘what if they beat us by just one per cent?’ ”

The Dutch team—Grade II’s Nicole den Dulk, Grade III’s Rixt van der Horst, Grade IV’s Sanne Voets, and Grade V’s Frank Hosmar—clinched the championship with a total score of 223.597% after van der Horst, on Findsley, scored 73.559%, the first score of the day in her grade’s team test