20 April 2025

Kronenberg 2025: Eventful week!

Last weekend the grounds in Kronenberg were dominated by the international competition. Especially for the horse pairs, ponies and Dutch horse Four-in-Hands, this was an important week. The ponies and horse pairs are preparing for the World Championships later this season. For the Four-in-Hand horses Kronenberg was the Dutch championship.

3* pony pairs: Top nine colors orange

Remarkable this weekend was that on Sunday the complete top nine of the 3* pony pairs colored orange. On Friday, Rodinde Rutjens was already leading the standings together with Jean Frederic Selle (FRA). The two both scored 53.71 penalty points.

Despite not intending to make the most of it because her ponies have only been working together for three weeks, she finished fourth in the marathon. Due to Jean Frederic’s eighth place in the marathon and just over 20 penalty points in the cones today, he had to settle for tenth place in the overall standings. The entire top nine, consisting of Jelle Leliveld and Cas Hendriks in second and third place, colored orange. Just off the podium finished Larissa Reints, Michelle Kuivenhoven, Dexter Biersteker, Sam Couwenberg, Rowan Timmer and Ischa Vink.

Rodinde Rutjens in the marathon at Kronenberg
Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Berengere Cressent retains lead position

In the 3* single ponies, Berengere Cressent (FRA) managed to hold her lead position after the dressage (47.89) until the end. With her strong fourth place in the marathon and only 2.05 penalties for time in the cones today, she finished more than eight penalty points ahead of her competition. Anna Christmann (FRA) finished second and third place was for Dirk Bastiaansen (NED).

Marijke Hammink also wins convincingly

Marijke Hammink (NED)also did particularly well. She already won the dressage with almost five penalty points ahead. On Saturday she then won the marathon and in the cones she finished second. With more than thirteen (!) penalty points difference to the number two, nobody could ignore her. Julien Vanhoenacker (BEL) also performed very well with his third place in the dressage, second place in the marathon and first place in the cones. He finished second. Dianne Legemaat – Van Bemmel (NED) finished third and Rene Limpens (NED) finished in fourth place. Daniel Pineda Andic (ESP) completed the top five.

Marijke Hammink in the marathon at Kronenberg
Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Mie Mosegaard Nielsen wins 3* single horses

In the 3* single horses, the top five colored almost entirely in French colors. However, Mie Mosegaard Nielsen (DEN) managed to keep the competition behind her. She won the competition with her fifth place in the dressage, her fourth place in the marathon and her double clear round in the cones. Clement Deschamp (FRA) finished second with Brume de Chablis and Marion Vignaud finished in third place.

Leader positions 3* horse pairs unchanged after skill

In the 3* horse pairs, the differences were small after the dressage and remained so until the start of the cones today. Martin Hölle (HUN) won the dressage. Franck Grimonprez (FRA) finished second with 0.23 penalty points more. Then after the dressage there was only a gap of about four penalty points between the number three (Francois Dutilloy) and number four (Erik Evers). With less than two penalty points more, Stan van Eijk managed to keep a good connection to the podium after the dressage.

After the marathon, Francois Dutilloy unfortunately dropped in the standings (18th place in the marathon) and Frank Grimonprez took over the lead position from Martin Hölle. Today after the cones the leading positions remained unchanged. Frank Grimonprez (FRA) won, followed by Martin Hölle (HUN), Erik Evers (NED) and Stan van Eijk (NED).

Franck Grimonprez in the dressage at Kronenberg
Photo: Melanie Guillamot

Shifts at 3* Four-in-Hand horses

In the 3* horse Four-in-Hand-, which this weekend also served as the Dutch championship for the Dutch competitors, many shifts within the standings took place today after the cones. Boyd Exell won the dressage very convincingly with his score of 36.92. IJsbrand Chardon finished second in the dressage with 42.52 but dropped to fourth place in intermediate rankings before the start of the cone due to his ninth place in the marathon. Dries Degrieck won the marathon on Saturday and thus climbed to second place before the start of the cones. With his 12.37 penalty points today, he had to settle for eighth place overall.

Bram Chardon Dutch champion

Because Bram Chardon stayed clear today he climbed from third to second place and thus crowned himself Dutch champion. IJsbrand Chardon was in fourth place after the marathon but had to let go of Christoph Sandmann today. He therefore remained in fourth place and thus won the silver medal of the championship. Koos de Ronde finished eleventh this weekend and that was good enough for the bronze medal!

Hans Arends competed with two horses in the Para class this week. With Candy he won very convincingly. He finished with 18 penalty points loose on Ivonne Hellenbrand (GER), the number two. With Navarone he finished in third place. A successful week for him!

Click here for the results

*Photo album of today will follow*

Bram Chardon in the marathon at Kronenberg
Photo: Wil Smeets

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