Dutch Dressage News

Imke Schellekens Not Competing at 2008 Dutch Dressage Championships

April 23, 2008

Imke Schellekens-Bartels has announced that she will not be competing Sunrise at the 2008 Dutch Dressage Championships in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, May 1-4, 2008. Schellekens is concentrating fully on the Olympic Games and the Dutch Dressage Championships do not fit in her training schedule. Like Dutch Champion Anky van Grunsven, Schellekens will only be competing her top horse at the two Dutch Olympic selection trials in De Steeg and Rotterdam.

"I really regret that I have to miss the show at the Karpendonkse Plas, which my grandfather founded 50 years ago and where I have already become Dutch Dressage Champion once," Schellekens said. "But I'm totally going for Hong Kong and in agreement with my mother [Tineke Bartels] and Sjef Janssen, I've set up a plan with some rest periods. Sunrise has been relaxing the last couple of weeks after Indoor Brabant."

The Hanoverian mare Sunrise (by Singular Joter) was given a break after the 2008 World Cup Finals in 's Hertogenbosch and started training again last week. "After the CHIO Rotterdam we'll start focusing on 'test riding" for the Olympics. It is very important to train test riding in the last training period. We did that last year right before the European Championships and that went really well. It does require an intense period of training, starting from June 6 (CDI De Steeg) till mid August," Schellekens explained.

Photo copyrighted: Astrid Appels/Eurodressage

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