World Cup Freestyle Event in Herning Featuring Favorite Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle

With exactly 90 percent, World Championship silver medalists Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour secured and Mount St. John Freestyle won the World Cup freestyle competition in Herning. It was their third consecutive victory at their home event in Denmark, and they were able to enjoy the enthusiastic applause of their audience on the final straight even before lining up for the victory lap. It was a beautiful freestyle routine featuring a trot sequence that looked like it set a new personal best. In the canter, however, one might have wished for a bit more energy and drive. You found yourself mentally snapping your fingers along with them. The pair had one mistake in the double changes, but they were able to correct it on the joker line. Nevertheless, here too, the change to the left was consistently more extended than the one to the right. But that, as they say, is complaining on a very, very high level. There was no question that these two were destined to win the test.

Dutch Individual Medal Contenders

As I said, it was clear who would win. What was completely unexpected, however, was the huge leap forward that Dutch rider Marieke van der Putten and Zantana RS2 N.O.P. would make from yesterday to today.

Yesterday, old problems resurfaced for the 12-year-old Zonik daughter. Herning was—as it was for Freestyle—the first tournament for the pair since the World Championships in Aachen, and Zantana seemed to find the indoor atmosphere somewhat stressful. The tension she radiated was enough to power an electric car. Today was a completely different story.

Zantana was full of energy as always, but this time she let Marieke van der Putten take the reins. Yes, there were still moments of tension in her movement today, and yes, she needs to swing through her body more. But she was already noticeably more relaxed than she had been yesterday, consistent and light on the bit, balanced, confident in response to the driving aids, and always within the appropriate frame.

On top of that, Zantana is very reliable in the dressage movements. The mare has not a single weakness in this regard. There are very few horses that can carry their weight so actively in collection as she does and still shine so brilliantly in the “forward” movements. If van der Putten manages to help Zantana find even more composure, she’ll have a horse capable of winning an individual medal. Today, she scored 86.235 percent—a personal best—and took second place.

From Essen, ahead of Denmark’s World Championship bronze medalists

Maria von Essen and Invoice, who received deductions in the World Championships’ free dance for performing two-and-a-half pirouettes—instead of the maximum of two—worked on their floor plan and danced their way to second place with a wonderfully harmonious and confident performance. With a score of 81.475, they prevailed over two members of the Danish World Championship bronze-medal team: Daniel Bachmann Andersen and Flash Gordon, who came very close several times today as well (81.225), and Nadja Aaboe Sloth with Favour Gersdorf, who celebrated the second-best free skate score of their joint career with 80.545.

The German Results

With a beautiful round, Dr. Svenja Kämper-Meyer and her family horse Amanyara M once again posted the best German result: 76.285 percent, placing eighth. Both Moritz Treffinger on Cadeau Noir and Dorothee Schneider on First Romance made significant errors in their flying changes today, which dragged down their scores, resulting in eleventh place (75.490) and twelfth place (73.375), respectively. This was particularly unfortunate for the latter, as the trot sequence was really good—full of energy and definitely in rhythm and contact—in the pair’s first international appearance since November 2025.

You can find all the results here.