Equestrian: Minderhoud leads individual dressage

Dressage, a discipline with military origins which requires horses to perform balletic movements, is dominated by longtime rivals Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands and Germany's Isabell Werth.

The Netherlands’ Hans Peter Minderhoud seized the early lead in the qualifier of the Olympic individual equestrian dressage on Wednesday.

Dressage, a discipline with military origins which requires horses to perform balletic movements, is dominated by longtime rivals Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands and Germany’s Isabell Werth.

“I’m not totally satisfied … my horse felt less energetic. I did not do good enough to put the pressure on the Germans,” Minderhoud said of his score of 69.625 percent.

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Top dressage riders generally look to reap at least 70 percent.

Van Grunsven and Werth are riding in the second qualifier on Thursday.

The Dutchwoman won the individual dressage gold in the Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004, and has four silvers in the discipline since making her Olympic debut in 1988.

In Sydney, Werth had to settle for the silver.

Before that, starting with the 1995 European Championships, Van Grunsven had finished second to Werth in every major competition until the 1999 European Championships when the German’s horse was injured.