Edward Gal

Last updated

Edward Gal
Totilas.jpg
Edward Gal with Totilas
Medal record
Representing the Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands
Equestrian
Olympic Games
Olympic rings.svg
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2012 London Team dressage
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2010 Lexington Team dressage
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2010 Lexington Special dressage
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2010 Lexington Freestyle dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2006 Aachen Team dressage
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2014 Normandy Team dressage
European Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2009 Windsor Team dressage
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2009 Windsor Freestyle dressage
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2015 Aachen Team dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2005 Hagen Team dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2009 Windsor Special dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2013 Herning Team dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2019 Rotterdam Team dressage
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2011 Rotterdam Team dressage
World Cup
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2010 Den Bosch Individual dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2004 Düsseldorf Individual dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2005 Las Vegas Individual dressage
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2015 Las Vegas Individual dressage
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2014 Lyon Individual dressage

Edward Gal (born 4 March 1970 in Rheden) is a Dutch dressage rider. [1] He and the stallion Totilas (nicknamed "Toto"), were triple gold medalists at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games, [2] [3] becoming the first horse-rider partnership ever to sweep the three available dressage gold medals at a single FEI World Games. [2] Going into the 2010 Games, they had amassed multiple world-record scores in international competition, leading one American journalist to call them "rock stars in the horse world". [4] After the World Equestrian Games, Totilas was sold to German trainer Paul Schockemöhle. [5] [6] Gal continues to be successful training and competing dressage horses at the international level. Despite the success, he has been criticised to be harsh trainer who creates stressed and fearful horses.

Contents

Career

Gal began his equestrian career as a jumper at age 14, beginning with ponies and graduating to larger horses at age 20. However, when he discovered his horse did not like jumping, he switched to dressage. While enjoying solid success in national and international competition, he did not become a truly dominant rider until he began competing with Totilas in 2008. Gal would later say that he and his team understood that Totilas was a special horse after their first Grand Prix competition. [4]

At the time, Gal replaced his countrywoman Anky van Grunsven as the dominant rider on the world dressage circuit. In July 2009, Gal and Totilas broke van Grunsven's world record score in Grand Prix Freestyle [7] with an 89.50% mark at Hickstead, England, and shortly thereafter followed it up with another record score of 90.75% in the same discipline at that year's European Championships. [8] In December 2009, at the fourth leg of the 2009–10 FEI World Cup Dressage series at Olympia in London, they extended their record in GP Freestyle to 92.30%, more than 10 points above the second-place finisher. [8] While not setting a world record, they easily won that season's FEI World Cup final in GP Freestyle at home in the Netherlands, winning by more than 7 points with a score better than their first world record. [9] The pair also had a world-record score in the Grand Prix Special discipline to their credit, having recorded 86.460% at Aachen in July 2010. [2] [7]

Gal and Totilas were installed as the overwhelming favorites in the 2010 FEI World Games in Lexington, Kentucky, their first competition outside Europe. Klaus Röser, head of the German dressage team that has long dominated the discipline, said about Gal, "That we can beat Edward; I don't think so, I don't believe so. We have to be realistic." [4] Röser's assessment proved correct, with Gal and Toto first leading the Dutch team to gold in the team competition, and then easily winning gold in Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle. [2] [3]

In a piece in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky that ran before the 2010 Games, dressage trainer Susan Posner pointed out that Totilas was only in his second year in grand prix dressage despite being 10 years old, and said that his success illustrated how capable Gal was as a rider. [4]

He also competed at the 2015 European Dressage Championships in Aachen where he won a gold medal in team dressage. The Dutch national dressage coach Wim Ernes died on 1 November 2016 due to a brain tumor. Gal, together with the other gold medal winners Patrick van der Meer, Hans Peter Minderhoud and Diederik van Silfhout, carried his coffin during the funeral on 5 November 2016. [10] He is known to use rollkur on his horses

International Championship results

Results
YearEventHorseScorePlacingNotes
2003European ChampionshipsLingh29thIndividual
2004World Cup FinalLinghSilver medal icon.svg
2005World Cup FinalLinghSilver medal icon.svg
2005European ChampionshipsLinghSilver medal icon.svgTeam
4thIndividual
2006World Cup FinalLingh4th
2006World Equestrian GamesLinghSilver medal icon.svgTeam
12thIndividual
2007World Cup FinalGribaldi64.900%11th
2009European ChampionshipsTotilas84.085%Gold medal icon.svgTeam
83.042%Silver medal icon.svgIndividual Special
90.750%Gold medal icon.svgIndividual Freestyle
2010World Cup FinalTotilas89.800%Gold medal icon.svg
2010World Equestrian GamesTotilas84.043%Gold medal icon.svgTeam
85.708%Gold medal icon.svgIndividual Special
91.800%Gold medal icon.svgIndividual Freestyle
2011World Cup FinalSisther du Jeu77.393%4th
2011European ChampionshipsSisther du Jeu70.517%Bronze medal icon.svgTeam
69.211%18thIndividual Special
2012Olympic GamesGlock's Undercover75.395%Bronze medal icon.svgTeam
80.267%9thIndividual
2013World Cup FinalGlock's Undercover84.446%Bronze medal icon.svg
2013European ChampionshipsGlock's Undercover81.763%Silver medal icon.svgTeam
79.479%4thIndividual Special
84.911%4thIndividual Freestyle
2014World Cup FinalGlock's Undercover83.696%Bronze medal icon.svg
2014World Equestrian GamesGlock's Voice72.414%Bronze medal icon.svgTeam
70.392%25thIndividual Special
2015World Cup FinalGlock's Undercover84.696%Silver medal icon.svg
2015European ChampionshipsGlock's Undercover82.229%Gold medal icon.svgTeam
EL29thIndividual Special
2016Olympic GamesGlock's Voice75.271%4thTeam
73.655%20thIndividual
2017World Cup FinalGlock's Voice78.921%6th
2017European ChampionshipsGlock's Voice72.457%5thTeam
69.468%24thIndividual Special
2018World Cup FinalGlock's Zonik79.654%8th
2018World Equestrian GamesGlock's Zonik77.189%5thTeam
77.751%7thIndividual Special
2019European ChampionshipsGlock's Zonik78.758%Silver medal icon.svgTeam
77.994%8thIndividual Special
84.271%6thIndividual Freestyle

Notable horses

Personal life

Gal is in a long-term relationship with teammate Hans Peter Minderhoud. [11] [12] Gal has been interviewed in several Dutch media outlets about his relationship with Minderhoud. [13]

References

  1. ↑ "Edward Gal, Dutch dressage rider". horseandhound.co.uk. 2 February 2010. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Gal and Totilas Win the Special in Style – Can They Make It a Hat-Trick of Gold?" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 29 September 2010. Archived from the original on 12 January 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  3. 1 2 "Gal and Totilas Make It a Golden Hat-Trick on a Night to Remember" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 1 October 2010. Archived from the original on 12 January 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Cengel, Katya (26 September 2010). "Dutch pair setting pace for dressage competition at World Equestrian Games". The Courier-Journal . Archived from the original on 4 January 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Totilas Sold to Paul Schockemöhle of Germany". Dressage-News. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  6. ↑ "Totilas Sold to Paul Schockemohle". Eurodressage. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Search Centre: Results by Competitor". International Federation for Equestrian Sports. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010. Search fields: Competitor = Gal, Administering NF (National Federation) = NED (Netherlands), Gender=Male
  8. 1 2 "Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas Set New Dressage World Record" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  9. ↑ Cuckson, Pippa (27 March 2010). "Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas win FEI World Cup dressage final". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 24 May 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
  10. ↑ "Gouden EK-team gaat de kist van overleden Ernes dragen - Sportnieuws". 2 November 2016.
  11. ↑ Zeigler, Cyd (6 July 2021). "Partners Gal and Minderhoud to compete on same Olympic team". Outsports. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Maurice, Emma Powys (8 July 2021). "Trailblazing gay couple to compete side-by-side in team dressage at Tokyo Olympics". PinkNews. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  13. ↑ "Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud, One Track Minds". Eurodressage.com. 10 January 2010. Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.