Aachen, Germany - The United States dressage team finished in third place behind a history-making Dutch team that beat Germany on Thursday to win the nations’ team competition at the World Equestrian Festival.

The U.S. riders, Steffen Peters of San Diego, CA, on Floriano; and George Williams of Delaware, OH, on Rocher, had led the standings in the grand prix after the first of two days of competition. But, the powerful Dutch and German teams, which included Olympic Individual and Team Gold medal horse and rider combinations, proved too strong on the second day.

Leslie Morse of Los Angeles, California on Kingston and Guenter Seidel of Del Mar, California on Aragon turned in performances that drew loud support from the large number of Americans in the 6,000-seat dressage stadium.

The highest score went to Holland’s Anky van Grunsven on her Olympic and World Cup champion gelding Keltec Salinero with a score of 75 percent, while Hubertus Schmidt of Germany placed second individually with a 74.370 percent on his Olympic team gold medal mare Wansuela Suerte.

This is the first time that the Netherlands has beaten Germany in team competition at a major international championship. For dressage, the World Equestrian Festival at Aachen is the premier competition of the year. The World Cup Final that was held in Las Vegas in April is for individual riders and was won by van Grunsven and Keltec Salinero.

Peters was the only American to score above 70 percent.

Morse’s 14-year-old Dutch stallion, Kingston, posted a score of 69.5 percent while Seidel and Aragon, a 14-year-old gray gelding that is recovering from back spasms that hindered his performance at the World Cup Final in Las Vegas, scored 68.792 percent.

Visit the official website of the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany at: http://www.chioaachen.de.

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