The Dutch proved themselves invincible in the individual grand prix freestyle of the Windsor European Championships 2009. In the final competition, the music specialists ran away with the show; for the first time in the history of the sport, one country achieved a clean sweep of the medals.

The gold medal went to the sensational combination of Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas who smashed their previous world record for an incredible score of 90.75 per cent. Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival took silver on 87.35 per cent and Anky van Grunsven, denied an individual medal in the special, came home in bronze medal position with 87.25 per cent.

A valiant effort by the Brits saw three GB riders finish in the top ten. Individual bronze medallists in the special, Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris rode a foot perfect freestyle to a specially composed Shadows medley for fourth position on 81.75 per cent, their score just 0.005 per cent short of the British record they set at Hickstead.

Laura commented to British Dressage: "It was not so easy in there tonight; Alf found the atmosphere quite difficult to deal with and some mistakes crept in through tension but he still showed some spectacular work and I'm really happy! We've had such a great week, the crowd are loving it and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. There's a serious vibe in there!"

Emma Hindle and Lancet were also back on form, riding to eighth place on 76.05 percent, with Carl Hester keeping up his new found confidence and achieving his third personal best of the championships with the 12-year-old gelding Liebling II to finish tenth on 75.90 per cent. He commented: "The whole thing has been amazing, that was one of the nicest tests we've had. Not bad for him - and me! It was only the third time we'd ridden the freestyle so I'm delighted with the way it's turned out. Our music [Tom Jones] is a crowd pleaser and has some humour in it which suits us both."

President of the ground jury Stephen Clarke commented: "We are all ecstatic at the quality of competition this week; tonight is the greatest sport we have ever seen in dressage. Congratulations to the riders and the organisers for making this the greatest dressage competition we've ever had."