On the evening of the final freestyle, Saturday, Aug. 26, Anky van Grunsven clearly intended to get the gold medal that’s eluded her so far this week. Under the lights of the main arena, in front of a packed crowd of 50,000 people, she didn’t allow for any mistakes tonight, riding the freestyle with which she’s won the FEI World Cup Finals, Olympic gold and scored 10s on her specially composed music.

Salinero performed gorgeous half-passes in both canter and trot, along with his trademark, foot-perfect piaffe and passage to earn a convincing win with a 86.10 percent for The Netherlands. Despite the excitement of the last individual awards ceremony, when he bolted out of the arena, Salinero focused on his job and showed how much he trusts his rider. This is the final time van Grunsven will use this music, which has been a part of her program since the 2004 Olympics.

“It’s good to start with the downs and end with the ups,” said van Grunsven with a laugh. “I’ve been happy with my horse all week, and it is a dream to come here and be the world champion. With the music, that really helps me. I know the test really well, and I like the freestyle the best.”

For the first time at a World Championship, individual medals were awarded for the freestyle score alone (not a combination of previous tests), so both van Grunsven and Grand Prix Special winner Isabell Werth, who won the individual gold yesterday in the Special, will be considered world champions.

As the top German rider in the freestyle, Werth didn’t quite earn the right to claim two individual gold medals in one championship. Werth and Satchmo began their test to “Bohemian Rhapsody” but shifted in the first halt. He performed his passage to “Pomp And Circumstance,” including a passage half-pass into a regular half-pass zigzag. He did show some tension in the walk and seemed to be feeling the atmosphere a bit more than he had earlier in the week. But even with a mistake at the end of his one-tempis, Werth still scored 80.75 percent for third place. Still, the educated, mostly German crowd didn’t reward Werth with the same reception as Blue Horse Martine had gotten just before her.

“He was more tense tonight, and my goal was to keep him with me. It was difficult for him under the floodlights,” said Werth. “I wanted to keep him as quiet as possible. I had my final yesterday, and I am so happy with third place and the bronze medal.”

Andreas Helgstrand was the first to go in the final set of rides with Blue Hors Matine and was the first to bring the crowd to its feet, even before his score of 81.50 percent—good enough for the silver medal—was announced. He started with a double canter pirouette to the right, went straight into one-tempi changes, followed by another canter pirouette to the left. He rode to a medley of rock music, including music from Moulin Rouge, and he had the crowd clapping in rhythm to his final, gravity-defying piaffe and passage.

Helgstrand said that a month ago, he would never have believed he’d be earning a medal with Matine, who is only 9. “I’m very happy for my horse,” he said. “Yesterday she was a bit more tense, but today she was super.”

For fourth place, Nadine Capellman and Elvis rode a lively test to, of course, Elvis music. Although she didn’t always have smooth transitions between passage and piaffe and was briefly stuck in one piaffe, she showed an interesting zigzagging canter half-pass, with a mixture of steep and shallow slopes. When the judges’ score of 79.90 percent came up on the board, the crowd reacted with boos and whistles.

Capellman’s teammate, Heike Kemmer, claimed fifth place, with a score of 78.85 percent aboard Bonaparte. She rode to ‘60s music, entering the arena to the tunes of the Mamas and the Papas and then riding the extended trot to Beach Boys music. She went on to ride a quarter turn in piaffe, to a passage half-pass, seguing into a regular half-pass. She cantered to “California Dreaming,” including a bold extended canter down the centerline. She rode a half pass, to a half circle, followed by a lead change to double piroutte, but had a bit of trouble in the pirouette to the left.

Steffen Peters and Floriano, who’d finished fourth individually in the Special, were the final pair to compete, riding into the arena at 11:15 p.m. To the music of Fleetwood Mac, they rode a double pirouette to canter half-pass, did a beautiful extended walk to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” but had a little bit of a rough transition out of one piaffe to finish with a score of 78.60 percent for sixth place.

“Tonight I had to ride a little more carefully. Floriano was on the edge the whole time,” said Peters. “I couldn’t push as much in the extended trot or the canter pirouettes, but we did our best and had a lot of fun.

“I knew since yesterday that it was very difficult to get into the top three,” he said. “It might have been different if I’d won bronze, but the whole week was a real dream come true.”

Guenter Seidel rode Aragon in the first grouping, and although he settled well, he was spooking hard as Seidel rode him around the arena. In fact, Aragon gave a squeal in the final minute of his warm-up. “Usually he only does that in the beginning,” said Seidel. “I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’ ”

And as Seidel began his test, to music from Evita, Aragon was still a bit unnerved, spooking again as he entered the arena and moving his haunches and swinging his head at the first halt.

“It was very electric—it was hard for him to go in there,” said Seidel. “He was ready to explode.”

But his test kept improving from there, with his trademark piaffe and a lovely half-pass zigzag from quarterline to quarterline. His one mistake came when he fell out of the pirouette to the right. Seidel also said he had some tension in the one-tempis. But he ended with an extended trot down centerline and waved to an appreciative crowd as he left the arena. His score of 72.90 left him in 13th place, but Seidel couldn’t complain.

“You can’t be angry at him,” he said. “When do you get to practice this? I was more than pleased for the whole weekend.”