Dressage

So, there are some insanely good horses and riders here! This is definitely the World Cup Final. Arthur was terrified on Thursday of all the hedges you have to ride around, and he saw the four in hand drivers practicing… very scary! He was perfect in the jog again and I rode him a second time and he was perfect! He seems very happy to be here! His dressage test was sooooo good. It was a really competitive field, so I knew I was going to have to whack it out of the park. I good steady test was not going to score well. I was going to have to be brilliant! I rode him as uphill and forward as I could, sat up and smiled & he was fabulous! He ended up tied third with Pippa Funnel’s horse. First was Clayton Fredericks on his Olympic mount (and previous World Cup Champion mount) Ben A Long Time. Second was Lucinda Fredericks (wife) on her Olympic mount as well. Pretty darn good company.
The cross country is very technical. It is not very big, but there is a lot to do. The striding in the combinations are all very long. The course is short as this is a CIC not a CCI (7 min as opposed to 13). The xc is going to change the results a ton. I know my horse can do all they fences, but he will have difficulty being fast here. Arthur is a very fast horse, but he is definitely suited to a CCI length course. Because he is still young and a bit full of himself on course, I always have to keep him together in the first couple of minutes on course, then one he settles in I can go a lot faster. I generally need a CCI length course to make up for my slower start. For this course, if you are going to be fast, you will have to be really fast in the first couple of minutes, because there is less to do then and then just ride the rest of the course. Everything gets so technical from there on out you just have to make sure you jump the fences! Fingers crossed! Pictures to come later!