Chris Hector and Roz Neave enjoying watching Carl and Charlotte in Jerez in 2016
Barolo – now sold to Japan
Story – Christopher Hector and Photos – Roz Neave
The day in Jerez was another in the on-going masterclass that Charlotte and Carl have been conducting. Watching Charlotte work with Barolo in the indoor arena at the Royal School in Jerez.
Barolo has a quite different quality from Valegro – a lightness, an ethereal beauty…
But we’d heard a little whisper that Charlotte was to ride one of Rafael Soto’s horses, the six-year-old Adivino (it means Fortune Teller), and there she was, finding it just a little difficult to ‘get’ the beautiful grey’s rhythm, but with a little help from Rafael, she did get in tune with the horse.
Why are we not surprised that she produced some wonderful changes, great passage.
And even some Spanish Walk, though a laughing Charlotte explained that this Spanish Walk was Adivino’s idea and not Charlotte’s.
It’s SPANISH walk, not DUTCH trot…
Just enjoy the photos of this great rider at work, as she said after the session, dressage gets so serious, it should be fun – we should enjoy it.
And yes, Carl was also conducting his own little master class, showing just how a young Grand Prix horse – Wanadoo – should be worked, that is if you still want them to wan’a’do it, Carl told us later.
I’m going to whinge about something totally unrelated, but shown in these pictures & many others.
Arena Surfaces.
Why do Australians have this ridiculous notion that we should have sand arenas that are so deep it affects the horizontal plane of how the horses foot lands. Our arenas are too deep. You can clearly see in these photos that the arena is firm & the horses foot doesn’t disappear, allowing It to land flat & horizontal to the plane.
Australia needs to take 4 inches off their arenas. Especially the competition arenas.
Damn, I’ve been busy this week and missed reading any nonsense about Carl and Rollkur – will just have to enjoy these photos and article instead.
For Simone, it’s just not taking the 4 inches off, it’s the type of sand is all wrong and it should have some kind of fibre mix to build support in the footing as well. We have better surfaces in private homes that at most competition arenas here. That’s sad.