RIO: Dressage Grand Prix – Day One – Teams

Story by Chris Hector and photos by Rebecca Ashton

Sue Hearn and Remmington are living the dream. The very first combination into the dressage arena at the Rio Olympic Games, and Sue and Lloyd, the horse she made from the start are looking good. The trouble is the judges don’t really look for those crucial elements of the training scale: rhythm and relaxation. I know for sure there will be tests later in the competition that will score heaps more than Sue without having those crucial two Rs (a way better slogan than the infantile Two Hearts – duh) but the truth is that they shouldn’t.

Sue Hearn and Remmington

Remmington is not a flamboyant mover at the best of times, and needs a mistake free test to score, and mistakes in the twos and then the ones don’t help:

“Dam, dam, dam,” says Sue.

Changes, changes, changes, says I. And the ones were coming up absolutely super…

“I don’t know why that happened. No idea, sometimes he just looks at something, and I’m gone. The two times changes I went to ask him and he said, no I’m looking at something. I was pretty happy with him, if I didn’t just drop those changes I would have been thrilled. But that’s all you think about some times is the mistakes you have made…”

And your final piaffe, was

“Great.”

But by that stage, they had got 6.5 stuck in their tiny brains…

“And going in there first, you know they haven’t got the big marks but that’s fine – he is what he is, and I am HERE! Oh my god!! It would have made my day if he hadn’t made the mistakes, but we are here, we’ve done it and he tried his best – and you can’t ask more than that.”

No you can’t Sue.

Sue Hearn and Remmington

Spencer Wilton and Carl Hester were an item for quite some time, and Spencer rides in that new British style of dressage that Carl has lead to the top of the world’s standings: soft, engaged, brilliant connection (the curb rein just floating). Once again the judges can’t see the quality – okay there are a few little glitches but Super Nova (a really typical De Niro) deserved better than 72.71.

Spencer Wilton and Super Nova

Spencer is in the lead, but not for long, American rider, Allison Brock’s stallion, Rosevelt (by Rotspon) is cute, super cute, and it’s fun to watch, except when it is wildly swishing its tail in the changes. How can you expect a panel that includes a number of judges who have proven their inability to see the new stars coming or the old stars fading, to actually assess quality? Score 72.857%

Allison Brock and Rosevelt

Before we came to Rio, I was full of dread that dragging Parzival out again was going to lead to the same ugly end we saw with Corlandus and Rembrandt – and so it came to pass. The judges were prepared to give the chestnut a fine farewell, six 8s for the halt but then the marks started to fall away, finally after ten movements, Adelinde called an end to the whole sorry farce, and left the arena. And yeah I am sure the Dutch spin doctors will come up with a story, but the truth is an old gelding with his best a long long time ago, should never have been brought here. Now they are in a right pickle of their own making.

Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival retire

From one end of the spectrum to the other, twenty one year old Sönke Rothenberger and the nine year old Cosmo. Lovely, light and forward. See dressage CAN be beautiful, look at the horse’s spine as the movement flows through a liquid back. The mikes pick up the breathing of the horses, and there are some real tense puffers in there – Cosmo is silent. Even the background music is great, Amilcare Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours (try Hello Mother, Hello Father and you get the idea) matches perfectly the elegant pizzazz of the work. A fabulous test, how far can this duo go?

Sönke Rothenberger and Cosmo

Sönke is glowing with his sense of achievement when I catch up with him after the test:

“I’m really happy with the way my horse went, he is the youngest horse here and it is an amazing feeling to ride him, of course maybe he could have been a bit better here, or a bit better there, but I couldn’t have asked for more from my horse. It was an amazing feeling to ride here, and I hope we have made the first step in the right direction and my team colleagues can add to what we started.”

When you woke up on the morning of the first of January 2016, did you think, this year I go to the Olympic Games?

“No, no, it was a dream. Even now that I am here competing it is not quite real. I’m just happy to be here.”

Mary Hanna is the ultimate competitor, bigger the show, the brighter her star shines, and Boogie Woogie was looking assured and strong as they set off on their Grand Prix journey. It was a bit like the curate’s egg, good in places, actually better than good in places with a scattering of eights, but also a few fours and fives for a total of 69.643 with two judges over 70.

Mary Hanna and Boogie Woogie

“That one was a personal best for Boogie, who has been doing Grand Prix for less than a year, so I couldn’t be more pleased with him. He’s such a baby, he’s still a bit of a baby in his mind and he hasn’t been the easiest horse. You may remember at Boneo I was bolting off into the sunset. He has just come so far and every day, I feel like he grows up. I know that that really good into the 70s score is there. He proved that today because I had several amazing mistakes and I still got a score. The judges really do like him and they have been very kind to him, if he makes a mistake they put him down, but when he does something good, they give him the points, so if one fine day in the next six months, I can just ride a clean test, I know I am right up there.”

What happened in the corner between C and M?

“He was looking at the high up camera. It was quite spooky when you were in there I have to tell, I didn’t expect it, I hadn’t seen that camera before. That was the one thing that was different and he is still a bit nervous about his surroundings changing. That’s one of the great things about being here, every day I work him in a different arena, I do something different, and he’s just grown up. I couldn’t have dreamt of doing that six months ago, three months ago, I couldn’t have done that. He’s such a cool little dude and he never runs out of energy, he keeps going to the end and he keeps fighting for you. The only thing is that he gets disturbed by things that move or change in his environment.”

Five Games down now, are you lining up for Tokyo?

“Oh mate, I’m completely prepared, I’ve got two horses up there, I’m more prepared than anybody!”

Mary Hanna and Boogie Woogie

Fiona Bigwood is another of the British dressage is beautiful brigade, and her mare, Orthilia is such a talent. Rhythm is the dressage horse’s best defense, the minute the horse gets tight and tense, the rhythm goes, and that is why judges should take it so seriously. Flowing big trots, long loose walk, and while the canter doesn’t have the quality of the other two paces, it is neat, correct and ever so accurate. With a score 77.343, Fiona goes to the lead, and the Anglo – German war heats up, this time played out not on a battlefield but on a 60 x 20 arena, even if the shots that ring out from the shooting range (or is that another attack on the press centre?) might suggest otherwise.

Fiona Bigwood and Orthilia

But the Americans are determined to make this a three way shoot out. Kasey Perry-Glass has an elegant test on the Diamond Hit gelding Dublet. They go into the third spot with a score 75.457%.

Kasey Perry-Glass and Dublet (sorry the light was fading fast!)

Into the arena for Edward Gal and Voice, and the canter is verging on the four beat. There are some nice moments but the neck gets shorter and shorter, and there is some very tense and weird noises coming out of the speaker that picks up the horse’s breathing. It seems the Dutch dressage mafia can no longer intimidate judges, and the pair are being judged fairly, it’s an okay test, good in parts but not brilliant, and the canter is so flat to the ground there is practically no moment of suspension. The final piaffe is very fine indeed but the passage is spikey. As they halt, the horse kicks out at the spur and they still get 7.6 for the movement. 75.271%

Edward Gal and Voice

Dorothee Schneider and Showtime. It’s a very impressive, beautiful horse, and it can bend its hocks, but it can’t get them under its body – there are irregularites in the passage, and a truly awful pirouette left, and they end up on 80.986% Were they better than Cosmo and Sönke? No way.

Dorothee Schneider and Showtime

I think I need a strong drink…