RIO: Dressage Grand Prix – Day Two – good bits and bad bits…

Story Christopher Hector and Photos Rebecca Ashton

Day 2, and some of the gloss taken off by the news that Sue Hearn has been found guilty by FEI of not declaring a controlled substance, and fined. Really it is no huge deal, as the penalty indicates, but it does raise a few questions about the competence of dressage team management. Who knew what and when needs to be established by an independent investigation. Right now, the AOC has been embarrassed with chef de mission Kitty Chiller grandstanding to the media, condemning the Chinese, when we brought a horse who was under a medication cloud, I suspect that the AOC will demand answers….

First horse out Anton and Belinda Trussell, lovely correct test. Rebecca Ashton remarks, I’d rather watch a not so talented horse honestly ridden than a super talented horse ridden badly…

Lyndal Oatley and Sandro Boy. Bit tight in front and out behind, and not entirely regular but the judges feel comfortable with Lyndal, she’s part of their scene. Up on 73+ so what do I know? The canter work is nicer – lovely big two times changes, except she has a miss in the ones. 70.186 which is great for Australia, and Lyndal is beaming after the test:

“I was just under 70 in London, this is my first representative over 70. I did a 71.6 before I got here at Aachen. I thought it felt a similar quality of test, a similar frame, similar feeling of power and elasticity. I was happy, keeping it consistent. It was a bit of a bugger though the last two one tempis but that was my fault, I stopped riding, I’ll be kicking my butt about that for a while, but otherwise there were a lot of things that I’ve been trying to improve on since Aachen, that have gotten better. That was the goal, that I wanted to do a good polished test, hold my spot for the team as third rider, and crank it up for the Cuz…”

Lyndal Oatley and Sandro Boy

Time for the man who saved dressage from Dutch Destruction, Carl Hester, and dear sweet Nip Tuck. This sounds stupid but the horse’s conformation seems to be changing, but isn’t that what dressage is supposed to be about, making the horse look more beautiful? Sure it is not spectacular but it is correct – which is better? Going into walk, Nip Tuck has one of his spooky moments, ouch 5, that hurts. Lovely canter, super changes, up to 75.529.

Yes, Rebecca it is better to watch a not so talented horse ridden beautifully than a brilliant horse ridden by a terrorist…

Carl Hester and Nip Tuck

For Carl, there is no stress in coaching the team while riding on the team:

“Teaching is what I do, that’s easy, and they are very good riders so it’s enjoyable, and of course, if you are teaching other riders that means I haven’t got time to get nervous, and it is not a good idea to get out there on Nip Tuck and get nervous, because when he is a bit spooky you have to anticipate where he is going to do it next. One moment it’s a cameraman, the next, a flower, or a gun going off, he’s just got this tiny little mind that’s always looking for spooky things – but by the time he got to the canter today, he got really good, and thank goodness because it meant I could get some marks.”

“I’m happy with my score, I can’t expect more, I wanted more and it’s three percent off his best but I got that score when he was mistake free, so I know some things have improved…”

At this point the umbrella behind the media scrum crashes over…

“Better now than in my test. It’s funny because in 92 when I rode Giogionne in the Barcelona Games, they had a pink umbrella on the side and as I piaffed in front of it, the pink umbrella just laid down in front of us. And that was a horse that just kept looking at it, and piaffing, if I had tried that with Nip Tuck, I would be back in the Olympic Village by now.”

“Some things have improved but I need to get the first bit right and get the weaker bit better. It’s disappointing but it still keeps the team in contention for a medal, not a gold medal certainly, but a medal.”

“When I gave him the long rein for the walk, he saw a flower, took one look at it and jumped on the rail. He needs glasses…”

Steffen Peters and Legolas: the work is soft and rhythmic beautiful contact, canter a little flat but trot is great, wonderful passage, so harmonious, this is real dressage. 77.614 and into second and in truth I think he could, should, have scored higher.

Steffen Peters and Legolas

Kristina Broring-Sprehe and Desperados. So nice to see a horse that has actually got stronger and more athletic as his career has progressed. Exquisite first extended trot, 8.6. Where once he looked weak behind, now he looks powerful and assured. Piaffe a bit dodgy but still gets 8.3, once they are in love, dressage judges tend to stay in love. Super huge changes for an 8.2, just a hint of the tail swishing. Fabulous final trot diagonal, lovely passage up the centre line and….? The best piaffe so far, just steps out and back at the end, still a wonderful test. 10 for the halt, 10s for the rider. 82.257

Kristina Broring-Sprehe and Desperados

Now it’s time for Kristy Oatley and Du Soleil, ’tis indeed a beautiful creature. Fine first trot, 8.2 for second extended trot, good piaffe but the transitions out are awful, bit of tail swishing on the 2s but nails them, super big canter diagonal, judges being very mean, but the changes are a problem, scores of 5.2 and 4. Ouch for the first time below 70. The final passage not quite even but the piaffe is good and the transition better. Good test Kristy, 68.9 is harsh.

Kristy Oatley and Du Soleil

Kristy is happy enough: “He did a really great warm up. In the trot work, I thought he was really listening to me. Of course the transitions out of piaffe are still our weak point, he finds them a little bit difficult and I don’t like to put the pressure on him to get out all the time, so I let him try to fiddle his way out. Then in the canter work it was like, YEP let’s go, and it was just a bit hard to keep his energy under control.”

“The first change for the twos, he did it before I asked so I had to be quick enough to get the second one, that threw me off a little bit. In the extended canter, I thought we got it back together again. In the zig zag I got the one, two, three and thought this is really nice, did the next change and whoops – I think I jinxed myself. Then in the ones I don’t know what happened. He did the first one again by himself so I tried to get back in the rhythm, and he just threw me off. After that I lost it in the pirouettes, and the pirouettes are my party trick and it didn’t work!”

Charlotte and Valegro open their quest for back to back gold with a perfect entrance (average 9, but two tens in that total), perfect first extended trot, wonderful half passes, another perfect extension, great passage, changes so clean and not getting too deep, brilliant ones, the tightest of pirouettes, and a jaw dropping final extended trot. There is a little hiccup before final halt, average drops to 7.7. It has been the complete test, dressage at its absolute best, the point where the sport becomes an art. On the individual marks, there are tens everywhere, and they deserve every one of them. 85.071

Charlotte and Valegro

Charlotte is not only the saviour of dressage, she is also every journo’s dream talent, quotable quotes flow one after the other for the waiting scribes:

“What am I thinking? Well for me, today was all about going in there and enjoying it. I watched a lot of people yesterday and they looked very white and nervous, and I thought, for me, this is my absolute passion and I’ve got the horse of my life, I’ve got the top trainer, I’ve got everything around with huge support from the team, we’ve got amazing arenas, we’ve got everything – I’ve got to go in and enjoy it and I can honestly say I was smiling before I even went in there. I can’t help but smile when I ride Valegro. I think something and he does it, and I laugh, how did he know that, I didn’t even ask! I just thought it.”

In line for silver now?

“We are catching them up, I don’t think gold is possible but we are going to give it a go. We’ve all been in the arena once, tomorrow we’ll be better. Fiona did a fantastic job yesterday, Spencer did a great job – first Olympic Games for both of them. And Carl, he’s done a great job. Not only does he have to ride himself, but he has been training Fiona, he has been training Spencer, he’s been training me. He’s been the rock for everybody. Everybody has had down days, we’ll be moping and he’s the one picking us up. Two girls moaning and one… Spencer.”

“I honestly don’t know how he does it, and he’s done it for the whole team, and I know we wouldn’t be here today without him.”

THAT extended trot

Is there anything you could do better tomorrow?

“I don’t know honestly. Ask me tomorrow, if I come out and say that was better then I’ll tell you. But he is not a machine, he is a horse, and if he makes mistakes, he makes mistakes but going out to today, I had a really nice time, I really enjoyed it, it was just easy, I didn’t feel like I had to pull or kick. He was so lovely to ride, if I could do that every time, and come out and feel happy – even if he makes mistakes – I know he always tries his hardest, so that for me is what it is all about, I can’t ask for more, when you go down that final centre line you know he has done his best.”

Is this different from London?

“London was my first Olympics, so it was just huge excitement. I’d got there, it was my dream to make it, I thought now I am here I am going to enjoy every minute of it. At the end of the day what I do out there is no different from any show, even if it is a local show, I’ve got to do the same stuff out there, that’s my thinking coming here, I just want to do the same. I want to go in there, I want to enjoy it, I want to have the time of my life.”

“We’ve had a great time, sometimes you forget you’ve come here to compete. Especially in the village, amongst the world’s best athletes and you’re like oh my god, there’s Roger Federer, there’s Andy Murray, oh my god there’s Serena Williams. There are all these athletes, Jesus Christ it is so cool. I don’t get star struck but I am, I’m star struck. And there’s different sizes and shapes, I didn’t think thighs could get that big, oh my god, it’s brilliant.”

Laura Graves another beautiful, correct, quiet rider, and so totally in synch with her horse, Verdades who is the most unlikely dressage horse of all – his sire is respectable dressage breeding, but his dam is all harness including two crosses of the Hackney, Cambridge Cole. Ones weren’t wonderful but everything else just great and again, the score is more than a little mean. 8.5 for rider’s position is way too low, two judges had her on 8, amazing. 78.086

Laura Graves and Verdades

Johnson and Hans Peter Minderhoud. A magnificent stallion, and a better Grand Prix horse that his famous father, Jazz, the bay is the picture of controlled power, although Hapi like most of his Dutch mates tends to hurry and hustle everywhere. More in front than behind in the extended trot, and they get tangled in the passage which even at its best is a little frenetic. Huge canter, expressive changes, they finish on 76.957.

Johnson and Hans Peter Minderhoud

Isabell Werth and her new ride, the Don Schufro mare, Weihegold OLD. Not a brilliant canter, bit flat, but the trot out of halt is flash, and the extended one, flasher. Everything is so precise, so professional, but does it make your heart sing? Not yet, Isabell is working hard to keep the piaffe going… Very nice twos, extended canter a bit modest, lovely changes of hand, correct ones but a bit choppy, swaps legs on the second pirouette and the score is down. Isabell’s blood is up, great passage up the centre line, fine piaffe, but the transition is muddled. Then seriously guys how can you give an 8.5 for the halt when the horse is standing like a hackney with its hind legs right out the back? 81.029%

Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD

We end with Germany in the lead, 81.295 (they average the scores) then Britain, 79.252 followed by the United States, 76.971.

Sadly the end of the road for the Aussies, didn’t get into the top eight teams, so we don’t make it through to the Special, but the fight between Germany, Britain and the USA is on – stay tuned.