Christopher Hector sits in on the first round of the Seven Year Old Championship…
Photos – Dirk Caremans
Kjento
Right now it would seem that the British dressage crown – at least for now – has passed from Charlotte to Lottie! Everything the Dutch based Lottie Fry touches turns to Gold and she was right on song for the first round of the seven-year-olds, riding last year’s 6-year-old champ, Kjento (Negro / Jazz).
The black stallion has movement to burn, and a great moment of suspension, but as you can see in the photo, the curb is parallel to the ground, and he is jacked up in front. It’s a pity as he looks so lovely when he stretches his neck in the walk. In his canter pirouette, he doesn’t maintain the canter rhythm with his hind legs, but he sure can canter, and at last we see changes that are really expressive. My incredibly knowledgeable colleague, has said earlier that she is waiting for the goose bumps… Now? Just a few. The test certainly has the ground jury excited. 9.5 for the trot, 7.9 for the walk – the judges have been great really looking hard at the walks and scoring accordingly, 9.8 for that wonderful canter, 9.5 for submission, and 9.5 for well the program calls it ‘perspective’. My colleague tells me that the word in German implies prospect for the future, but perspective in English has no such connotation, I’ll stick with calling it prospective… All that for a 84.415.
Sire of Swanmore Dantina, Dante Weltino competing at Aachen for Sweden with Therese Nilshagen
And suddenly we have Britain one/two, when Sadie Smith puts together a very polished test on the exquisite mare, Swanmore Dantina, she is by one of my favourite stallions, Dante Weltino out of a mare by Charatan W, by the great Trakehner, Consul, out of one of Wolfram Wittig’s great line of mares, Bugatti W.
Dantina has such a pretty head, and it would seem that what’s inside is just as sweet. Super pirouette, and this time the horse does canter behind, beautiful riding and they finish with a perfect square halt. 8.8 /7.8 /8.2 / 9 – 78.148.
Last year’s reserve champion, the Hanoverian, Escamillo is by Escolar, out of a mare by Rohdiamant, and he is lucky he has a real Rohdiamant face and eye.
Rohdiamant and Lisa Wilcox at home
He is also a real stallion, no need to get out of the car, but is also a little ‘cheeky’ which is why he is being ridden not by Helen Langehanenberg, but by her rider, an incredibly talented Spaniard Manuel Dominquez Bernal. You can see why Escamillo is the stallion of the moment, his first crop of three-year-olds has been super impressive, and mega expensive, right now he has been taken out of the breeding to concentrate on sport. The pelting rain stops for a while to let the stallion shine in the sun, he is really through, so supple and rhythmic, wonderful trot and canter and a great walk, the contact is soft and correct, he could (should?) go to the lead, but no, the judges as not as enthusiastic as I, 9.5 / 9 / 9/ 9.5 for an 82.965.
The liver chestnut stallion, Destello (Dimaggio / Fürst Fugger) is a glorious creature, with fabulous trot and canter, and he is perfectly presented by Beatrice Hoffrage, they score 9.5 /7.8 / 9 / 8.8 / 9.2 for a 80.15 and push 29 year old Sadie Smith down to 4th. Sadie following Lottie’s example, has recently moved from Carl Hester’s tutelage, to the Van Olst stable…
Destello
Kurvasz R52 like his dad, Glamourdale is a bit croup high, but he has Dad’s big movement, it’s a nice click, out of a De Niro mare. He carries Marieke van der Putten into 6th with an 8.9 / 7.3 – that walk score hurts / 8.3 / 8.3 / 8.5 to a 78.131.
Highfive Fuglsang is the most hyped stallion in Denmark, he is by Grand Galaxy Win (who like the triple World Champion, Sezuan, has suffered the indignity of gelding when their lady riders decided they would prefer an honest riding horse to a breeding stallion) out of a De Niro mare. Ridden by Ronja Dahlseng he scores 8.8 / 7.8 / 8 / 8.2 / 8.5 for 77.372.
Once again we are set for an exciting final…