H&C

25
Jul
2009

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A nine for paces and a nine for passage

Hans Peter and Escapado competing today
(c) Tim Spurgeon

“Today I warmed Escapado up for about 45 minutes before my test. Straight from the beginning, he felt really good. I was happy with how he was going when we went in and he did a good test.

I was especially pleased with the canter work and the passage was good. Sometimes he can be tricky with the transitions in and out of the piaffe, but today he was super.

All the judges had me on good marks in the 70s, except for one, who had me on 69%, which was a shame, as it cost me a place.

I was pleased with Peanuts and the audience seemed to approve too as I heard lots of clapping when we finished, which was a great response. The horse knows his job and was really trying hard today.

I was pleased to see a nine for paces today and a nine for the passage. Tomorrow I will ride him in the same way. Obviously sometimes you feel that you can push for more in certain places, but in general I will try to do the same as I did today.

For tomorrow I have chosen to compete in the Special. Parzival, Totilas, Sunrise and Laura B are all in the Kur, so I thought rather than probably coming fifth or sixth in that, I would rather have a shot at winning the Special. Plus, that way, Edward [Gal] can help me warm up and I can help him.

Today I watched Parzival and Totilas. Parzival looked great, but Totilas wasn’t as relaxed today as usual – the beginning was very good but then he made that big mistake in the transition and I thought oooooh please don’t make any more mistakes!”