Dressage disappointment for Harry Meade at Maryland 5 Star as warm-up plan disrupted

Harry Meade had a disappointing time in the Mars Maryland 5 Star dressage today (14 October) as his carefully planned warm-up routine with the sensitive Superstition was disrupted.

Each rider in the competition was allowed 10 minutes in the white boards in the warm-up before their test. Harry had spoken to the officials in advance and it had been approved for him to use his 10 minutes earlier, rather than immediately before his test.

However, there was an objection made to Harry doing this, which could not be sorted out in time to allow him to work inside the boards. This meant the 13-year-old Superstition had to go into the main arena to do his test without having had any time in the boards and he was extremely unsettled.

Harry told H&H: “The horse has a fragile temperament. We had a very carefully tried and tested and pre-approved warm-up routine, which was actively disrupted. It was a really sad moment and not what you expect in a really friendly sport.

“Apart from it being costly as far as the marks were concerned, I’m just sad for the horse who panicked as a result and didn’t have a positive experience. More than anything, we care so much about our horses and hate seeing any one of them get unnecessarily wound up. But we have to move on.”

Harry and Mandy Gray’s Superstition scored 37.4 for 21st after the Maryland 5 Star dressage, a huge disappointment after scores of 29.1 and 29.6 in their two five-star runs last year.

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Pippa Roome

H&H magazine editor and eventing editor

Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.