Lauren Nicholson was emotional after her Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage test yesterday on the 17-year-old Vermiculus. The pair scored 30.6 to hold equal third after this phase.
“It’s always like that with these older horses, especially the ones you’ve had since two-year-olds,” she said. “For all the people behind them and who follow them, you feel like you owe them something. It’s a relief when you don’t screw up. You feel some responsibility to deliver your best on them and you don’t want waste a moment when they are in their twilight years.”
Although he’s an older horse, the Anglo Arab Vermiculus is still an excitable ride. Lauren said she can tell when he might explode as one of his ears starts to twitch, which is often followed by a leap, but yesterday he managed to keep a lid on it.
“He had one little bobble, but he’s such a professional and he’s done this a million times and he knows what his job is on the day,” she said, adding that she did a longer warm-up than sometimes, but with plenty of walk breaks and stretching as physically the compact little horse can only hold a test outline for a limited time.
Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage: cheer for a favourite
The crowd gave a great cheer for this fan favourite as he finished and Vermiculus turned his head to look at the grandstand.
“He was like, ‘You may cheer for me now’,” smiled Lauren. “He certainly likes a crowd. He likes the atmosphere. A lot of people try to avoid going down to the arena while the crowds are clapping for the person before, but I know he’s going to like it – it’s like a set-up and hopefully makes him realise it’s an occasion and he should buckle down a bit.”
After being a world team silver medallist in 2022, Vermiculus – who belongs to Jacqueline Badger Mars, from the family behind major Kentucky sponsor Mars Equestrian – did not compete internationally last year.
“That was our plan all along,” said Lauren. “We really played it safe last year. We’ve been very, very lucky. He did his first four-star long as an eight-year-old and his first five-star long here as a 10-year-old and he’s done two or three big three-days a year ever since then, for almost a decade now.
“Last year was the first season we missed, but we also knew we didn’t want to take any chances with the coming year [leading up to the Paris Olympics] and every run on him at this point is just a blessing and fun.”
Having not competed last year, Vermiculus needs a qualification at a long format event to be eligible for selection for Paris 2024, and Vermiculus is in the five-star at Kentucky, unlike many US Olympic contenders, who are contesting the CCI4*-S.
“Even if he didn’t need it, I would prefer to do a long, to be sharp and prepped and ready,” said Lauren. “I think there’s just that much more pressure when you’re doing a long so I would have chosen that either way.”
This is a sixth start at Kentucky five-star for “Bug” and he has completed three times, with his best result being fifth in 2018. He was also ninth at Burghley Horse Trials in 2019, 12th at Maryland 5 Star in 2019 and fourth at Luhmühlen Horse Trials in 2022.
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