Individual medal contenders Alex Hua Tian and Jilsonne Van Bareelhof came within a breath of their personal best to put themselves at the sharp end of the Olympic eventing dressage leaderboard today (27 July).
Paris is the fourth Olympics for British-based Alex, who is riding as an individual for China at these Games.
The pair’s flowing, consistent test was rewarded with a score of 22 – the same mark as Australia’s Chris Burton and Shadow Man – putting them in provisional equal third at the afternoon break. The result is Jilsonne Van Bareelhof’s best international test at any level for more than three years, his record being the 21.6 he achieved at Bicton in June 2021.
“I’m so happy,” said Alex, whose best placing at a Games to date is eighth at Rio 2016 with Don Geniro.
“He is good in this phase, but you never know going into an arena like that do you? Especially with a horse like ‘Chocs’. He’s very extravagant and he knows that. He loves the attention.
“He was always going to trot in there and think, ‘Oh, I’ve found a venue of similar majesty to myself’ – and that was either going to go this way, which thankfully it did, or the other and he was going to get over the top about it. So I’m very happy.”
Paris has been the long-held goal for this carefully managed 15-year-old gelding, who is owned by Adam, Angelina and Lin Guo, and Qianru Yi.
Alex added: “He’s a horse that I liken to a human athlete that’s at Olympic level in weightlifting, marathon running and gymnastics. Chocs is the most talented horse I’ve ever sat on in my life.
“There are other very talented horses that have been more consistent and more successful than him over the years. But if you look at him in each phase, he just goes extra.”
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