The freestyle yielded another silver medal for Britain’s Georgia Wilson at the European Para Dressage Championships, bringing her tally in Riesenbeck to two silvers and a team bronze.
Georgia and her chestnut mare Sakura had already won individual silver here, and today they pushed the unbeaten home favourites Heidemarie Dresing and Horse24 Dooloop to the wire, scoring a huge personal best of 79.34%. In fact, the Swedish H judge Eva Andersson put Georgia in the gold-medal position, and this grade II rider is closing the gap ahead of next year’s Paralympics.
“It’s a good end to the week, to get 79 at a Europeans. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone who has helped me get up to that percentage,” she said.
As Heidemarie came out of the ring, scoring her own massive personal best of 80.35%, the crowd erupted. Horse24 Dooloop, who was competing in prix st georges last year, showed off his excellent ability to piaffe, which also sent the crowd wild. The atmosphere was still electric as Sakura walked in – a concern for many riders, but not Georgia, who says the clapping helps lift Sakura’s trot.
“‘Suki’ liked the crowd,” said Georgia of the nine-year-old Supertramp mare, who was bred by Geri Eilberg. “She did get excited as I came round because everyone was clapping, so I had to calm her down but I felt her take a breath and started. The atmosphere was really good today.”
Georgia added that while she enjoys her downtime, her success is making her hungrier than ever as she inches towards another individual gold; she won the freestyle gold on Midnight in 2019.
“I do like a cup of tea in a cafe, but I would definitely be bored without this,” she said. “When you get higher percentages it makes you want to do even better, it’s the buzz.”
But Heidemarie and Dooloop are on an upward curve.
“My dream was to ride 80%, but after the ride I was not sure I reached that goal until I heard it over the speakers,” sHeidemarie said. “I think my music supports the programme and the horse, so it becomes an artistic expression, and today that all came together perfectly.”
The battle for bronze was even closer, between Norway’s Ann Cathrin Lübbe and Austria’s Pepo Puch. The former prevailed with her 12-year-old Sir Lancelot gelding La Costs Majlund, finishing 0.09% ahead.
European Para Dressage Championships: grade I freestyle
The complexion of this contest changed when the reigning world champion Rihards Snikus and King Of The Dance, who had already won the individual gold earlier in the week, did not line up after failing the vet check.
With her main rival out of the picture, Italy’s Sara Morganti stepped up to take gold in her specialist event on 81.64%. However, after a major hiccup starting her individual test left her down in 11th, her participation in the freestyle was in doubt.
“This is wonderful because after the first day I didn’t even know if I would qualify for the final,” she said. “The second day the competition went very very well, apart from the fact that our team came fourth by a tiny bit, but I got my access to the final. This was a new start, I had to forget what had happened on that first day.
“She was a little shy in there today maybe, but she really listened to me and did her best. She is still unexperienced but with more experience she will get more confident in the arena hopefully.”
Ireland produced their sole medal across the para and European Dressage Championships when Michael Murphy steered Cleverboy into silver. It hadn’t gone quite Michael’s way so far this championships, missing out on a podium position by 0.04% in the individual test.
Ireland’s Michael Murphy and Cleverboy land the silver medal in the grade I freestyle
“The freestyle is an opportunity to show what he’s capable of,” said Michael. “We put together a challenging floorplan, and if it goes wrong it goes badly wrong, but it went well today. Stringing together a lot of movements in difficult places together is the challenge; there’s no room to breathe or get the horse back on track if you make a mistake. The main one today was the eights (volte) in the middle. Tt’s really difficult to ride them to show the judge you can ride two eights back to back, to show suppleness; it’s really obvious if you make a mistake, but I think we did that nicely.”
Michael’s music featured a Call of Duty soundtrack, and uses some of the same songs his trainer Elder Klatzo uses in her own grand prix freestyle.
“It works really well with his walk. The walk test is really difficult to make the music interesting so I try to stay away from having one track all the way through, and try – like the able-bodied grand prix – to mix it up as the test changes.”
Dream debut for Gabriella Blake
Gabriella Blake’s dream championship debut didn’t quite end with a third medal, after she was pipped to bronze by 0.3% by Germany’s Martina Benzinger and the adorable Nautika, a 17-year-old grey with a speckled nose.
Gabby’s bold display to a Beyoncé medley had a brilliant vibe and suited this punchy part-Connemara, who pulled off a daring serpentine across the arena en route to a PB.
“It’s not music I would have chosen, but I was told the music I did in Waregem was very boring, so I had to change it,” she said. “It goes perfectly with him. He felt like he has all week, he’s given everything. For his first championship, he’s like a pro, like he’s been doing it his whole life. He’s never been in this atmosphere before, but he’s actually better when there’s a lot going on.
“I never expected anything like this, I couldn’t ask for more.”
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‘I hear them doing the Grand National at night!’ Carl Hester on the joys (and worries) of top horses living out
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