Canadian rider Tiffany Foster said she wanted “ to stop halfway” round the course today at the Agria FEI World Showjumping Championships, to pat her horse Figor as he was “trying his absolute heart out”.
The combination sit in fifth place individually after day two of competition, just 0.95 penalties behind leaders Julien Epaillard and Caracole De La Roque.
After a strong clear in yesterday’s opening speed class, Tiffany said: “It felt amazing.
“I really wanted another clear round today, but I felt like I wasn’t really with my horse for the first four jumps. I don’t know why, I just felt like I wasn’t doing all the right things. I got way too deep to number four, and he totally saved me.
“And then I thought, okay, from now on I’m gonna give him a good ride; get organised, do what you need to do. And I feel like for the second half, we felt really together with it. And he tried his absolute heart out – I just wanted to stop halfway through and pat him.”
Tiffany has had 12-year-old KWPN gelding “Figgy”, who she owns with Artisan Farms LLC, for about five years.
“He has a bit of nervous energy that we’ve had to try to manage,” she said. “His flat rider was here, Max Manzardo, and he does a great job with that. It’s a team effort for this horse, because he is a little bit of a handful sometimes, but when you can get him in the zone, I feel like he just gives everything and that’s the best.
“He’s actually not strong, he’s like the most amazingly lovely horse to ride, he’s just really bloody, like he really wants to go the jumps, and my favourite thing is to try to calm horses down so that was really what drew me to him in the first place. It’s been a bit of a journey with him because it hasn’t totally been easy, but he’s lovely to ride. He’s like the dream; he wants to go but you have all the controls and all the brakes and even though he’s a bit fussy now and I have a really soft bit in his mouth, he doesn’t need much bridle and I feel in total control all the time, which is a great feeling.”
Tiffany added that Carlene Ziegler of Artisan Farms bought Figgy for her when he was seven, in hopes that he would be a championship horse.
“Then with Covid and injuries and things that have happened, this is the first championship we brought him to,” she said. “And so I have high expectations because there’s no course he can’t jump. He is the scopiest horse I’ve ever ridden, even when I went in the ring and there was that fence with the bushes, I thought ‘Oh my god, how are horses jumping it?’ But he just flies. He’s got so much scope and it gives you so much confidence. He’s just amazing.”
Tiffany and Figgy will be in action again tomorrow (12 August) in the World Showjumping Championships team final.
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