Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Imhotep put in another great test in the grand prix special today (8 August), scoring 77.523% in the Blue Hors FEI World Dressage Championships results.
The nine-year-old Everdale son Imhotep – owned by Carl Hester and Coral Ingham – showed powerful, active, punchy work, with so much potential for the future.
The green horse showed some tension in his neck and Charlotte was constantly trying to free the rein and push his nose forward to combat this.
“He needs to learn to go a bit less, but he’s so enthusiastic, he has so much power and he can’t quite manage it at the moment which is why he makes mistakes,” said Charlotte. “He’s like riding a go kart, what he offers is so much.”
The pair had plenty of strong scores in the trotwork and Imhotep’s ability to open and close the pace really suits this test. In the canter work, he broke to trot momentarily as he rounded the arena end after the one-time flying changes and wobbled in his first canter pirouette, with marks for this averaging 5.7 as opposed to 7.9 for the second, cleaner, effort.
Charlotte explained: “I felt really good up to the canter, then he bubbled up in himself and got hotter and hotter. I kept trying to give him a pat, like, ‘You’re alright, you’re ok.’ Then I used my voice on the short side and he trotted and I was like, ‘Oh no, not that much.’ It’s a little bit hit and miss, that’s how green he is at the moment.”
Speaking about the first pirouette, Charlotte added: “I think he changed behind for one stride. He tried to make it too small for himself, I tried to make it bigger, he tried to make it smaller. That’s where he’s inexperienced and he just needs educating now and ring exposure and just getting that confidence in there.”
Charlotte currently sits third in the grand prix special World Dressage Championships results, just ahead of Britain’s first rider Gareth Hughes, who scored 77.28%, but she is likely to drop out of the medal placings as the final pairs come through in this competition. Britain still has one rider to go, Lottie Fry on Glamourdale.
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