Cease Fire for Grand Prix

Finally, the entire day’s focus is on the athletes and not bullets! My mood has improved from a combination of great competition, the cease fire, and the beer stand I’ve found that isn’t busy during the break.

Belinda was awesome!! She was fun to watch and to it was nice to finally see some Canadian fans in the audience. I’ve been amazed at the number of Germans and French people that have made the trip, not so much the Canadians.

I even saw a group of about 50+ German fans at the lunch break (aka: first beer run of the day) gathered around Kristina and the other German dressage riders as Soenke Lauterbach, the CEO of the German Equestrian Federation, hosting a Q&A session for fans with the dressage riders, including Kristina who had just finished competing.

Admittedly, I’m not a hard-core dressage freak, but over the years I’ve learned a bit about what the judges are watching for. It’s also quite helpful to see the judges scores as the horses proceed through the test to compare your own evaluation. When you agree it’s great, the real trick is trying to figure out what they did or did not like when you disagree.

There were a few moments that stood out to me today:
Nip Tuck had a big spook early in his test. Carl explained later that Barney has the attention of a goldfish.
“He’s a little bit looking and spooky you have to anticipate where he is going to do it next. One minute it could be the camera, then the flower, then the gun going. I mean he is like got this tiny little mind that’s always thinking of other things.”

Cassidy, ridden by Catherine Dufour (DEN), really struck me as an adorable, floaty 13 year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding. He had flashes of brilliance but some funny steps elsewhere affected his score. The pair were the European Young Riders Champion for two consecutive years

Kristina Broring-Sprehe and Desperado FRH were as impressive as you would image the #1 ranked combination in the world to be. The judge at B gave her two 10s, one for Halt, Immobility, and Salute and another for Rider Seat and Position.
“Desperados was really great today. A few mistakes, in the piaffe we lost a bit of rhythm and one mistake in the zig-zag but the rest was really great. He was really concentrated and I’m very proud of him.”

The Lusitanos ridden exclusively by the Brazilian team are were also teddy bear cute. A couple of them have pronounced cresty necks which stands tall and proud during the test but which flips back and forth when walking on the buckle at the walk. Unfortunately, the team finished 10th today and won’t be back for the Special and none of the team members made the cut either. I wonder what that will do to the already dismal audience.

While I disagree with the artistic direction (see my earlier entry on horse masks on people) of the FEIs new website, they have a handy new section which makes looking up the info you need quite painless. The Rio website that has all the scores is ok and does provide real time results, flash quotes, and some other stuff. The biggest problem has been that the Dressage movement scores are gone as soon as the next rider is in the ring. This was a problem in Eventing which I brought to their attention and was told they would look into it… but nadda. The upshot is that unless you are able to get a screen shot, you are out of luck. I presume the FEI realized that might happen and not only offers the live scores but also archives them for each ride. You can find all the Grand Prix results here.

The best six teams and the top eight individuals not otherwise competing as a team move forward to the Grand Prix Special tomorrow. The start list hasn’t been posted yet, but the rankings have and by my calculations Belinda will make it in but Megan just misses out and is second reserve. So two others have to drop out before tomorrow morning.