Not having watched the GP, I’m seeing everyone for the first time today. And I have to say it’s some very impressive quality out there. All kinds of new talent too. Agnete from Denmark lit the place up early on with her delightful horse Jojo Az, but really the calibre of horse flesh and riding across the board is pretty stunning considering we’ve seen only the ‘bottom’ nine so far. Of note is the consistently high quality of piaffes. I’ll give the FEI points for adding the coefficient in there last year. It certainly seems to be reaping some rewards for those of us watching.
It’s also nice to see a little gene pool variety in the horses. For once not every second horse is a De Niro or a Donnerhall. Not that I don’t love that bloodline – what’s not to love after all – but it’s heartening to see that great horses can still come from all kinds of bloodlines. Mister A even appeared in the dam line of Romeo-Star, one of the three Russian entries.
And speaking of three Russian entries, I do have one beef with the field here. Why do we have only nine countries represented? Three Danes, three Russians, but only two Americans? No Canadians? I know that last year they changed the way that the old ‘wild cards’ were determined, using the world rankings to objectively give away the spots. Objective it may be, but to me the result is not satisfying. Not enough nations, and not enough representation from the countries that fill the majority of the seats. And Eurocentricity raises its head yet again: those two Americans are the only non-Europeans out of 18.
There’s been some good music to get the crowd excited – everyone especially loved Rolling in the Deep for Jojo’s passage. There have been a couple of unfortunate mistakes due to the crowd showing its appreciation during high-focus elements like one tempis. It’s a double edged sword, this crowd support. Best to cheer at the end, or no sooner than the final centre line at least. You aren’t doing a rider any favours by appreciating them into a mistake.
My favourite freestyle so far is one I’ve liked for a long time: Mikala’s and My Lady’s cheeky Burlesque/Chicago program. So fun and so well suited to that buxom mare. There so far have been two prom dresses in common – two riders from Scandinavia used Two Steps From Hell ‘Heart of Courage’. I’m a bit surprised by that, since the two have almost certainly crossed paths over the qualifying season, given that they are both from the same region. It’s lovely music that I have used myself for a client, but always a bummer to be the second one in the ring with the same song.
I’m a bit surprised to see rather a lot of empty seats in here today. I expected it to be closer to a sell out than this. I hope it’s enough of a commercial winner for Las Vegas Events that they keep on with their plan to bring the WC back here on a regular basis.
