Equestrian 2022 Discussion Thread

[Belle 1,044]

Stockholm Hearts (Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Peder Fredricson) 

[dcro 10,211]

Rotterdam is hosting the dressage Nations Cup this week.

A bit of drama happened when Charlotte Fry's Dark Legend reared hastily in the rein back and basically destroyed the arena board.

 

Well, not really a drama, but it was funny to see the 70+ president of the ground jury stepping into the trenches herself to fix the boards while the people from arena maintenance were nowhere to be found.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[dcro 10,211]

CHIO Aachen is back this week. Following the sprint edition of last year (during the post-seasonal September at that), it is finally back in full force for the first time since 2019.

 

For the first time this year, it will stage the FEI Youth World Equestrian Games in both jumping and dressage. An event pretty much like the Youth Olympics, with the likes of taking part.

 

Youth Games will be streamed on the Youtube. Here is a thumbnail for the tomorrow's first round of jumping.

 

[dcro 10,211]

CDI4* Grand Prix of Aachen was held today. On paper a nice win for Dufour & Bohemian. Just over 80%. Piaffe, passage and pirouettes are championship-ready, however extensions, half-passes and flying changes were ridden quite conservatively and averaged below 7.5. Will need to improve on that if she is to become the World Champion this August, even if she is still the favorite.

 

Exception performances from Freese and Wandres (on Bluetooth), but also Galloway who set a new PB and showed promise for even more. Things are looking pretty good for New Zealand.

 

Not that it matters greatly, because she will not be making the American team any time soon, but Tubman & First Apple were so hilariously and outrageously overscored for their non-piaffe. The second one traveled 12 m and somehow got handsomely rewarded with 5.3 (of course, that's a low mark at any rate, but one can make a serious case that the piaffe in question never actually happened and should have therefore been given 0.0).

 

https://resulting.chioaachen.de/show/27/event/165/competition/2/result/

 

Tomorrow is the stage one of the Nations Cup.

[dcro 10,211]

Aachen Dressage Nations Cup standings after Grand Prix...

 

229.740%

228.499%

219.608%

218.370%

218.282%

216.348%

215.391%

210.457%

 

Detailed results

 

Yeah, Germany lost with their likely Herning team. And yes it was expected. Actually it was Denmark who kind of flopped (well, everyone except Dufour). So many people are confident about them taking team gold at the World Championships, but Germany came really close today. Sweden and Spain also have their best teams here in Aachen.

 

Curiously, Dufour scored 81.5% with Vamos Amigos today, more than percent higher than she did with the preferred championship choice Bohemian yesterday. Danish team selectors will be having some serious headaches this week.

 

[dcro 10,211]

Interesting bit of interview with  Henri Ruoste at the Aachen press conference.

 

"My parents bought me my first pony before I could say I want to play ice hockey."  @hckošice

 

https://www.eurodressage.com/2022/07/01/dufour-wins-5-grand-prix-2022-cdio-aachen-denmark-lead-nations-cup

[dcro 10,211]

I have been praising the Lithuanian equestrians all year, but credit where credit is due. Another landmark was set today as Vanagaite set a new NR and become the first Lithuanian to break 70% in a purely technical GP test.

 

https://results.equestrian-hub.com/show/41115/dressage/537468

[dcro 10,211]

Ulla Hakansson made a bit of a history today just by competing, aged 84, at an international event (CDIO) in Falsterbo.

 

She is an Olympic medalist from Munich and Los Angeles.

 

Riding Diddy Cool, she placed 13th today in the Grand Prix with 64.848%

[dcro 10,211]

Some nice spotlight, out of nowhere, for the Argentinian dressage. @konig

 

https://www.eurodressage.com/2022/10/01/argentinian-micaela-mabragana-wins-first-cdi-grand-prix-career-2022-cdi-w-devon

 

Granted, she only won a competition with two other competitors (one of whom withdrew ), but a win is a win, especially since this was an international competition. A day later, she won the Grand Prix Special with 66.766%. That's quite a promising score in regards to Paris 2024 possibilities.

[dcro 10,211]

Next year's Badminton Horse Trials will coincide with King Charles' coronation (May 6th), so the organizers have decided to rework the schedule (move everything one day, so the show jumping will be held on Monday).

 

• Friday 5th May – International Event – Dressage
• Saturday 6th May – International Event – Dressage
• Sunday 7th May – International Event – Cross Country
• Monday 8th May – International Event – Show Jumping

 

It's a novelty in the sport. Dressage competitions will be stopped on Saturday during the coronation itself. I gather we could see many more of this across other sports. @Dragon @Grassmarket