A day of course walking and helping others with dressage tests before Senor Crocodillo (Diego) and Chio 20 did their 4*L dressage near the end of the afternoon session. It was cool and breezy in the morning with bursts of rain and thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon and there was plenty of rolling thunder as Jonelle left the stables on Diego but the rain mostly held off and the sky made quite a dramatic backdrop to Diego’s test. The lightning stayed away which was a really good thing! Diego is pretty laid back and he stayed with Jonelle to do a super test although the mistake in the first change cost dearly with double marks for that movement. It was good enough for 29.6 which makes them competitive, albeit in 23rd place as that is the number of horses sitting between 22.8 and Jonelle!
Tim followed her into the arena on Chio who is as impressive as he is unpredictable. He is a total powerhouse and the judges are just dying to throw marks at him in a big arena but he doesn’t make life easy for Tim! He was trending in the low twenties in the trot work, nailed the canter half passes, the walk and the rein back but two changes that were not clean dropped him down the scoreboard dramatically. He ended up on 29.9, a smidgeon behind Jonelle and in another year Chio is going to be nearly unbeatable on the flat.
As his owners and supporters chatted to Tim outside the ring he queried why “no one wants to come close and pat this horse?” with a smile as everyone who knows Chio knows how fast he can move when he chooses! Everyone was quite happy to stay outside of damage distance and leave Tim to hack him back home…. some horses are cuddle horses and some horses are more macho!
Happy now sits in 4th going into cross-country tomorrow in the 4 Long and Full Monty de Lacense (FM) in 9th in the 4*S. Dromgurrighy Gold (Dara) still has time to shine on the cross country to move up from mid field and the 4S horses start showjumping tomorrow morning at 7.45 with Dara second in. Cross country for the 4*L starts at 11.30 and should be on https://horseandcountry.tv
