It’s 4 years since Clever Louis found himself at Boekelo and he looked happy enough to be back in the arena again just before the lunch break today. He is a beautiful type and his ‘eyes wide open’ facial expression is endearing. He is a complicated fella though and Jonelle has worked hard to establish a bond in their short time together and today he obliged with a smooth and pretty much error free test with good changes and a nice, uphill frame.
The problem was that he was fussy in the contact in the double bridle and that spoilt every single movement. As Jonelle said “the judges are going to hammer you for it, and quite rightly so, I don’t have problem with that!”. Louis has been working well in the double but he hasn’t been in a big ring with atmosphere in it before and it was the way he manifested his tension today. A score of 34.6 is no disaster by any means and as Jonelle also mentioned, she has another 2 phases to get through before she has to worry about next years bitting arrangements for dressage!
Jonelle also praised the footing and said it was about the best she has ever seen at Boekelo. It’s typically Boekelo cold with a coat being required outside of the truck but, as she also noted, “at least it’s not raining!”. A wet Boekelo is a truly miserable affair and the ground goes dead very quickly.
It looks like a bumper day of cross country ahead tomorrow and a treat to be able to watch all of it live. Well, lets hope that the livestream holds up and we do actually get to see some action!
That’s some girl power in the line up below! Credit Rachel Good.
