Grey and misty in the main arena in Le Lion d’Angers at 10.06am local time when Jonelle and Faerie Good Golly trotted in and Golly had her first taste of being completely on her own in a big atmosphere. Golly has a great brain and she dealt with it admirably and was trending on a 28 as she neared the end of the trot work before something spooked her as she looked across to the in gate and then Golly turned into Molly and got hot! She trashed the last two trot movements which brought the score into the thirties and despite the canter work being mistake free the judges didn’t get excited after that. She finished on a good note and it was nice to see her gaining in confidence as the test progressed and she definitely worked through her blip and came out on the right side of it. That’s exactly why they go to Le Lion, it’s all about the education! I think it’s fair to say Jonelle was fairly philosophical about the score and the test, I think at this stage of Jonelle’s 2024 season nothing would surprise her and she was glad to have donned her tail coat for the last time.
Meanwhile in the USA Team the other half of Team Price was delighted to have seen star student Cosby Green and Highly Suspicious (Puff) take the lead on Thursday afternoon in the 5*L at Puff’s first attempt at the level. It is a great achievement and Cosby was very gracious in her post test interviews with her thanks to Tim and Jonelle and it was a great start for the little Chedington team.
Beautiful blue skies at Fairhill for Tim and Falco in the afternoon and there were some heavy hitters out in force with Tamie Smith and Mai Baum having laid down the gauntlet with a 25.3. Falco isn’t really a natural dressage horse but he has an amazing brain and as Tim says, “he is very clever and very trainable” and that has allowed him to excel in the arena. If you see him trotting around the edge of a field he looks like a little cob but he steps into the boards and produces this incredible balanced and expressive work.
They trended in the lead, just, throughout all of the trot work, earning a well deserved 9 for his extended, and the score just dropped slightly with the halt before the rein back which wasn’t square. His walk was relaxed but it would be his weakest phase and then 3 out of 4 changes came off to leave them sitting on a 27.4, 4th behind Ollie Townend and Bubby Upton. Tim commented “he deserves 10 out of 10 for effort!”. You cant ask anymore of a horse than that they give you their best.
Not a bad start! And Falco looked delighted to be strutting his stuff in the sunshine, such a delight to see. Photo credit https://shannonbrinkman.zenfolio.com