A beautiful sunny afternoon in Luhmuhlen for the 5 star dressage and Grappa Nera (Grape) looked an absolute picture as she entered the arena. Her trot work was some of the best that we have seen her do and she was trending in the high 20’s through out it all with a beautiful uphill frame.
Medium walk is never her forte but she has a classic extended walk which she did show off on the half 20 metre circle. Medium walk before the canter was a bit keen and her canter work is also spot on…apart from the changes. Scoring between 4 and 6 for late changes is always going to drag the score down and she looked pretty feisty coming down the centre line to finish!
And just like Faerie Dianimo as soon as Jonelle walks on a loose rein Grape relaxes throughout her whole body and saunters out of the arena like a cat. In fact she was so laid back Jonelle was able to drop the reins and use both hands to remove her tail coat as she headed towards the exit! A proper Princess indeed. A score of 35.5 is no disgrace at a 5 star and Grape looks happy to be at Luhmuhlen.
Last of the nine starters to go today saw Tim and Happy Boy kick off a superb entry with 9, 8, 8 from the three judges and a trending score of just under 17 which was incredibly impressive. Happy cantered the first couple of strides of the medium though which was such a shame and he then rather inexplicably cantered a few strides in the middle of his extended as well which is generally one of his highlights. So much good work was performed in the rest of the test and Tim clawed back every mark he could but those 2 big mistakes were enough to keep him out of the twenties for an eventual score of 31.7 and second spot.
Tim’s comment on leaving the arena was that “Happy just tried too hard” which is both fair and not always a comment that has been applied to Happy in the past so its progress of sorts! 2nd and 4th is a pretty good start for sure.
Jarillo (Milo) tomorrow morning and Capitaine de Hus Z (Alvin) in the afternoon.
