Just the one day of dressage and it was grey and cold when Jonelle cantered down the centre line on Grappa Nera (Grape) but at least the wind had dropped and the rain was gone. Grape wouldn’t be the biggest fan of flatwork but she is a beautiful mare and when she stays rideable like she did today for Jonelle it is a truly elegant picture. The trot work was mistake free and expressive but the judges were not giving anything away at this early stage and they seemed very stuck on 6.5’s and 7’s. The changes were expensive as always and dropped the score down as Grape does like to make a bit of a drama out of them but a score of 34.3 is no disgrace at 5 star and you never quite know what Grape will give you in the arena on the best of days!
Tim and Global Quest (George) were third to go in front of the judges and George made a good job of his first 5 star test. Getting 4 changes in the ring is the big question at this level and George didn’t quite nail them but he didn’t make a big deal out of it either. He did everything asked of him and the judges still didn’t seem to make a whole lot of difference between the good stuff and the not so good. 34.9 was the score at the end of the test and a solid debut at the level.
By the time Senor Crocodillo (Diego) came into the main arena a couple of hours later the sun was shining which always makes such a difference. Diego looked solid in the contact which is always a sign that he is on board and he did some beautiful work, definitely a ‘clear round’ with a mistake free and relaxed display. He did muster a 9 for his rein back which was cool but with 4 good changes it was disappointing to see the judge at B not rewarding all of them as well as the others and that pegged his score at 30.4. Still a smart test though and Jonelle looked really happy with him.
Tim and Happy Boy looked really on song with Happy’s black coat gleaming in the sun and he had his Game On face on which is not always the case for sure! As Tim said afterwards, he’s not a big moving horse with massive paces but he can do everything very well if he decides to and today he committed to playing the game and it was a proper test. The only mistake was in the third flying change but he is an athlete through and through and a score of 29.9 was well deserved.
By the time Jonelle rode in on Hiarado (Jools) the shadows were starting to lengthen across the arena but, ever the true professional, Jools put her best foot forward and gave yet another good performance at the level. From her first 5 star at Pau in 2023, to Paris Olympics and at Kentucky this spring Jools has always scored between 30.0 to 30.8. Today she scored 30.3 which makes her nothing if not consistent with a polished and mistake free display of harmony.
Last to go were Tim and Jarillo (Milo) and he is a flashy dressage pony. With his long white socks ( which we learned today are called ‘sockettes’ in French which is supercool!) and big white blaze he looks the picture of showmanship and as we know, the arena is Milo’s ‘safe space’ as he knows he will not meet any other horses in here. It was a beautiful test and if H had been a little more generous than his 71% and more like C and B with their 75% and 73% he would have been closer to the lead. As it is they sit on 4th with 26.5 with Bubby Upton leading on 25.6 followed by Tom McEwen and Brookfield Quality (Norris) and Oliver Townend and Ballaghmor Class (Thomas) in 2nd and 3rd.
So Tim sits in 4th and 9th, Jonelle in 12th and 15th and they both have George and Grape a little further down the order. Tomorrow isn’t due any sun but it did its job today. It’s going to be an exciting day tomorrow with the 53 starters grouped within 20 marks of each other so as always at 5 star, everything to play for and no doubt the leaderboard will change throughout the day. Hats off to the support team for a great job today, Alys, Abel and Otis arrive tonight and the NZ tent is back up and running with the help of some imaginative repairs and allot of cable ties thanks to Ginny Loisel.
Livestream via €19.50 payment at https://www.event-pau.com
XC starts Saturday 12 noon CET.
Live scoring via https://www.worldsporttiming.com/fr/
