Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbott of Canada
At the beginning of the day if you looked at the Thursday lineup, Allison and Arthur stood out as the top dressage pair and the results showed that to be true today. All of the afternoon pairs tried to catch Allison’s morning score of 42.3, but the closest that anyone came in the afternoon was Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan with a 48.5. Allison and Arthur take a big lead into tomorrow’s dressage, but there are some big names with big horses ready to go Friday.
Thursday Dressage Results:
1. Allison Springer and Arthur 42.3
2. Mary King and King’s Temptress 47.7
3. Will Coleman and Twizzel 48.2
4. Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan 48.5
5. Boyd Martin and Remingon 49.0
6. Michael Pollard and Icarus 50.5
–Two years ago I wouldn’t have thought there was any way Kim and Paddy would score over 45, but they have had such a disruption to their spring preparation from a tiny freak injury and Kim’s falls at The Fork that I think Kim should be happy with this afternoon’s result. It’s so like Kim to have a dressage test well below her standards and still be in 4th, but Paddy just didn’t have his top gaits today.
–Lainey Ashker and Anthony Patch were ahead of Allison’s scores after the trot work. But, a few costly mistakes in the canter work plummeted their score, although the dressage work was so good that they finished on a respectable 51.5 and they are sitting in 8th.
—Boyd and Remington were another pair that I know could have had a better score. I thought it should have scored better and Remington looked quite nice throughout the test, but Boyd left some clear points on the table including an error. I would bet Remi will finish on his score of 49 and we’ll have to see how the rest of the weekend goes.
–There was about a 50/50 split of top hats to helmets in today’s rides. With Allison being the only rider last year to wear a helmet, it’s clear that helmet awareness has come a long way. I’ll support riders for wearing helmets but I won’t get after them for going the traditional route either. Under the rules, it’s a personal choice. I think it’s a smart business and publicity decision to wear a helmet and it is also just good for raising helmet awareness, but that’s just me.
–Katie Ruppel had a heartbreaking day when Sir Donovan started completely misbehaving early on in their test. He halted, refused to move forward, bit at Katie’s foot, and even tried rearing. The judge rang the bell quite quickly and they were eliminated for insubordination. Katie has put so much effort into getting here and they have had a great spring preparation. I just feel awful, but Donald is young and has a lot of promise. Hopefully next time he will behave himself.
–A few of the commenters on the live blog who were also watching the USEF’s live feed mentioned that a couple of the horses looked uneven or off. That’s a pretty tough thing to pick out when someone is riding in a collected trot with a high frame and going in and out of movements in a tight arena. Having ridden horses in front of vets a fair amount I know you can pretty easily make an unsound horse look sound and vice versa with the aids, so I’ll just leave it by saying I would never judge a horse on soundness under bridle if I didn’t have to but I could see what people were talking about.
–I’m always surprised by the number of errors there are each year at Rolex. Having not ridden in a 4*, I can only imagine the pressure and distraction that riding in such a large setting must create, but there seem to be too many errors each year. Today there were 3. Boyd missed an 8 meter circle between the shoulder-in and half-pass, Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbott missed their extended trot, and Martha McDowell was late entering the arena. One error doesn’t hurt the score that much, but I hate to see points left on the table like that.
–The HRN will be along with live online radio starting at 4pm. Check it out here.
–The live blog with Lisa, Emily, and Bec was a lot of fun this afternoon, including our in depth analysis of the ‘tranter’. You shouId have heard some of the things Bec said that Emily didn’t write–we had quite a fun time. seems like people enjoyed watching the live USEF video and also chatting in the live blog. Hopefully you enjoyed it and will tune in tomorrow.
–I talked about this on the live blog, but I think my favorite horse in the field is Kilrodan Abbott. As you’ll see on Saturday, he’s such a wonderful genuine horse and he’s the same way in the dressage. Peter appreciates him so much that it’s easy to root for Peter as well. At 54 years young, this is another older pair that should hopefully kick some butt this weekend.
–Thursday was in some ways just a warm up for Friday when all of the heavy international hitters are set to go including William, Oli, Mark, Joe, and Clayton. There’s only one score on the leader board below 47, so it’s still anyone’s game.
That’s all for now after a great day in Lexington. Check back this evening for much more from Rolex and until then go eventing.
