An introduction of Jacky is hardly necessary by now, but a ‘thank you’ is always necessary. So, thanks for writing this Jacky and thank you for reading.
Le Lion D’Angers
Set in the beautiful Loire valley at one of France’s premier National Stud farms the venue for the 6 and 7 year old young horse Championships could not be more beautiful. You do get to see a lot of the venue as everything is incredibly spread out with the main arena being a good 20 minute walk from the stables and the start and finish of the cross country set in the middle of the racetrack which is just behind the main arena so there will be plenty of fit grooms hiking backwards and forwards over the next few days. Le Lion can be wet and muddy but this year the event has been blessed with sunshine by day and near freezing temps at night which is much the preferred option!
Walking the cross country track yesterday is an amazing experience as fence decorations and ingenius use of the natural surroundings makes it quite a visual tour. Both tracks are big and bold with yellow numbers denoting the 6 year old track and red the 7 year olds and the waters in particular are very grown up for both classes. Le Lion has been crtitised in the last few years for being something of a dressage competition and this year they certainly seem set to change that with two great tracks that are refreshingly not technical but just big and bold and will encourage forward positive riding which is really what young horse championships should be about.
At the trot up yesterday afternoon a succession of simply beautiful horses appeared one after another which is also such a hallmark of Le Lion….at Badminton they seem to come in all shapes and sizes as so much about 4 star is heart and courage whereas these young horse classes seem to be about great conformation and stunning-looking horses. Whilst the TB excels at top level the young warmbloods step up to one and 2 star so much quicker and there a only a few of the TB’s here amongst the Holsteiners, Sport horses, Anglo Arabs and Selle Francais.
Dressage began this morning at 9 am which is quite tough on the early starters as it does not get light in France until 8am at this time of year! At this early stage the concensus is that they are marking really hard which is fine if they stay that way…..fingers crossed they do and don’t penalize the morning horses after a good lunch on Friday.
Check out www.mondialdulion.com for live scoring. 6 year olds run Thurs moring and Fri morning, 7 year olds Thurs afternoon and Fri afternoon then the 6 year olds run xc first on Saturday and the same for the sj on Sunday.
