I have been thinking about it all morning and I think that Will has the best two-horse combination in US eventing right now. Even though Pawlow didn’t have the best weekend at Luhmuhlen, his record suggests that it was the exception rather than the rule. And I’m not sure there are many better horses out there than Missie even though we haven’t seen her at a four-star yet. Will was kind enough to write for EN about how Pawlow and Missie felt at Luhmuhlen.
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Will and Pawlow, photo courtesy of Kate Erickson
From Will:
I was very pleased with both of my horses. Missie had a great weekend with a good result–my goal was to break 50 in the dressage and finish on it so I feel very happy with her and I am looking forward to the summer.
Pawlow was excellent as well. He had his best dressage score to date and I can still get more points with him. He was super on the cross-country and felt better than he did at Rolex last year. My glance off was totally my fault. When I jumped into the line in the arena he was starting to feel a little tired and ended up very deep to the B element and ballooned up over it. I stupidly tried to continue on the line and got there wrong. I circled around and he finished super.
Both horses looked fantastic Saturday night and felt great Sunday morning. Missie jumped super and I had the strangest stop on Pawlow. It was at the last element of the triple and I felt I got him in on a good stride. He jumped very big over A and B, and we couldn’t make C happen. I am not sure what I did wrong but I will be watching the video over and over so I do not let that happen again. He then jumped through the combination and had a very good rest of the round.
On the whole I was very happy to finish both horses and have them sound and happy at the end of the weekend. Luhmuhlen was a great event and I look forward to going back in the future. I have to say Mark designed excellent courses that were challenging but rewarding in the same respect.
