Mary Hanna and Calanta.
© Roger Fitzhardinge
By Roger Fitzhardinge
The Grand Prix Freestyle CDI4* saw the show get underway with an inspiring test by Katharine Farrell and Luxor 118. As always, the harmony and the communication between these two was great and the music so well put together to the transitions and the changes of pace. The overall score was 69.2% and what a great score to start when you think this first group is the lower end of the Grand Prix ranking.
Next out was Letty Lei Edh for the New Zealander Victoria Wall, and a 69.125% for another grand score and the best we have seen this combination going. Now the riders can relax and the pressure is off the lower ranked ones, and so the tests are relaxed and more positive as they know they can do what they do best, where they do best! It was good piaffe on pirouettes and light footed trot work. It was a bright and interesting test with some good moments in the degree of difficulty.
Marvin Smink and Haya did not have the best ever ride, with the beautiful mare showing some great moments but unfortunately the resistance in the bridle at the start was very obvious and then she managed to get her tongue over the bit and the rest of the test was marred by the fact that Haya was waving it for all to see. Such a shame, but it happens and what can you do. The score was going to be low due to this problem; 62.630%.
Richmond H showed some good passage half pass and transitions into and out of piaffe for Melinda Hart. This pair has been so consistent the whole show, and the stallion was really enjoying the environment… and who wouldn’t! The stallion was softer than we have seen and better in the contact. Perhaps not quite the energy of the last two days, but all the same chilling music and always to the horse and well suited, with a great piaffe pirouette and one handed to the halt. Her score of 66.945% was a great score for this rider who works hard and diligently at her dressage and the results speak for themselves.
Next was Wendi Williamson and Don Amour MH, after two disappointing rides with this chestnut gelding where he was not in the mood to piaffe at all. The first piaffe was way better today, but then he faded in the next. A much quicker, more energetic trot today, with great half pass in trot and a strong, balanced passage half pass. A steep half pass canter and uphill curved line in the twos. A few missed steps in the one tempis and a slip behind to the second canter pirouette, and he at last got into the swing of the piaffe at the end with the pirouette at A. A score of 69.220%.
Wendi Williamson and Don Amour MH.
© Roger Fitzhardinge
Ferrero Chocolate Box with Sheridyn Ashwood was out chasing marks and perhaps lacked a little softness and harmony, but as the test went on and the canter work started to flow, the marks flowed a little more. In the passage to piaffe transition he still finds it hard to be super fluent and the downward transition becomes stalling, but the upward one is quite good. The piaffe towards the end lost energy and rhythm, and getting to the end of the test they were a little ahead of the music. The music does really suit this powerful moving horse who is still improving at each test. 68.265%.
Melissa Galloway and the chestnut horse that everyone has fallen in love with, Windermere J’Obei W. The music started with flute and bright and light, that so suited this horse. Clean piaffe and passage and transitions for this ten year old by Johnson. Some strong, rhythmical half pass and the passage was good. This combination is simply SMOOTH! Super reaching walk with a stunning purpose and attitude. So accepting and confident. Melissa prepares for every movement so well. There are no surprises, but the pirouettes were a little large and slow, but good balance to clean ones and twos. What a clean and fantastic test to say the least. It looked so easy and the harmony between the horse and rider fabulous. It is obvious the confidence between the two of them and trained by Vanessa Way. 75.565% and just a little short of an Aussie record; good quality and balance.
Melissa Galloway Windermere J’Obei W.
© Roger Fitzhardinge
Now for Alycia Targa and CP Dresden. What a start with twos on the diagonal, to a half circle in twos, to a steep half pass, to ones on a circle, to half pass. Collected walk, to a canter pirouette, to extended walk. Good passage tour to Kung Fu Panda and a great pirouette. The canter pirouettes were of great quality and balance. A slight mistake in the extended trot that was costly. The second one was better, and then to top it off, powerful passage half pass zig zag that was amazing in balance and this was a great test. The degree of difficulty here was the highest you can get and what a great test. A score for Dresden of 72.925% and a personal best!
For New Zealand, the Aussie based John Thompson and JHT Chemistry. Chemistry is a very stocky and solid black/brown stallion and at the age of only eight he is coping so well with the training and the pressure. Interesting music, with plenty of percussion and twang to it. The canter was still a little tight and could be more uphill, but a clean a flowing test. Good ones on a curving line and a steep half pass in canter. Very powerful and balanced in the canter pirouettes (double). What a good test this was, and the piaffe and passage were highlights. His score is 75.025% is another personal best.
The next one is Jarrah R and Rozzie Ryan, and we look forward to this test and music that is always so well put to her horses. The start was great to a dead square halt and the passage better today, as was the piaffe, but not quite on the spot. The music was so blended to the movements with crescendos and highs and lows in keeping. Double canter pirouettes and a seriously steep canter zig zag. A really interesting walk tour of short curving serpentine loops down the centreline. Piaffe to a dead square halt to end the test, and what a beautiful and harmonious test and the relationship between these two is such a treat to watch. A score of 72.455%.
Mary Hanna and Calanta in the warm up.
© Roger Fitzhardinge
The final combination, and the one who easily won the Grand Prix on Saturday, is Calanta and Mary Hanna. Halt to passage to extended trot, but the halt not straight. Great in the piaffe pirouette, and then trot and passage half passes and at this stage on the live scoring they were at 76.6%! Good rhythm in the trot half pass. The walk was true but not an over-track in the extended, and that is a little costly. A mistake where Calanta stopped in the twos, the canter pirouette was a little not centred and lacking bend. A great pirouette in piaffe and to passage, and the live scoring was showing at this point that the results was going to be close as! No real halt at the end, which could have been costly as well.
Mary Hanna and Calanta.
© Roger Fitzhardinge
What a lovely mare. The score to beat was Melissa’s 75.565%… and it was 76.205% and a new record score for a Grand Prix CDI Freestyle test at an Australian based event; so the NZ record goes (Wendi Williamson and Don Amour had the record for the highest GP CDI Freestyle score recorded by any horse competing on Australian soil; the pair scored 76.18% at last year’s Australian Dressage Championships). So, Mary Hanna got the win and now holds that particular record. The highest GP CDI Freestyle score for an Australian competing anywhere in the world is 79.330%, achieved by Kristy Oatley and Du Soleil in Austria in 2018. Lyndal Oatley also has a top Freestyle score of 76.525% with Sandro Boy, achieved in Hungary in 2012.
WOW! What can you say about Mary and Calanta, and there is still room for more marks. What a ride, what a test… WOW!
READ THE LATEST NEWS ARTICLES HERE
