{"id":25558,"date":"2016-03-21T16:54:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T05:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=25558"},"modified":"2017-02-09T16:39:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T05:39:12","slug":"february-rider-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/03\/february-rider-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"IAHP February Rider of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"admasStory by Chris Hector & Photos by Roz Neave<\/h3>\n

The first clear in the World Cup class at the Sydney Grand Prix was truly special. Gabi Kuna\u2019s mare, Cristalline is an extraordinary jumper, she is just playing with the fences, hard to believe that the first three to go \u2013 all experienced combinations \u2013 have had 12 faults each.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The only other clear in the first round comes from another extraordinary jumping machine, Yalambi\u2019s Bellini Star and Steven Hill. In the second round, Gabi is clear again, as is her partner, Chris Chugg riding Cera Cassiago \u2013 Chris and Cassiago move to second, Bellini Star has two down, to go to third, and Gabi with two sensational clear rounds takes out the Sydney Grand Prix.\"WCCassiago\"<\/p>\n

Chris Chugg and Cassiago<\/em><\/p>\n

The Summer Classic at SIEC has been a happy hunting ground for the talented young rider, and Gabi is quietly bubbling with glee when she returns to the VIP tent for a celebratory drink\u2026<\/p>\n

I understand Chris won his first World Cup, so did you have to win your first one too and prove a point\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was told yesterday, you\u2019ll have a good day as long as you don\u2019t beat me. But it\u2019s good we are very competitive against each other, and we have that motivation and we know how to get each other going and riding our best. It was good, it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you worried about the wall \u2013 Chris said you were hoping it would be in the mini prix so she could have a look at it\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping that Leopoldo might have put it in the metre fifty track, just to give her a look at it, so it wasn\u2019t going to scare her, or \u2013 more so \u2013 intimidate me. She was really solid in the Mini Prix. I thought I\u2019ve been out so long with my busted hand, I should ride a big track before I decided to Mini Prix, or World Cup on the final day. She went so well in the Mini qualifier that I decided to World Cup her, it worked out well.\u201d\"Cristalline\"<\/p>\n

Gabi and Cristalline\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

She was just so foot perfect in that first round\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was, Chris gave me a great plan going in. After the first few horses, it was a bit of a cricket score, and I thought, well it\u2019s a Leopoldo track, he always builds tough, he always builds fast, like I said, Chris gave me a good plan and I decided to just stick with that and it worked. She jumped amazing, it never felt once like she was going to fault. I had a lot of confidence in her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you ever sat on top of anything like her before?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShe feels limitless. Everyone says \u2018oh she must be really hard to sit on\u2019, but she is quite round and nice and smooth in her jump. You can sit on her, but I have always been told, keep your eyes up. That\u2019s my number one, eyes up, and don\u2019t flop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PosterGabiKunaCristalline\"Was it hard, you\u2019ve had quite a long time out with the hand, to get back in the rhythm again?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure how I would go. I had Sydney Jump Club end-of-the-year championships, last week. I rode alright and the mare went, okay, and I thought, oh, maybe I am a bit rusty, but Chris was really great during the week, and really helped me out. We just moulded together again. She\u2019s had Chris riding her for four months, and he\u2019s a bit stronger than me, she just had to get used to me again. She is so obliging, nothing fazes her, whether it\u2019s Chris or myself on her back, she tries her heart out. It definitely wasn\u2019t a question of her ability, more my eye and how I was riding. After yesterday, I was really confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

And now, on the plane to Europe?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was always the plan, to take her over with Cassiago. Chris is doing the World Cup final in Gothenburg, and Cristalline is going to tag along and get some experience on the international scene. Any time I can\u2019t get into an international show, Chris can ride her and get her exposed a little more over there. It doesn\u2019t hurt her, she is amazing, she just accepts everything as a challenge and she fights for you. She is so special\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PosterGabiPort\"And when they start waving their cheque books over there, you promise you are bringing her back?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely not on my agenda to sell her. I know what is going to come, and I know people might go crazy with cheque books, but I am pretty solid on campaigning her through to the next World Equestrian Games in 2018. For me to sell her it would have to be life-changing money. We are all in this to make a living, and it is an expensive sport, but she is my horse to do what I\u2019ve always wanted to do, ever since I was a little girl, I\u2019m hoping we will see that through at Bromont.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IAHP Rider of the Month for February – Gabi Kuna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1402,1356,67],"class_list":["post-25558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-show-jumping","tag-australian-equestrian","tag-gabi-kuna","tag-showjumping"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25558"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32213,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25558\/revisions\/32213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}