{"id":45239,"date":"2019-03-07T17:09:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=45239"},"modified":"2022-05-26T09:56:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T23:56:22","slug":"dressage-at-sydney-olympics-the-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2019\/03\/dressage-at-sydney-olympics-the-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Dressage At Sydney Olympics – the action"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dressage at the Sydney Games 2000, and we\u00a0were seeing the emergence of a new generation of dressage horses with far more expressive movement than we’d seen in the past. Was this concentration on ‘expression’ a good thing?<\/h1>\n

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Day 1 was gloomy, but Kallista Field from New Zealand lit up the whole arena with with test on her home bred, Waikare, by the \u00a0Hanoverian stallion, Witzbold, out of a Thoroughbred mare by Rocky Mountain. They scored 66.44 which meant they qualified for the Special \u00a0and 68.4 from Mr Lette at C.<\/p>\n

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Kallista and her home-bred Waikerie<\/em><\/p>\n

Australia’ own Kristy Oatley-Nist and Wallstreet (Han, Weltmeyer\/Atat\u00fcrk) looked fabulous. The horse so up in front, a super halt, a flowing unhurried trot and a big flying change. Effortless half passes, and the transition from extended trot to passage is seamless, although the passage could have been bigger. Score 68.16 and she will get a chance to shine again in the Special.<\/p>\n

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Kristy and Wallstreet. After the test she told us: “He’s a gorgeous horse, I love his conformation, his big shoulder, his movement, I thought he was great. I bought him from a guy in Colombia. He bought him as a seven-year-old, someone had trained him in Germany. I don’t think he really got along with him. He didn’t qualify for Sydney and he needed the money so he decided to sell him.”<\/p>\n

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Suddenly the arena comes alive, the Orange army are working themselves into a frenzy as Bonfire comes out.<\/p>\n

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The first trot is a little passagey, but the extended trot is huge. \u00a0There is a little kick out on the first transition to canter, and later at the end of the extended canter. The half passes are extraordinary. The halt is maintained , the rein backs perfect, the walk is still not the horse’s best gait. I still remember Mavis Roycroft’s quote from the Rome WEG in 1998, ‘that’s the best dressage horse in the world? It can’t even walk.’<\/p>\n

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Beautiful piaffe, and everything is flowing splendidly until the two-times changes and the horse drops back into trot. Anky gets him back quickly and the rest of the changes are fine. A score of 75 and Anky is not happy, riding straight past the waiting media throng.<\/p>\n

After lunch, we have the greatest rivals for Anky and Bonfire. The German combination of Isabell Werth and Gigolo.<\/p>\n

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Isabell’s face is a picture of concentration, the horse is going like a big panther, a huge change at X, wonderful transition into passage and the piaffe maintains the rhythm. Gigolo’s tail is occasionally swishing on the last centre line, but it has been the best test I have seen from him, score 76.32 and Bonfire has to get around him in the Special.<\/p>\n

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Think we have to remember, this was one of the first times the rolkur debate flared up. It was well known that the technique was being used at the Games by some, not all Dutch members. Where were the FEI stewards in the warm up arenas? \u00a0Interesting to compare these two pics – the Gold and Silver medal winners going around the arena before<\/strong><\/em> their tests.<\/p>\n

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Anky and Bonfire, as you can see from the background – two arena fences, this is in the competition area.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Isabell and Gigolo<\/em><\/p>\n

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Next out was described as ‘the British hope’ back in 2000. Carl Hester and the Dutch horse that grew up and was initially trained in Australia, Gullit (Ulft\/Apple King TB). The horse is tight in the shoulder with no real talent for trot and the rumour was the horse was soon to be sold. Score 64.88.<\/p>\n

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Rachael Downs and Aphrodite for Australia get the crowd roaring the ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ cheer that we are getting used to, it was a real feature of the Games in all sports. They finish with the respectable score of 64.52.<\/p>\n

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Rafael Soto for Spain is one of the star riders at the Royal School in Jerez, and the Andalusian stallion, Invasor, a long term partner. I remember visiting the Royal School before the WEG in Jerez in 2002. When we asked the Press Secretary where we would find Rafael, we were told, “Rafael? He is riding Invasor, he is walking Invasor, he is bathing Invasor…” And someone was sent to find him for us. The pair scored 66.52 and a place in the Special.<\/p>\n

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Ellen Bontje’s Silvano (Holst Silvester\/Latino) can, and has, really exploded at times, but today Ellen, surely one of the world’s great understated pros, has him very focussed. The last piaffe and passage are stunning. \u00a071.44 – a score that leaves the Dutch press and supporters seething.<\/p>\n

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Alexandra Simons de Ridder’s Chacomo is another Holsteiner, Calypso\/Marmor and an exciting new star for Germany.<\/p>\n

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The extended trot is just extraordinary, and the half passes amazing. Smooth transitions into passage, but the piaffe is travelling forward but with nice lowering behind. Score 74.24 and the competition is hotting up.<\/p>\n

Day two and another of the Aussies hits… well the grey mud of the arena. Before the showjumping took place, the surface was pushed back and the undersurface was attacked with jackhammers.<\/p>\n

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Ricky MacMillan and Crisp, Han, Consul\/Akteull, so elegant but maybe lacking a bit of oomph. Ricky looks just so elegant sitting there, and the last piaffe looks as if it could go on forever.<\/p>\n

Time for another of the superstars, Dutch team member and another pupil of Sjef Janssen, Arjen Teeuwissen and Goliath (Zebulon\/Nieuwpoort).<\/p>\n

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They are such pair, both big (Arjen is so tall, when he went for a massage, the physio couldn’t fit him on the table) and so relaxed. Despite all the fears of the deep and round training methods (what we now know as rolkur) Goliath enters the ring in a perfect outline. One step with both hind legs together in the changes mars otherwise wonderful ones, and a great final passage, piaffe, passage. The orange army explodes again and the big boy cracks a smile. The jury is not so kind..<\/p>\n

Next another of the new stars, Rusty for Germany with Ulla Salzgeber. Rusty is Latvian bred by Rebus out of an Aksent mare.<\/p>\n

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Scores were all over the place and there were lots of mistakes. There is a moment of resistance in the rein back, and then only 5 steps, he breaks twice in the half pass right before going into fabulous extended trot. Final score 73.16 and placings from 4th to 8th.<\/p>\n

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Coby van Baalen’s Ferro (KWPN, Ulft\/Farn) is a magnificent black stallion has charisma plus His extended trot is fabulous.<\/p>\n

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An amazing half pass, unbelievably beautiful passage and spine tingling piaffe. The tail is swishing in the ones, and he dies a bit in the final piaffe. Score 74.92<\/p>\n

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Farbenfroh and Nadine Capellmann and the pointing toe<\/em><\/p>\n

There are gasps from the crowd as Farbenfroh (by Freudentanzer, the stallion Nicole Uphoff rode at Grand Prix level, out of a mare by Aarstein) unleashes the world’s most exciting trot. Luckily the ground seems to have dried out, otherwise this big mover might have given himself a fright. And is his canter as good as his trot? Yes. Can he collect? There is perhaps no real collected trot, but the passage looks fantastic, and one piaffe looks so engaged you start to worry they both might start to drift skywards. Sure his head is not so steady, and his head is not always straight, but is this the ultimate excitement machine?<\/p>\n

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And with Farbenfroh’s very extended canter, we leave the first round of the dressage at Sydney. I hope you have enjoy sharing my recollections with quotes from the story that was printed in THM Sydney Games Special<\/h1>\n

Of course the results are history… \u00a0Roz Neave<\/em><\/h1>\n

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

Sydney Games 2000, and we\u00a0were seeing the emergence of a new generation of dressage horses with far more expressive movement than we’d seen in the past. Was this concentration on ‘expression’ a good thing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":45306,"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":[81,4,1901],"tags":[1243,1924,1922],"class_list":["post-45239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-dressage","category-grand-prix-dressage","tag-dressage","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-olympics"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45239","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45239"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63415,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45239\/revisions\/63415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}