Barcelona Dressage Tour: Showboy

And now about Showboy:)

At home we prepare Showboy for his Grand Prix début. To compete abroad you need certain scores and we didn't want to force this so we decided to compete him at small tour level in Barcelona. Besides that we didn't compete for a while so we needed some show rhythm anyway.

On Wednesday I showed at Prix St. Georges level and the best 15 qualified for the Inter 1 freestyle kur on Saturday. It was a very big field (35) and among others world multiple champion Woodlanders Farouche was one of the competing horses.

The first week I was the first to compete in my class. Showie was good and I was very pleased with my test. We got almost 72% and we had to wait very long till the end of the class. I was happy I had to show Chaplin and Deep Purple as well that day. 

Only Farouche got a better score than I had and so we finished second. 

On Saturday evening the freestyle was on the program. In the warming up Showie was super and that made me nervous haha. In the kur I had the 'go with the flow feeling'! To be honest, the half passes in trot could have been better. Again we came second. This time we scored 76,4% and again it was the British rider Eilberg and Farouche who won the test.

In the second week Showboy was a bit tired in the Prix St. Georges. We didn't make any mistakes but it was not so spectacular. We got over 70% and we finished fourth.

We decided just to walk Showboy on Thursday to save energy for the kur. On Friday we made him sharp to the aids and he was prepared for Saturday's kur. On Saturday I was the first to go after the break. I rode for the full 100% and we gave our utmost best. During the entering something happened in the music box and Showie panicked for a second so my halt was not that good. It might be strange but that was good for me as this made me very alert, ha ha!

It was a super kur! Even better than the week before. We got over 74% but Eilberg still had to come. I went to the stables to prepare Ubique for his freestyle later that evening. Then Akane told me I had won the test! It was just a small difference with Eilberg but we were the WINNERS!!!!!

It was super super and I am so proud of Showboy and we listened to the national anthem!!

Other news