Rainy day in Falsterbo for the CDIO Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix freestyle
Very small field for Falsterbo Nations Cup with a clear victory for the Swedish team, Patrik Kittel with Deja, Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén with Paridon Magi and Rose Matthiesen with Zuidenwind.
In the Grand Prix Special Tinne and Rose were dominating, both scoring 72% today, and from Tinne´s public withdraw for Don Auriello for the upcoming Europeans, her best and 2nd card Paridon Magi will for sure now be Sweden 2nd team member. And even before Aachen, the two spots left for the Europeans must be for Therese Nilshagen with Dante Weltino, and from H2R point of view this year´s "joker" from Sweden could easily be Kittel stable rider Malin Nilsson with Bon-Ami for the final European spot.
Kittel and Deja stood out from the other competitors showing a lovely freestyle, and ones again being able to improve and show more relaxed piaffe tours. Just a single small issue crept into the 2 times series. And the freestyle music for the elegant dancing Deja with the tones of "isn´t she lovely" from Stevie Wonder. The transitions in the music throughout the test are all way super smooth into the coreography. Winning score 79,375%. Kittel also took CDIO5 Grand Prix individual victory with 75,100%, while he took both CDI3 Grand Prix (73.540%) and Grand Prix freestyle (78,225%) with his new hope the 9 yr old mare Well Done.
Russian Tatyana Kosterina with her 9 yr Diavolessa VA by Don Frederico/Londonderry - actually not a flashy or impressive combination, but following them from first to last halt in today´s Grand Prix Special, there are just so many great moments of good qualities. Diavolessa has 3 very good gaits, and seems to be without exercise weaknesses. They entered the international scene earlier this year in Lier in Belgium, and rescently they won CDI4 Grand Prix in Hamburg with 72,300% - a combination to keep an eye on for the future.
The 3 Danish combinations Allan Grøn with Wasabi, Karin Nissen with Eno - both in Grand Prix Special and Malene Kohlschmidt with Mira in freestyle were today struggling with to many errors and tensions today.