Lovely weather and the best backdrop with Windsor Castle for tonights internationsl Grand Prix.
Of course the start list showed a couple of very interesting combinations, and they did not let anyone down.
2nd to go was international debut for Carl Hester with his new star 10-year old Hawtins Delicato by Diamond Hit. A very harmonius overall picture and Delicato suits Carl very well.
Starting out with a very quick entering halt, with a bit of tension, nice diagonal, good half passes with nice balance and carriage, but with a small tension in the hand for transition between the half passes, nice halt with rein back, very regular and expressive passage with nice suspension, nice into the piaffe, lack a bit strength for the first step out of a very nice active and regular piaffe with a nice angle. Good walk tour, nice over track for the extended walk and good rhythm for the collected walk, nice big two times, superb well balanced zigzag, small error in the mid of the one times, bit over tempo final of 1st pirouette and lost balance slightly, 2nd pirouette in better balance, good quality of the canter and nice angle for the pirouettes, nice final centerline with best transition out of the piaffe today. 75,717%.
Last to go was Charlotte Dujardin with MSJ Freestyle. As expected Charlotte was riding for every single point. Strong start with power extension and lot of expression, nice half passes in good balance, open halt for rein back, smooth from extended trot into passage, super expressive passage with a lot of suspension. Lack more clear transition into piaffe with small uncertainty until Freestyle catch the piaffe rhythm, the piaffe itself is with huge sit and again it becomes a bit unbalanced for her to get straight out for the passage (same picture for all three piaffe tours), bit tense two times, nice zigzag, good one times, nice quality for pirouettes.
The next three placed British combinations showed good tests with a couple of issues.
Danish Ulrik Mølgaard and Michigan showed a strong start with max power diagonal, nice flow and go for half passes, good halt but bit tense rein back, 1st piaffe becomes a bit tense, while the 2nd is with more impulsion from the very nice passage, good extended walk, bit tense collected walk, bit unbalanced zigzag, nice series, pirouettes need bit more carriage on the hindlegs, lack energy for the final piaffe.
