Sarah Millis and Furst Rubin (Furst Piccolo x Rubinstein) captured their first international victory at Vidauban CDIO3*, in Southern France, 17 – 19 May 2013.
Sarah and ‘Rubin’ (pictured) her nine-year-old German gelding posted 69.18% to top the leader board in the prix st georges on the combination’s first international outing of 2013. “I’m very happy with him,” said a delighted Sarah, “It’s still all quite new to him but he has a nice way of going and gives me the feeling there’s a lot more to come. It’s nice for him to start getting those marks in an international competition.”
The pair went on to take third in Saturday’s Intermediate I with 67.07%. “There were some things I could have better set him up for but I’m very happy as it was his first attempt at the level.”
Sarah has owned the statuesque chestnut since a just-backed three-year-old. “I was looking at some other horses in Germany and just happened to see Rubin over the stable door. He wasn’t for sale but I liked the look of him so started asking questions. They decided to show the horse, I loved him, and they agreed to sell.”
Dan Watson enjoyed a successful show in the young horse five-year-old classes with Barbara Marceau’s Butterfly IV, a chestnut mare by Breitling W. They won the FEI Preliminary test for five-year-olds with an overall mark of 7.12 and were second in the FEI Finale test with 7.24. “This was Butterfly’s first big show and her first journey away from home,” said Dan, “She’s talented, and can be quite a hot-head, yet she handled it really well.”
“I’m so chuffed with her,” he added. “The young horse classes were not big but the judges, who gave a commentary after each test, were really complimentary about her. They liked her mechanics and way of going. The tests are complex for young horses too - she was super.”
The Brits experienced some bad luck for the opening leg of the pilot season for the FEI Nations Cup™ as Sarah Millis was forced to withdraw HP Frontier from the team competition after he was held at the first horse inspection. This left two riders, Kay Maxted with Privaldi and Dan Watson with Susie Farnon’s Fideramber, to compete as individuals.
Dan and Fideramber posted 63.89% for 13th place in the grand prix whilst Kay and Privaldi placed 16th with 63.46%. Dan went on to score 63.06% in the special and 63.85% in the freestyle and Kay - 61.72% in the special and 63.82% for her freestyle.
“I’m really, really pleased with ‘Freddie’. He was great but all three tests had rider errors,” said a rueful Dan. “In the grand prix we had expensive mistakes in the two-tempis and the canter zig-zag, and in the special we broke in a trot half-pass. Our kür was really good but then I rode out of a double pirouette late – I could kick myself!”
Dan and Fideramber have enjoyed a successful 2012/2013 indoor season – they competed at Lyon CDI-W last November where they were 12th in the freestyle and at Neumunster CDI-W earlier this year they narrowly missed qualifying for the kür. “This was his first outdoor show of the season. His way of going is getting better and better and he scored 7’s for piaffe and passage, it’s just a shame I messed up.”
For full results click here
Photo credit: Rui Pedro Godinho
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Vidauban CDIO***: Furst victory for Rubin
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