For senior international rider Nikki Crisp and her 16 year old Dutch mare Pasoa, 2013 hasn’t got off to an incredibly good start.
The reason? Something entirely out of both horse and rider’s control – the weather.
For Nikki and ‘P’ (pictured) 2012 was a truly golden year, with two wins at Grand Prix, top ten placings in the Grand Prix and GP Freestyle at the Nationals, two excellent rides at Olympia and to top it off being selected as guinea pig in the Olympic dressage arena at Greenwich Park.
Nikki had been hoping for a similarly sunny start to the season this year, but plans were scuppered back in March when she, Pasoa, and groom Sophie spent two days driving around Europe thanks to heavy snow. A blown tyre eventually forced them to turn back from World Cup qualifying destination, s’Hertogenbosch CDIW.
Following an aborted entry to Addington CDI over concerns with the EHV outbreak, Nikki and Pasoa managed to notch up a Grand Prix second spot at Hickstead in April and set their sights on a second international for the Grand Prix and Special at Wiesbaden CDI4* 17 – 20 May.
But yet again, the weather had other ideas. Nikki explained: “After the disappointment of s’Hertogenbosch I was feeling optimistic about Wiesbaden. It’s an amazing setting and when we competed there last year we had wonderful weather. The show itself is big, with big names competing there, so it’s a really good barometer of your own training and also a great opportunity for us to get in front of some more international judges.”
Nikki rode Pasoa in the Grand Prix on Saturday. “From the moment we got there it was drizzly. The arenas are temporarily erected specifically for the show and didn’t ride well in the Grand Prix. It felt dead to the foot and was very patchy – it kept going from soft to firm.”
The combination scored well in a strong class of 28, coming 14th with 67.957%. There was a near four percent difference between the judges at C and M, who awarded Nikki and Pasoa 69.468% and 65.531% respectively.
Leading the qualifying class was Germany’s Isabell Werth on Don Johnson FRH with 75.213% and out with Norwegian rider Cathrine Rasmussen was Charlotte Dujardin’s first Grand Prix horse, Fernandez – who posted 69.255% for 9th place.
Nikki and the 16 year old Dutch mare, who train with Erik Theilgaard, posted a range of marks – the lowest for the tempi-change sequences but also eights for their collected trot-extended trot transitions. Nikki said “She did feel a little flat in the Grand Prix and we had a few mistakes in the changes that cost us really dearly. We scored well in the collection-extension sequences – ‘P’ is naturally flamboyant and expressive, which lends itself well to those movements, but she is actually capable of eights for everything.”
On the morning of Sunday 19 May show organisers at Wiesbaden made the decision to water the dressage arenas before the Kur. Nikki said: “That afternoon it poured. The sand surface became really uneven, like glue in some places and slippery in others. During the Kur you could see that horses were starting to lose confidence on the surface, especially during extension and halting. Some even slipped.”
“By this point I was starting to worry. It was looking like the Special was going to go ahead on Monday so I was running around desperately asking the Show jumpers for a spare pair of studs!”
By Monday morning, however, the show’s organisers had made the decision to cancel the remaining classes and so Nikki and Pasoa’s chance to ride the Special was yet again not to be. “I’m a great believer in fate, and this obviously just wasn’t meant to be my show”, said Nikki.
“I’m hoping though that my streak of bad luck with the weather is going to change, least of all because competing internationally is such an expensive business – especially when you’re travelling your horse across the continent and running up more miles without the opportunity to actually compete.”
Nikki now plans to head over to France at the end of May to compete with Pasoa at Compeigne CDI3* and to continue campaigning at Grand Prix with eyes on a Nations Cup team spot.
She has two other horses who she will be aiming for small tour next year and continues to compete for clients.
