A picture perfect evening in the shadow of Windsor Castle gave a perfect British clean sweep of the top five places in the Grand Prix Freestyle, supported by Horse & Hound, at the Windsor CDI4*. Riding Anne Seifert-Cohn’s Barolo, Carl Hester continued his domination of the Berkshire fixture with a resounding victory on 79.85% to make it a brace of wins at this year’s show. “He was fairly mistake free tonight and, although he’s still relatively young, shows a lot of ability. He copes so well with all the difficult things and I’ve been working on getting him more forward – he needs more ‘grrrr’!” Carl explained.
Second spot went to Hayley Watson-Greaves with Rubins Nite who both smiled the whole time they were in the arena – and their specially composed music and powerful test, complete with trademark extended trot, gave the judges plenty to smile about too; 76.72% was their score. A strong performance at Compeigne CDIO next week would put this pair firmly in contention for a European Championship spot on the form they’re in.
As was the case last night, Gareth Hughes took third with Anne Keen’s Don Carissimo however tonight’s performance was more assured and the Don Crusador son will take home a great deal of experience from his trip. The duo have grown in confidence every step they’ve taken over the past two days, certainly ones to watch.
Another horse to benefit from his Windsor experience was Bubblingh under Richard Davison who he co-owns with Gwendolyn Meyer and Jenny Ellis. ‘Bubbles’ is still a relative newcomer to Grand Prix and hasn’t experienced anything like the Windsor arena so Richard was thrilled with 73.97% to finish fourth.
Lara Butler was back on form with the Bechtolsheimer’s Rubin Al Asad after a big of ring rustiness last night to score 72.95% with their ‘toe tapping’ Gaelic music which the crowd loved. The duo haven’t actually ridden their Freestyle since Olympia 2015 but were on song tonight.
For full results – click here