Clear blue skies during first dressage day at Strzegom Horse Trials

Today has been a lot about dressage as Strzegom Horse Trials. Having 6 classes it means quite a few horses in front of our Ground Jury members, who have been busy from early morning and just finishing off. The main arena is a real treat for the eye with the big trees and the spacious court next to the VIP area, restaurant tents and exhibitors. It makes even such a big arena feel tight and gives a great atmosphere. The Arena B has a bit more of a “cozy” feel overall to it being half the size, yet both arenas presented themselves as a bit tricky as some horses were not too keen to get in focus. Some would most likely prefer to take on the XC straight off..

We started of already yesterday with the CIC2* dressage and we have to say that this class offered a few surprises. Firstly, we are impressed with having the same two riders who started off the dressage test yesterday as first and second rider to still have them in the lead! A total of 58 riders yet no one managed to move around the top three from yesterday. Coming into the main Arena which is quite big and being a bit too fresh spooked a few horses having some of riders leaving the arena a bit frustrated. Nevertheless, good sport all morning with the CIC 2* yet no rider above the magical 70%. This leaves KAI RÜDER still in the 1st and 2nd place followed by Jan Kaminski in 3rd. We look forward to follow the riders tomorrow as they head out to the XC course.

Our riders in the CIC 1* also completed their dressage test today. 48 riders took on today’s challenge in Arena B with mixed results. Some of the horses had trouble to focus on the task at hand and gave their riders a bit of a hard day. Top three of today´s dressage ended up with a Noora Cederberg from Finland in 1st and again strong rides from Germany putting Rebecca Juana Gerken in 2nd and Janet Wisner in 3rd. The XC for the CIC 1* also hits of tomorrow.

As we said more dressage, CCI3* had 33 competitors entering today’s contest after lunch finishing off just after 5.30pm. Nice to some very good rides raising the scores to a bit above 70% for the top three riders. Starting after lunch meant dressage at the main arena and it was nice to some spectators enjoying this beautiful day in the company of great dressage. Coming out on top from the CCI3* was Swedish Therese Wiklund, Karin Donckers from Germany in 2nd and Marina Köhncke in 3rd. It was exciting all the way to the end as final rider Merel Blom from the Netherlands gave the top three a bit of a scare coming in on 4th place just behind Marina. The riders in this class can now take a bit of a breather until they head off to the XC course on Saturday.

The horse inspections of the day went well for all, the morning session with the first horse inspection for the CCI 1 * has all but one horse starting for dressage tomorrow morning at 9.am. Just as well did the late trot up for the CCI 2* go, all but one horse passed the trot up this evening