So Here’s the thing.  When Anky has been on her best form throughout her career, it has been the stuff which created probably the strongest memories of watching top class Dressage sport in my life.  It goes along with Reiner Klimke’s victory round in Los Angeles in 1984 and Brentina’s final center-line in the world cup in 2005, when I was lucky to have had Kennedy give me a personal best over 80% as well. And, of course, the thrill of watching Steffen Peters win the World Cup last year ranks right up there with things I will never forget.

Tonight in the Freestyle, Anky proved once again why I keep saying we should never count her (or for that matter Isabel) out.  Both Anky and Isabel have had some hard times in the recent past and many have said they have simply fallen out of favor. Even Sjef remarked to me the other day that he felt that she was no longer able to get the scores she once received, even when she performed some movements just as well as before. But I disagreed with him and said that I felt that she just needed to  change her presentation of the passage and keep her changes straight and I believed her marks would go right back up. And that’s exactly what happened tonight, along with the fact that she rode both a technically close to perfect ride which also showed her artistry in expressing the story of her music.

Steffen also produced a beautiful ride with great impulsion and wonderful transitions, just as he has now done consistently. I think that he and Ravel still have room for growth in the pirouettes to be up to Salinero’s standard in this movement. When he can take more and smaller steps around and keep them in place, Steffen’s score will go up drastically, just as it will also rise with a more elevated extended trot. We must remember that this pair is still relatively new compared to the others in the top group.

Isabel again showed why I love her as a rider. She is fearless and can create energy like almost no other and float over the ground with her horses.  She reminds me of Leslie Howard, the great AmericanJumping rider, who I have watched many times take the greatest possible risk to go fast and clean in a jump-off, but sadly misscalculate a distance around such a sharp turn that there was just no way to make the next jump work. Like Leslie, Isabel is a winner and went for it with such huge canter half-passes that she lost her collection and Satchmo fell into the trot at a very inopportune moment right in front of the judges. And like Leslie, fearlessness can sometimes backfire on you, but I still respect the effort!

Ashley Holzer showed again why she is the star for Canada at present with a lovely ride tonight. If it were not for slight stalling in 3 transitions to piaffe, though each time Pop Art did a beautiful piaffe less than a second later, I can imagine they would have had at least as many if not more points than Isabel. The rest of their test was effortless and great fun to watch. The best news is that I am positive we still have not seen the best from this pair and there is a long time until the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this fall.

So there you have it from my perspective at the Masters. It was a fantastic show at one of the finest show grounds anywhere in the world and I want to compliment everyone who organized and ran this competition on making it one I will never forget.

Cheers!

RD

Posted: Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized