Ravel Wins At Show Park
Steffen Peters was in a class of his own at Show Park CDI today, receiving well over 77% in the Grand Prix. I was out with the Canadian riders in the wram-up but could already see that this combination was in their zone two days before. Steffen has continued to create a wonderful partnership with Ravel and this is lovely to see.
There were some very big discrepancies in the scores in a couple of the rides today, but not in Wendy Christoff’s, who with Pfalstaff, did an extremely pleasing ride to put Canada in the 5th position with 67.277%.
On the other hand, both Guenter Seidel and Canadian rider, Sharon Merkel-Beattie, received scores which included percentages ranging over 5% from the highest to the lowest judge. I would call this embarrassing, if you ask me, and the FEI is doing everything possible to prevent such a problem from affecting the outcome of classes in the major shows. Guenter had a 63.4 from one judge and a 71.7 from another, and Sharon had all scores above 64% and one 59.1 from the head of the Ground Jury. All I can say is “Hmmmm!”
I forgot to mention how nice this show is being put on over-all though. It has been safe, elegant, and a pleasure to participate at. The only thing which I would have changed today would have been to ask the gait kjeeper to not drape a grey blanket over her legs, as it was the cause of at least 3 horses stopping and/or shying down by A.
Tomorrow are both the Special and the Freestyle and Wendy, Sharon and Lorraine will all be contending in the Special for Canada. I will report back on their as well as everyone else’s results. I congratulate all the competitors and wish them all (but especially the Canadians) the best of luck tomorrow!
Cheers!
RD
DP — May 2, 2010 @ 1:09 am
The gate keeper had a beige jacket draped over her legs because it was cold and she was told by the show organizer to bring a blanket. More significant than the blanket may be where the gate keeper was told to sit. Rather than sitting at A, she was sitting right at the diagonal by K, exactly where she had been told to sit. As a result, every time a horse came down the diagonal to K, the horse was staring directly at her.
This was the first show where the gate keeper had ever volunteered. The only thing she was guilty of was doing exactly what she was asked to do in exactly the way she was asked to do it.