If there was a prize for the shiniest horse under the floodlights in last night’s grand prix special at the European Dressage Championships in Hagen, Germany (9 September), Buriel K.H would have probably been awarded it, and he stole our hearts in the process.
Buriel K.H: what you need to know
The 15-year-old, owned by La Pomme HB, and ridden by Sweden’s Juliette Ramel, Buriel performed a virtually flawless test to score 76.9%, which was good enough to finish in seventh place.
“He finds the collected work very easy – like the piaffe, passage and pirouettes,” explains Juliette. “He finds halting the hardest bit and I work a lot on those at home, because he just wants to get on with things all of the time. But he’s the best horse I’ve ever had.”
Juliette has been riding Buriel for the past five-and-a-half years.
“I actually got him due to my trainer back then, Nicole Werner, who said ‘you have to buy this horse’, so obviously I’m very grateful for that happening.”
But Juliette said she wasn’t certain Buriel would reach the pinnacle of dressage competition.
“I never really knew back than if he would get to this level as he was quite green for a seven-year-old and so I didn’t know if he would be able to do the higher level movements or not. Even if they can do it, you never know how they will cope with being in the ring and all of those things. He was very hot when he was younger, but he’s calming down now.”
Buriel is something of a yard favourite when it comes to his personality.
“He is an amazing character and he has so much personality,” says Juliette. “He is just amazing to work with both when I ride him and also on the ground. ”
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