‘Not the mark I wanted to put on the board’: how Aachen’s vast arena caught out Becky Moody and Jagerbomb
Becky Moody and Jagerbomb suffered a costly mistake early in their grand prix test in Aachen's vast main arena. A spirited fightback – built around a standout piaffe – clawed back plenty of marks, but not quite enough. Here's what Becky made of it
Becky Moody and Jagerbomb endured a rollercoaster grand prix test at the Dressage World Championships in Aachen, scoring 73.82%.
The test got off to a difficult start – Jagerbomb did not settle in the halt, then moved off with tremendous power through the collected trot and broke into canter in the first extension.
It was a costly mistake, dropping their running score into the low 40s after just two movements and leaving Becky with a mountain to climb. To her great credit, she clawed back plenty of marks from there, the piaffe a particular highlight. But it was not quite enough – just as they found a rhythm, another small error would creep in, like a lurch out of the second pirouette that drew groans from the crowd, right after a stellar first pirouette.
“It was certainly not the mark that I wanted to put on the board for the team, but after a difficult start, we did probably some of our best piaffes – the first one was good,” Becky said. “The trot half-passes were better in the test than they were in the warm-up. I was pleased that I managed to pull as much of it back as I did, but obviously very, very frustrated with the bits that I didn’t get right.”
She traced the lapse in focus back to the size of the arena itself.
“It’s always that balance with him – I love it when he’s hotter like that; it really is how I want him,” she explained. “But I just lost a little bit more of his focus than I would normally do.
“I think it’s just such an unusual arena. It’s incredible, and it's huge, but it's all quite far away, so I did just feel his focus went too far away from me. When everything is closer, I somehow feel like he stays a little bit closer. It's just knowing how they’re going to react in an arena like that, and I just have to learn from it and hopefully come back better for the next one.”
Mentally, she treated the mistakes as something to manage in the moment rather than dwell on. “It’s definitely something as a top competition rider you have to be able to do – not focus on the mistake that’s happened, but really go to ‘what can I do to try to either pull it back or at least not lose any more’,” she explained. “My focus was really on just doing the rest of the work without taking unnecessary risks, but trying to get the best marks I could.”
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Becky Moody Aachen grand prix: the fightback
The good work that came with the fightback only sharpened Becky’s frustration. “It makes it even more frustrating,” she said. “It’s the wonderful sport that we do, that it's a little bit like this. But we just focus on the good bits and go away and make sure the bad bits don’t happen again.”
Looking ahead to the special, she doesn’t expect to change her approach too much. “I don’t think so, really – maybe just be a little bit more prepared for how he’s going to be,” she said.
“I know the special really suits him – you go straight into the extension still, but I’d probably be a bit more cautious with the first extension. Otherwise, the test really helps to get them focused and with you, with all the transitions, the changes and the half-passes. So in some ways, that test is more helpful when he's like that.”
Coming out of the ring, Becky spoke to her teammate and coach Carl Hester, and his message was simple: “Don’t beat yourself up.”
Away from the personal disappointment, though, this score carries real weight for Britain’s medal picture – which was riding on every score in this line-up.
Becky’s grand prix season average coming into Aachen was 76.43%, well above today’s 73.82% – which makes this score a blow to Britain’s gold medal hopes. The Germans were arguably favourites on home soil regardless, and with Becky’s contribution already several points shy of her own season form, Britain are now facing a much longer shot at gold – needing a massive day two from Carl and anchor Lottie Fry, and more than a little help from the hosts, to stay in the conversation.
It certainly looked like Becky came out all guns blazing, aiming for a big score, but she insisted the race for gold hadn’t crossed her mind in the test. “To be honest, I don’t actually think that really factored in. It’s just an incredible show to be at, and you're always just trying to do your best,” she said. “I was a little bit, ‘Oh, the Germans on home soil, we’ve not a chance,’ in so many ways – because for my mentality, that’s almost better for me to deal with, then I don’t put the pressure on myself quite as much. But I know that Carl and Lottie will absolutely come out fighting tomorrow, so we'll see what they can do.”
Of course, anything can happen in an arena like Aachen, as Becky’s own test showed. Averages and season form can only tell you so much – on the day, it’s the horse in front of you, not the horse on paper, that decides it. That’s the nature of top-level sport.
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).