‘Did I just dream that?’ Richard Davison reflects on a golden week at the dressage World Championships
From the British point of view, could Aachen have gone any better?
Writing this after the final medal ceremony at the dressage World Championships, I’m having a “did I just dream that?” moment. From the British point of view, could Aachen have gone any better? Well, yes – I suppose we could’ve won team gold, but all credit to the Germans, and the standard of the sport made the colour of the medal less significant.
Plus, we’ve secured Olympic qualification at the earliest opportunity, which means we can use next year’s Europeans to develop rising combinations. Talking of which, a shout-out to Fiona Bigwood for holding her nerve and riding Donna Bella sympathetically, even under the pressure of being on a championship team.
I had two roles in Aachen: part of the broadcast team for FEI TV and assisting Carl Hester with his warm-up. While the former requires neutrality and might appear to contrast with the latter in practice, it’s not an issue.
Having ridden in my fair share of championships, I couldn’t help but be lured-into the view from the saddle of every combination regardless of which nation they represented.
Across the three medal tests, there were highs, lows and unpredictability.
In the team test, it was Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St John Freestyle who delivered the standout harmonious performance. Sadly for Cathrine, that didn’t bring her an individual title – despite 11 individual medals, gold still eludes her.
A lack of immobility in Becky Moody and Jagerbomb’s first halt, followed by a break in the first extension, made for a difficult start. But Becky gave us all a lesson in damage limitation, clawing the scores back.
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Despite outstanding movements elsewhere, Glamourdale’s first piaffe impacted his team score.
Carl used a shortened warm-up routine for Fame to take into account the impact of travel and heat. He rode a blinder and pulled off a great score. But all told, Germany beat us fair and square.
A canter that secures gold medals
For the special, Carl made use of the shade provided by the indoor school – roof only, so the breeze still got through. He removed Fame’s fly hood for extra coolness, with the breeze keeping the flies at bay.
The gold medal effectively came down to the canter tour and was, essentially, a flying-changes competition. Going into that phase of the test, the leading contenders were level-pegging. That suited Glamourdale: if he stayed error-free, the quality of his natural canter would be enough to counter any of his competitors’ gains over his piaffe achilles heel. And that’s how it played out.
Cathrine’s mistakes left her feeling she’d lost gold.
But as the kür would go on to show, even a fault-free canter tour from anyone else on the circuit can’t match Glamourdale’s extraordinary biomechanics in this gait.
The 40,000 spectators were invested – an “ooh” or a ripple of applause for every outstanding movement, and a whistle or two when they felt the judges had scored too low.
Becky and Cathrine both made difficult programmes look easy. Justin Verboomen had Zonik Plus close to last year’s form, though the contact issues are still a work in progress. Glamourdale was astonishing and on the final centre line, showed us that he can deliver a classical piaffe. The top five or six were all medal contenders.
Podium moments for owners and grooms
One new initiative from these championships must stay: bringing owners and grooms onto the podium and into the spotlight. Overdue and I fully support it. No medal is won without them.
As to the 91 starters in the team test, has dressage reached a point where the minimum eligibility requirement needs to be increased? In the interests of the judges and a consistent, level playing field, starter numbers need to be limited to what science tells us about cognition and concentration.
However, I was impressed with the stewarding, the veterinary supervision and the provisions for the heat.
I sat down with FEI vet director Dr Göran Åkerström to talk through the measures in place, including thermal cameras used to monitor horses during the warm-up. It’s a world away from where this all started – I was part of the first trial of heat-mitigation protocols in Atlanta in 1996 – 30 years on, it’s good to see the sport still taking it seriously.
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Richard Davison is a four-time dressage Olympian and former British World Class performance manager, who has been at the forefront of international dressage for more than 30 years.