The first British rider in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S dressage at the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event today (23 April), Finn Healy, said he was “over the moon” with his horse’s work.
Greannanstown Monbeg Joe is a nine-year-old owned by his rider. He and Finn, 21, are in Kentucky as part of an initiative called Rising Lions, which has funded three young British riders to contest this class to gain experience.
Greannanstown Monbeg Joe is a neat, compact chestnut and the pair were scoring just below 70% during their trotwork.
This mark dropped when the horse jogged in the walk and showed some trot steps in the direct walk-canter transition, plus they had a break in the left canter, so the pair finished with a score of 35.8.
“I was really chuffed with him – he’s still only a young horse, doing his second f0ur-star test, and so to go into that arena on the first day of dressage is a big, big ask for him,” said Finn. “He went in there and stayed pretty relaxed.
“I nearly lost him a little bit in the walk and that’s probably where it cost us on the score side. But I’m over the moon with the work he showed and and the potential he has in this phase.”
Elaborating on what happened in the walk, Finn said: “In our last test at Thoresby, I went wrong in the test and missed the walk. Then when I went back to do the walk, he jogged – he’d never normally jog – so that’s probably my fault from last time. He’s a very clever horse and he remembers those sort of things.”
Kentucky Three-Day Event dressage: “a special feeling” for Finn Healy
Finn Healy said that to experience riding his dressage in the huge Kentucky Three-Day Event stadium with a horse he’s produced from a four-year-old was “a pretty special feeling”.
“I bought him as a four-year-old from Monbeg, who we’d previously done quite a bit of business with,” said Finn, whose pony European champion Midnight Dancer came from Monbeg.
“Marti [Rudd] said, ‘I’ve got this four-year-old who’s a little bit wild, he’s unbroken, but I think he’d be great for you’ and so we went and watched him loose jump, and he was absolutely wild. You could barely touch him.
“And then I came back a few months later, after Tomas [Doyle, at Monbeg] had worked his magic and backed him, and we bought him. He was a really sharp young horse. He nearly got put on the transfer list a couple of times because of how sharp he was, but he managed to stay just about at a manageable level.
“I always had him in mind as a young rider horse and with his compact type, that’s probably what Marty had in mind for me buying him, but it quickly became apparent he was going to be far more talented than that.”
The pair did do the young rider Europeans last year, finishing 15th individually, and then stepped up to four-star with a double clear in the young horse class at Blenheim Horse Trials.
“I think he’s got all the ability to go all the way,” said Finn. “He’s got so much fight – if you’re watching him go cross-country and showjumping, he’ll fight me the whole way round, but when the chips are down, that’s what matters, because then he’ll push himself more than any other horse I’ve known.
“It’s his greatest strength, his fight, and for a little horse, he has all the character you need.”
“Good or bad, we’re learning”
Finn said he and the other two riders are learning a huge amount from the experience in Kentucky.
“The Rising Lions initiative is aimed at bringing an under-25 team of riders out to some of the biggest events in the world to try and get experience at these events and it’s absolutely invaluable,” he said.
“With the amount of stuff to get organised to go on a flight and then all the different aspects of coming to an event like this that I’ve never experienced, and I know the other two members on the team haven’t experienced – we’ve learned so much already.
“However the competition goes, whether it’s good or bad, we’ll have learned a huge amount and that’s really the aim.”
Finn said he’s “absolutely loving” his Kentucky experience.
“It’s the most surreal place I’ve ever been to for a horse competition,” he said.
“We came in on the first day and walked round the corner and looked at the stadium and we were all like, ‘Oh my god, this is something’. The people here have been so helpful, nothing’s been any trouble and they’ve made us feel really welcome.”
The other two Brits from the Rising Lions programme, Isabelle Cook and Elizabeth Barratt, both perform their dressage tomorrow.
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