A combination who scored a whopping 95.6% dressage score despite two rider memory lapses are now heading for the national semi-finals.
British-based Portuguese rider Luis Filipe Vilhena and Secret Secret won the four-year-old class at Beechwood Equestrian Centre on 3 June, with one 9.8 score and the rest 9.5.
Luis told H&H he and Secret had already qualified at Hickstead in May, despite the fact he had been injured for three months and only got back on the stallion the week before the show, so took him to Beechwood for the experience.
And he added that the morning of the show did not go entirely to plan.
“I keep my horses in the field – all my stallions live out together and people tell me I’m crazy but they’re happy and I like to see them in the field – and I’d been teaching all the day before, and that day a guy changed something and broke the hose,” he said. “I got him in on the Saturday to give him a bath because he was really dirty but I couldn’t. I was running late so I just had to brush him quickly, put him on the horsebox and take him to the show.”
Luis was a bit late arriving so just tacked up – “I put the numnah on and it got dirty straight away!” – and went into the warm-up, where the stunning stallion, fresh from his night in the field, was calm and ready to go, then into the arena.
“I thought ‘Just enjoy the horse’,” he said. “‘You’ve already qualified, just ride’, and the connection was amazing; it was like we were dancing together.”
It was not all fault-free though, as Luis teaches more than he competes.
“I forgot the test, twice!” he said. “And that’s not the first time it’s happened. I think it I hadn’t, we might have got 100%. I don’t compete that much – I don’t even know where the letters are – as what I like is teaching horses and people to grand prix. I love learning with the horse, although I am enjoying competing a bit more now.”
Luis said the score is “one of those things I still don’t really believe” – and he is determined to remember the test for next month’s semi-final, in hopes of qualifying for the final at the British Dressage National Championships in September.
“It probably won’t happen again – although you may see this horse at an Olympic Games!” he said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing; I’m still on cloud nine.”
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