The Tales Behind the Tails

Getting to Know the Dressage Riders & Their Horses

Austria’s Victoria Max-Theurer rides Falcao, an 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding. After coming out of the Grand Prix Special she was content. “I had a small mistake for the two tempis but it was not a big mistake.” Victoria was pleasantly surprised that despite the heat her horse was really fresh.”

She was quick to say in response to my question of is he easy to ride that the answer was “no. He looks easy but he is not. Sometimes he’s a bit pulling. And since you need the highest collection I have to work with it.”

Around the stable Falcao “loves touching everybody. He likes attention and kisses.” Victoria at 18 is the youngest rider and she was quite proud of her achievements. “It feels really good and I had two really good tests. But dressage is a sport where you have to get really really good tests over a long period before they believe it is a good horse and rider.” She placed 20th after the Grand Prix Special (68.753%).

Denmark’s Andreas Helgstrand was on Cavan, a 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding. Overall he was “happy” with his ride. “Some things could be better but most of it was okay.” He added that it was “really nice in the arena.”

Helgstrand said that Cavan is “easy to ride. He knows all the things.” Especially since this was only his fifth Grand Prix. And this was Helgstrand’s first Olympic Games. “I still have to learn a lot from him. Lars Petersen rode him before.

Around the stable Cavan likes attention. They stand in 10th after the Special (71.147%).