Tuesday, August 22, 2006

De Rosa Daily
FEI World Equestrian Games 2006 - Aachen Germany
Exclusive coverage for HorsesDaily text and photos by Diana DeRosa

The Logo That Wasn’t

Dutch Rider Laurens Van Lieren Riding Hexagon’s Ollright Loses Schooling Time All Because of a Steward’s Mistake and a Misunderstanding

The Story Continues

In the small arena “he (his horse) got tense and the schedule was a bit ahead,” continued Laurens. “I had to go in with not the perfect feeling.”

At first things were going okay and “even the extended walk was not that bad but then in the collected walk he was too hot. I really thought there was going to be a problem to keep him at ease,” explained Laurens who realized then that the shortened warm-up wasn’t enough. “Then we had a little bit of tension at the first passage and the transition to canter and the canter half passes were a bit tense but after that I was quite right. At the last piaffe he went forward a bit but that could have happened anytime.”

Laurens said that normally there might have been one or two bobbles but he had more than the usual amount. When asked if he felt it was because of the shortened schooling Laurens replied, “Absolutely because I didn’t practice my canter zigzag and normally I do that a couple of times because it loosens his body. That was something I really missed.”

Laurens admitted that, “The walk is not his strongest part. He is very sensitive for noises and once you are in such an impressive arena he has to be loose and relaxed and focused on me the rider to perform well. In the passage and piaffe he was really good but in the walk you have to show that you can let him go and he wouldn’t wait for the collected walk.”

There is no way to know what Laurens would have scored but in the recent dressage season he and Imke have been getting scores that were very close. At WEG he finished on a score of 68.5 while Imke scored 71.542.

Laurens was chosen as the fourth team member because his horse “had an injury in the beginning of the season. He clipped himself just below his knee and he was out of work for three to four weeks.” Unfortunately they had three important competitions early in the season which he could not go in. But then for the World Cup season things went very well. “We had a really good impression from the World Cup season and the Chef told me it would all be okay if I got him back.” An excellent result at Hickstead helped earn them the spot on the WEG team.