Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald and Zepter threw down the biggest score on the opening day of Dressage at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Versailles (FRA) today, and the Danish team, holders of the World Championship title, now look set to present a mighty challenge to the rest of the field.
The Grand Prix is a qualifier for both the Team Final which takes place on Saturday (3 August) and the Individual Final on Sunday (4 August). The best two horse and athlete combinations from each of the three groups of 10 competing both today and tomorrow will go through to Sunday’s Grand Prix Freestyle along with the next six highest scorers, while the top 10 teams will qualify for Saturday’s Grand Prix Special which will decide the fate of the team medals.
Skodborg Merrald and Zepter were second to step into the awesome arena at Versailles this morning, posting a score of 78.028% that was never bettered. And she feels that she and her horse have a lot more to offer.
“I think I had a really good solid test without big mistakes but also plenty of room for improvement. I think in my changes I couldn’t have done a lot better, but in piaffe-passage and the pirouettes there's still room for asking for more.”
Nanna Skodborg Merrald
(DEN)
The other pair to qualify for the Individual Final from the first group was The Netherlands Dinja van Liere, who was delighted to post 77.674% with the 14-year-old stallion Hermes.
“I was very happy at the end but a bit stressed before because I really wanted to do a good test of course! We’ve done a lot of competitions, but Olympics are just something else!”, the 33-year-old Dutch athlete said.
She was pleased that Hermes coped well with the heat which grew in intensity as the day progressed. “I think also maybe because of the heat he was quite relaxed and I really could ride him. He was a bit spooky in one corner so there were a couple of bits of tension, a couple of mistakes but I was just very happy with him,” she said.
Having lost out on competing in Tokyo due to a paperwork issue for the horse and then some time out for Hermes while recovering from an injury, van Liere is delighted to have him here in Paris. “We have had just this one goal - and we made it - this really is just a dream!”, she said.
Set the target
In the second group, Germany’s Frederic Wandres set the target at 76.118% when second to go with Bluetooth OLD.
“I have to say thank you to all of those spectators sitting there and watching for hours, this is what makes the atmosphere so special and I really felt that Bluetooth enjoyed it to go in there - he became proud and I was very happy! It is 35 degrees but maybe I had a little bit of a plus point because I was already now four seasons in Wellington (Florida, USA) for our winter season so he's a little bit used to perform in higher temperatures, but always those hot temperatures are something special!”
However, the strength of the Danes became ever more evident when Daniel Bachmann Andersen and Vayron bettered that when putting 76.910% on the board as last to go of this group.
His 13-year-old stallion competed in the Danish side that took bronze at last year’s European Championship, but the horse has matured greatly since then and showed even more confidence and a lot more power today.
“I'm so proud to represent my country at an Olympic Games for the first time and then do a personal-best score by almost a whole percentage - that's quite a thing!”, said the 34-year-old.
He said it felt like Vayron was on “autopilot” today. “He is now in his second year of Grand Prix so it’s not that he's very experienced, but he's just getting better and stronger and more and more with me. I can't even explain how proud I am of this fantastic horse. He is a bit innocent and a bit shy behind that big, extreme horse you can see, but he just believed he could do it. It couldn't have been better, and of course we have a goal here and we have started out really, really well and I know we can do it. We did it in Herning (World Championship 2022 team gold), and we will try and do it here again!”, he said.
Clearly the Danes have Dressage team gold firmly in their sights.
Big and powerful
In the third group of 10 it was Great Britain’s Becky Moody who posted the biggest score with a brilliant ride on the big and powerful Jagerbomb. The pair only stepped into the British side just days before the Games began. Moody has never competed in a Senior championship, but she didn’t let that get in the way of clinching a place in Sunday’s Freestyle when putting a remarkable 74.938% on the board.
“That was insane! What a stadium, what a crowd, it was just an amazing experience! And what a horse, he's so special to me because I bred him so we have done everything together!”
Becky Moody
(GBR)
“We were both a little bit nervous and apprehensive, but we helped each other out and I'm just so proud of him. He loves to be out there, the more people watching him the better, so he had a great time!”
Jagerbomb is a big horse, “about 17.3hh, he kind of kept on growing but he's one of the sweetest horses on the yard. If somebody that was a little bit of a beginner wanted to have a sit on something then the Olympic dressage horse would be the one because he just looks after everyone, he is amazing!”
Although initially she didn’t think he had what it takes to bring him to top level she ended up keeping the horse that has carried her to the very highest level of the sport. So how did his name come about?
“I bred him 10 years ago, and at that point in my life I might have been partial to a Jagerbomb. But also my grandad, who was called Norman, we all called him Bomb, I don't know why, so it was a little bit of a homage to him as well as to the alcoholic beverage!”, she explained with a laugh.
Winning partner
Sweden’s Patrik Kittel took the last of today’s six Individual Final spots with his 2024 FEI World Cup winning partner, the 12-year-old gelding Touchdown.
“I've ridden in a lot of hotness, but this is probably one of the best ones! Sweden is third after the first day and hopefully tomorrow maybe in the top five, which is our goal, so we can start on Saturday (in the Team Final) so it is very exciting!”, said the man who is competing at his fourth Olympic Games.
As it stands this evening, Denmark holds the lead ahead of Great Britain, Sweden, Belgium, Canada and Portugal as the six nations that have recorded two scores today, followed by The Netherlands, Germany, Finland, France, Spain, Australia, Austria, Poland and the USA. The Americans lost a team member today due to the elimination of Marcus Orlob’s mare Jane who just knocked herself when she got over-excited coming into the arena, so that has left them with just two scores to count, the 72.593% posted today by Adrienne Lyle and Helix and the score that will be posted by Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper tomorrow afternoon.
The team standings are likely to get a reshuffle tomorrow however because nine of the 15 nations only fielded a single athlete/horse combination today while the leading six countries were all drawn with two to go.
Putting the British into second place was the 77.345% posted by Carl Hester who is competing at his seventh Olympics, this time with the 14-year-old Fame. Hester’s compatriot Charlotte Fry and her World Championship individual gold medal ride Glamourdale will be first into the arena tomorrow morning at 10.00 local time.
And of course the top guns from Germany are also about to step onto the stage, the legendary Isabell Werth riding Wendy into the arena at 11.25 tomorrow, while the defending Olympic team and individual champions Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera will bring the day to a close.
As always, the Olympic Games are filled with emotion, and today Belgium’s Larissa Pauluis made a lot of people cry. As she left the arena having produced a lovely test with the 14-year-old gelding Flambeau for a score of 72.127%, she held her hands up to the television cameras and you could clearly read the words “I promised you” on her right hand, and “I did it” on the left, accompanied by a heart symbol.
Asked afterwards what it meant, she explained that her husband died four years ago and, before he passed away, she promised him she would compete in Paris. “It was really a challenge, he never saw me competing even in Grand Prix and I’m here - so it’s wonderful”, she said tearfully.
For one athlete the promise of Paris 2024 is already complete….