WEG Day 2 - a Personal Perspective

Day 2 of the team competition brought out the big guns, with the anchor horses competing for their countries.  Some people came just to see Edward Gall and Moorlands Totilas, some came to see Steffen Peters and Ravel.  I came to see all the beautiful horses, but I most looked forward to seeing my Paj's brother, known to the rest of the world as Pikardi. 

Pikardi looked fabulous.  His scores were great.  But after a few steps of piaffe on the first of three passage-piaffe-passage movements, he lost the rhythm of the piaffe (sort of a trot in place), 

planted all four feet,

  and rose into levade!

Bonny Bonnello did a great job of getting him back into passage and proceeded with her test.  The score board lit up with 3s!  Groan!  On the second passage-piaffe-passage, after a step or two of piaffe, again he started to lose the rhythm, again he started to plant.  When Bonny insisted, he gave a great sidewards shake of his head from the base of his neck and said "NO-O-O-O!" while raising his front end off the ground.  The judges were not amused, and the scoreboard lit up with straight 1s.  1s!!!  I had never seen a 1 before, and no, I did not take a picture.  That Bonny Bonnello is one cool customer.  She proceeded with her test, riding each movement brilliantly.  The final movement of the test is passage-piaffe-passage.  We all held our breath as they headed down the centerline. 

And this time he did it right.  Amazingly, even with two meltdowns, they finished with a solid score of 66%.  But it wasn't enough to advance to the Grand Prix Special, and he didn't help Canada's medal chances. 

Did he resemble Paj more than having 4 legs, 2 ears, etc?  Yes, especially in his carriage, and in the shape of his head and neck. 

Of course Paj is cuter.  ; )

What's that you say?  There were other horses there?  Really?  That means another post.