Last month Britain's Laura Bechtolscheimer, the third-ranked dressage rider in the world, rode her mount Andretti H to win the 2010 National Championships. Their score of 78.55% is aaaawwwffuully close to the scores Bechtolscheimer achieved with her top mount Mistral Hojris prior to WEG (I think her high score was 81%). Last week at WEG she got three silver medals at WEG with Mistral and a personal best score of 85%.
But this is about Andretti. He stayed "across the pond," but if Mistral had not been able to perform he was in the wings as the backup horse.
A coverup? ;-)
Here's a word about Andretti's breeding. In the show programs and on the scoreboard, Andretti H is referred to as Hann for Hanoverian; Hanoverian by Arking XX, where XX indicates thoroughbred; or sometimes just German bred. Humpf! For the record, he's 7/8 thoroughbred (see pedigree). Here's a nice video...
His gaits are really QUITE NICE. Andretti was an accomplished international Grand Prix competitor before Laura bought him.
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I officially love this horse! It gives me hope for my Thoroughbred that I plan to compete in dressage someday :) I wish he had better piaffe and pirouettes, it almost seemed that he lost a lot of his impulsion, but he really was quite amazing for an almost completely TB horse. Wow.
ReplyDeleteHilda Gurney's bronze medal horse in the 1976 Olympics was Keen, a huge TB. Ironically, he looked and moved more like a big warmblood than a TB.
ReplyDeleteNot a a lot of TB's have the movement to be really successful at the top levels, but when they do, the tests are really lovely.
I love this horse's energy. This test with its double pirouettes and passage half-passes does not look difficult for him. I also admire his rider. Did you see her pat him during the freewalk?
ReplyDeleteI liked her test at the WEG better than that of Edward Gal and Totilas. I liked the open throatlatch of her horse and I felt that the movement of his front and hind legs looked equally expressive.
It definitely gives us hope. Eldest rides a very TB-y QH. He's kind and willing but has a lot of strikes against him according to conventional wisdom and conformation ideals for dressage. We'll keep an eye on Andretti.
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