London International horse show

[asmp]

I was at the show today, same Irish rider who I hadn’t seen ride in the puissance and honestly was appalled, chair seat, hanging on the horses mouth, really horrible to watch. Generally good standard of riding overall, plenty of riders choosing to save their horses rather than pushing too much. I enjoyed the lippizaners too, I think I might go to the jumping again rather than the dressage which I watched on catch up and left me rather cold, the quality of the field just isn’t there anymore compared to before it moved venue and personally I don’t want to sit there and clap Charlotte like I used to.

Regarding riders choosing to save their horses - I feel that sometimes this is unfair on the audience. I went to the Longines competition near Chelsea one summer and most of the riders just treated the main class we had paid to watch as a schooling round. It got a bit boring watching riders going very slowly or even retiring after a few fences.

 

[KikiDee]

These were the rounds that I watched and I just see a rider in a snaffle, staying off the horses mouth into fences and using his body weight to bring the horse back between fences. Perhaps it is just Andrew's unique style if he rides other horses this way too but he looks like a calm and effective rider to me, I'm not sure what's horrible about it.

 

[ester]

my main issue is he's leveraging off an incredibly short running martingale

 

[TheMule]

Luckily the guy is very lightweight because I don’t see much lightness in how he rides- he is at the back of the saddle, unbalanced, on his hands (with an incredibly tight martingale) and with a hard elbow.

 

[foxy1]

He sits very heavily on the back of the saddle, rather than balanced in the centre

 

[lynz88]

Luckily the guy is very lightweight because I don’t see much lightness in how he rides- he is at the back of the saddle, unbalanced, on his hands (with an incredibly tight martingale) and with a hard elbow.

I do not see lightness one bit either. Drive with seat and reem on the horse's face via uber long reins. Oh, and zero release over the jumps

 

[Walrus]

I went yesterday to the freestyle, first time I've watched any top level dressage for a few years. I was a bit apprehensive with the return of Charlotte and also seeing lottie in the flesh when she gets so much criticism online. But it was a really enjoyable afternoon I thought. Obviously the stand out tests were becky and lottie.... I thought beckys test was joyful, fun, super consistent and very technical... and bomb is bigger than I expected and apart from his piaffe being a little quieter compared to all his other moves he was genuinely just like watching a big dressage hug or lovely smooth hot chocolate!

And lottie and glamourdale.... I personally thought they were incredible. I've struggled with lottie a bit sometimes, I'm not an everdale fan and I was worried glamourdale would be a bit spidery and almost like a caricature. But I thought the combination of lightness and power was quite spectacular, I didn't expect him to be so light on his feet but her really was, and so balanced even with his massive movement....I think the commentator said he was 14 now so I think we are seeing the strength, balance and body control develop over time. I also thought their music was fab, the airline style announcements made the crowd chuckle and I love it when people have fun music whether it's shows like this or a Sunday BD. And I didn't see lottie riding aggressively or harshly in the way you hear it described online, in my very novice opinion.

Aside from those two; Sadie smith was brilliant, Susan pape looked like she was having a ball and I like a lady who went early called marieke van der putten.... don't know anything about her but enjoyed her test.

Charlotte got a nice reception from the crowd, I don't think it was a massive reaction to be honest, the crowd really took the roof off for lottie and becky. The mare seemed quite green and got stuck a couple of times in the piaffe. Regardless of what you think, charlotte has some balls because that arena is like pressure cooker and when she was trotting round at the start it was so silent it was like no one dared even to breathe.

Anyhow, that's my observations as a very amateur single horse owner who thinks the heady heights of dressage ambition is elementary! I'm always astounded and slightly depressed when I realise they are fitting those tests into an arena the same size I struggle to steer my baby horse round a prelim and don't feel I've got enough space!