Fontainebleau CDI 3* Grand Prix decided by a hair's breadth

While oxers and combinations will take over Fontainebleau's arenas next week, this weekend it's all about rectangles, letters, and judges' huts! Since yesterday, dressage riders have been performing their tests; the first day was marked by Charlotte Fry & Ilegro's victory in the Saint Georges, a warm-up for the British rider who will compete tomorrow in the Nations Cup with her famous Glamourdale. Twenty-nine horse and rider combinations lined up this morning for the CDI 3* Grand Prix.

With nearly two 72% scores already under his belt—71.609% at Jerez de la Frontera and 71.978% at Vejer de la Frontera, where he also secured two victories—Spaniard José Antonio Garcia Mena seems to have found in Quatre-quarts à l'orange a mount capable of bringing him back to the Spanish team, perhaps even this year. This 12-year-old son of Quaterhall, very much in the Quaterback style, is an athletic, expressive, and nice horse. With a lovely trot, the chestnut acould, however, have been a bit more uphill tenddency in his canter work; a gait he lost coming out of his second pirouette. They left the arena, after a final, slightly swaying piaffe, with a score of 69.304%.

Represented by Evelyn Eger & Global Power Old, Germany secured second place. The rider from the Kasselmann stables and this son of Grey Flanell were making their Grand Prix debut in the CDI today; a start that was nothing else than quite successful. Very expressive, the 9-year-old Oldenburg lacked a bit of impulsion in his trot half-pass to th left, broke into a canter during the collected walk/passage transition, and lost impulsion at the start of the first piaffe. The German pair achieved a score of 69.217%.

The best French performance in this competition came from Pierre Volla and his promising Malcom X de Massa; a pair who could well be to follow this season. Much more relaxed in the ring than a month ago at Ornago, the 10-year-old PSH by Galopin de la Font, occasionally showed some resistance to contact, a halt before the rein-back not quite perfectly square, a canter start with joined feet, a first pirouette that could be improved but a second one that was tight, and a few moments of nervousness. He also showed the full potential of his piaffe/passage work, still far from the full scope he seems capable of in these exercises. Ample and fluid at the extended walk, Malcom X de Massa will certainly easily surpass 70%, with more experience in the ring and the associated relaxation; a Grand Prix scored at 69.195%, placing him 3rd.

Full results HERE

crédit photo : PSV J. Morel