This is another of my favorite paintings. The mare is quite famous, having earned a silver medal in the World Championships as a 6 year old and made even more famous on u tube. She dances in her freestyle knowingly in beat with the music and her tail,... her tail swishes and swishes with her animated steps. This is not exactly the behavior suitable to upper lever dressage horse but everyone that sees her KNOWS she's enjoying her job and is very aware that she's dancing. (swishing is usually a sign of irritation) Andreas is such a lovely rider as well. Did I mention he was gorgeous!? :)
This is from Euro Dressage: (august 26, 2006)
http://www.eurodressage.com/reports/shows/2006/06weg/08-24-grandprix2-photo.html
The ride of the day, however, came from Danish Andreas Helgstrand on his 9-year old Danish warmblood mare Matine. The mare by Blue Hors Silver Moon (by Kostolany) out of a Matador dam is well known in Denmark as the former young horse champion but she only made her international break through at Grand Prix level this year at the CDI Wiesbaden and Lingen. If you are impressed by Elvis' passage, than wait and see Matine's. This mare bounces half a meter off the ground both in passage and piaffe without losing rhythm, power and suspension. The crowds were gasping during the final piaffe-passage on the center line and the combination was the only pair to receive a standing ovation from the crowds! They scored a fantastic 76.333%
However, the ride was not flawless. You can see the mare is still green at the level and there were some uneven steps in the passage and Helgstrand constantly had to work on the bit to keep the mare completely through. Her mouth opened regularly and you saw that all that power in the movement was not resolved in the contact with the bit. Furthermore, Matine has a helicopter tail that keeps swooshing all the time (mainly in the pi-pa), but mares are more easily prone to do so (Wansuela Suerte does it too) and you still get an impression that she is relaxed in the movement.
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