Charlotte Dujardin & Pumpkin - Grand Prix Special - European Dressage Championships

Charlotte Dujardin & Pumpkin – Grand Prix Special – European Dressage Championships

After winning Grand Prix Freestyle bronze at the Olympics, Charlotte Dujardin and her own and Renai Hart’s 10-year old Dutch warmblood Gio (by Apache x Tango) placed third in the Grand Prix in Hagen and were clear favourites for an individual medal in the Special. Her cute chestnut gelding, however, looked tired even though he kept moving his legs like an energizer bunny and gave it his all. The quality of the canter was not so clear 3-beat upon entering the ring but the halt was square. The extended trots were hurried and especially on the right lead there was little suspension. The right passage was more even in the rhythm than the left one on the short sides and in the passage serpentine he was bent to the right. The first piaffe travelled forward. In the extended walk the horse relaxed but hasn’t got the largest overstep, the collected was interesting as it scored between 6.5 and 9 from the judges! The one tempi changes were great, the extended canter really uphill. In the two’s there was one shorter change, as well as in the nine one tempi on the centerline. The left pirouette was the best one. On the final centerline Gio was running out of steam, he crossed the legs behind in piaffe at X (8.0). They posted 79.787% for fourth place, but the marks ranged between 78.298 (Lehrmann) and 81.277% (Wessels).