They came and they danced!

First of all I must give a big BRAVO to Brittany Fraser Beaulieu! This morning one of the horses did not pass the second veterinary inspection. Brittany had just missed making the top 18 to qualify for the Freestyle and now she was on! She had a freestyle and Brittany and her horse All In were the first to go . Her music featured clips with the Canadian songstress Celine Dion. The had a great ride and scored 76.404. This is a new Canadian record for an Olympic freestyle! Brittany had praise for All In.

“All In brought me to Pan Ams, the World Equestrian Games and the Olympics. He’s brought me to so many Nations Cups teams. He was the top horse on every team he was on. He’s like family; he’s going to be with me forever.

I’m afraid that most of the rest of the photos are snaps taken with my phone of my computer screen.

I was so impressed with the rider and horses in the Freestyle competition. Things have come a long way in dressage. The horses are now being bred for dressage and the quality of their movement and their ability is stunning. Also the riders are so skilled at riding these talented horses. In the Freestyle the choreography is chosen with the individual horses best skills brought to the forefront. The degree of difficulty in all of the freestyles I saw was so high! I watched double pirouettes in piaffe and canter, tempis on broken line and on circles, walk to canter pirouettes and on it went . Astonishing!

Jesscia von Bredow-Werndl rode a marvelous test to music from the film La La Land, Her mare Dalera was truly dancing.It was a joy to watch this and their score was 91.732

Would any of the remaining riders be able to do better. There was still Isabell Werth and also the gold medal winner from Rio Olympics Charlotte Dujardin.

Isabel rode a test that was full of very difficult movements and her final centerline she rode one handed! This is to show that she does not need to have reins to give aids, the horse is in “self carriage” . This is the ultimate in dressage. They scored 89.657.

Charlotte Dujardin was the penultimate rider. Her horse Gio does not have a lot of experience at this level . But he gave Charlotte his all and made no mistakes. That expression ” good things come in small packages” certainly applies to this smaller horse! They scored 88.543.Here is what Charlotte had to say about Gio and the freestyle.

I thought I’ve got one chance to ride a freestyle this year and this is it. So I thought I may as well do the biggest job I can, have a go at it, but don’t put too much power in. I am thrilled with him, for what he’s come from reversing out of the ring and that sort of thing, in the early days, he’s come a long, long way. I can only be happy.” 

There was still one horse and rider to go Dorothee Schneider and Showtime. Would they get into the Gold Medal spot? July 28 2021 was not Showtime’s best day. They scored 79,432.

The gold medal was won by Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her mare Dalera , Isabell Werth and Bella Rose Silver, with Charlotte Dujardin and Gio the Bronze.

The Freestyle competition brought the Dressage to an end. It has been such a spectacular display of sport at the highest level. I have enjoyed it all. And to think that these riders and horses were in Tokyo competing at this level in the year of the Pandemic is amazing. Here is a photo of Charlotte just after she gets her Bronze medal. A reminder that we are still in a global pandemic.

One last thing tell you about Charlotte. This bronze medal make her the most decorated female British Olympian …ever!

I will be taking a couple of days off from blogging as I am not covering the other equestrian events in the Tokyo Olympics. But I will have a couple of posts to add on the dressage and some behind the scenes.