When Daniel Pinto moved the reins into his left hand and galloped down centerline away from the judges straight into a one-handed pirouette, the crowd gasped in appreciation. That kind of daring earned him the “B-Final” victory on Galopin de la Font (71.65%).
Although Portugal’s Pinto actually finished 13th in the Rolex FEI World Cup Final for Dressage on April 20, he couldn’t have been more proud and happy to be competing in the Final at all on the Lusitano stallion. “I’m touched by the reaction and sympathy of the public,” he said. “It’s an honor for the breed. It’s important for the World Cup to have an exotic horse.”
The president of the ground jury, Cara Witham, agreed with the audience that Pinto’s ride was exciting. “I think that Daniel made the best advantage of his horse’s strong points,” she said. “He had a lot of degrees of difficulty, very interesting choreography and the music was absolutely top for this horse.
“The strong points of this horse were his canter pirouettes and his piaffe and passage work,” she continued. “He intermingled his movements and really risked quite a bit. When he did the extended canter away from me he was absolutely straight.”
Pinto and his wife put together his medley of Spanish bullfighting music. “I put a lot of thought into the music,” he said. “I chose bullfighting music to prove dressage is like bullfighting on horseback and requires the horse to be disciplined and controlled. I hope that by using the music of the bullfight in this country where bullfighting on horseback is still a tradition, and a long time tradition, I could attract people to come and see dressage from all over the world.”
Great Britain’s Wayne Channon and Lorenzo CH took second place (68.50%) ahead of Canada’s Evi Strasser on Quantum Tyme (67.75%) and Jacqueline Brooks on Gran Gesto (64.05%).
Channon ended his freestyle with a big hug for Lorenzo. “I was ecstatic,” said Channon. “The indoor circuit is not the easiest that I’ve ever tried to do, although we are persevering. Today was the first time I’ve been able to push him in an indoor arena and get him to respond.”
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He rode to Italian music composed by Cees Slings and Victor Kerkhoff that included the Italian National Anthem. “That wasn’t supposed to be in,” said Channon. “This new piece of music arrived and [Lorenzo] heard it. He stopped dead and then went, ‘Oh, OK, off we go.’ He was listening to the music.”
Strasser passaged in to African drumming and proceeded to ride her test to music from the movie The Lion King. Quantum Tyme spooked in his extended trot work, but performed straight lines of two-tempis into a double pirouette and then into extended canter, as well as one-tempis on a diagonal into a double pirouette before returning to extended canter.
Brooks’ test highlights also focused on her changes, and the audience audibly appreciated her 25 one-tempi changes on a circle. Music from Alexander provided a dramatic backdrop for her test.
The top 12 horse and riders from the Grand Prix will compete on Saturday, April 21 for World Cup Final glory.
For full results, visit http://events.horses.nl/2007/lasvegas/results/013-res.htm
