Sunny and warm in Pau, just the conditions that Grappa Nera (Grape) is a fan of!  Grape proved in Le Pin au Haras this summer that when the other horses are melting Grape simply embraces it and who doesn’t like a dose of summer at the end of October.

The jog was at 10 am this morning and Grape was in the one third of horses to do their dressage this afternoon.  A couple of tiny mistakes, the first halt wasn’t totally square but the rhythm and balance were something that Grape has always promised but never really delivered in the ring.  They were trending around 24 to begin with and at the end of all of the trot work were still around a 26.  The walk is often Grapes nemesis but today she looked like a supermodel on the catwalk as she rocked a huge extended walk across the diagonal.  The canter work can get her hot but today she owned it and apart from the changes, which are still a work in progress, it was simply beautiful.  A 10 for her stretchy circle and a 9 for her final halt marked a huge improvement for Grape and Jonelle’s smile at the end said it all.  The changes dropped the score down to 30.1 which was more than fair as none of them were clean but they didn’t spoil any of the movements before and after which is a game changer for feisty Grape.

They lie 3rd at the end of the afternoon behind Ros Canter and Tom McEwen who sit on 27.5 and 28.3 respectively. It’s a nice place to be on a cross country machine like Grape and no one has worked harder than Jonelle to make this result happen.

Results are on    https://www.worldsporttiming.com/fr/

Live streaming on       https://horseandcountry.tv