Carl Hester & Hawtins Delicato Win Somerford Park Grand Prix
Day 3 of Somerford Park Premier League Dressage kicked off in glorious sunshine – while the rest of the country experienced a deluge of thunder storms, Somerford was fortunate to avoid them throughout the day.
A popular win in Sunday’s Grand Prix for Carl Hester and Hawtins Delicato, producing a score of 75.12% which Carl was very happy with and pleased that the judges felt the horse has tremendous talent.
“Today I got all my flying changes but had a few stalls in the piaffes!” said Carl. “It’s all swinging around at the moment while I’m just trying to find the buttons, and obviously give the horse confidence”.
“When you see a Grand Prix it looks easy when its done well but its taken him a long time to grasp all of this and put it all together.”
Like many horses Hawtins Delicato can be affected by atmosphere and following Windsor two weeks ago the plan was always to come to Somerford and then to go to Bolesworth.
“This has been a perfect show for him, he was more chilled out, Windsor – he won’t quite forget that prize giving for a few weeks yet – it was very exciting for him!”
Charlotte Dujardin was on winning form again on day three claiming the Prix St Georges with River Rise Escarla – her score of 77.02% establishing the duo well ahead of 2nd placed Emile Faurie and Quentano 2 on 72.50%. Charlotte and Florentina took top honours for a second time this weekend, winning the Inter I scoring 72.32%.
Michel Eilberg and Mount St John also claimed their second win of the weekend in the Advanced Medium. While John Chubb won the Freestyle to Music onboard Wringler – with a score of 68.58%.
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.