Dirubinio’s on the right line
Alice Oppenheimer’s challenging home-bred is on form at grand prix, while lockdown efforts pay off for Zoe Sopp
“WE’VE yet to get round without a wobble, but he’s getting better all the time,” said Alice Oppenheimer of her grand prix winner Headmore Dirubinio, whose percentages are edging ever nearer to 70%.
“I’ve doubted myself as a rider more with ‘Robin’ than with any other horse,” she added. “I always knew he would be amazing, but he has such phenomenal power, energy and scope that I didn’t feel I couldn’t control it all.”
The home-bred Dimaggio gelding spent six months with
Carl Hester last year, before Alice resumed the ride with further guidance from Erik Theilgaard.
“Movement is not difficult for him as he’s so loose through the shoulder,” she explained. “To start with he feels lazy, but he is quite sensitive. Carl told me to ignore the first five minutes and I’ve learned not to get desperate.
I’m really pleased with where we’re going.”
Alice also won at elementary with Wurlitzer, Rebecca Hulme’s home-bred Totilas daughter.
“She’s pretty smart, with a real ability to collect and sit,” said Alice of five-year-old “Toto”.
Lockdown training proved fruitful for Zoe Sopp, who spent the time strengthening her bond with Borella – the Florencio daughter she teamed up with a year ago.
“She lacked confidence and was quite bolshy with it,” said Zoe of the “challenging” mare, owned by Al Shira’aa Farms. “You don’t get anything for nothing with Bella, but I adore her.”
After a 70.39% inter I qualifier win, Zoe said: “She was wonderful: so submissive and soft.”
Zoe described her double medium winner Vilan as “a work in progress”.
“He’s big, but compact and elegant,” she said of the nine-yearold Vivaldi gelding she took on in July. “At first he was nervous and a bit nappy, but week on week he becomes braver and more trusting.”
“Carl told me to ignore the first five minutes”
ALICE OPPENHEIMER ON HEADMORE DIRUBINIO
DUBBED “the unconventional dressage horse”, Armstrong II (known as Arnie) pulled out all the stops to head the grand prix.
“The weekend before, Arnie fell apart and panicked – we couldn’t even get into the arena,” said Louisa Spencer, who has taken the “quirky” barefoot Gelderlander up the levels from scratch. “He was consistent across the test this time, along with his party-piece one-times. I still can’t believe we scored more than 67%.”
Louisa, who trains with Hayley Watson-Greaves, trialled a new warm-up technique.
“Hayley told me not to worry about the tricks but to keep Arnie off the leg and moving forwards,” she said. “I felt like a Pony Club kid in a gymkhana, but it seemed to work. We now need to develop our confidence to step up to some High Profile shows.”
“A week ago we couldn’t even get
in the arena” LOUISA SPENCER ON
ARMSTRONG II