Thurman-Baker adds to her tally
JOANNA THURMAN-BAKER scored her 13th win of the year – from 13 classes – when she headed both elementaries with Susan Armstrong’s Hanoverian gelding Sol Invictus X. The pair had pulled off the same double four days previously, at nearby venue Widmer EC.
“He was a late-starter and didn’t make his show debut until he was seven,” said Joanna, explaining that after arriving from Germany with a broken molar, which took two operations to extract, “Simba” was sidelined last summer when Joanna inured her back – and again this spring with the Covid-19 competition hiatus. “I loved him as soon as I saw him; he was beautifully light and loose with movement so fluid that it was like riding a wave. He does have a bit of a split personality, but he has that spark.”
Joanna also headed the advanced medium 85 with her sister Samantha’s Sirocco IV, leapfrogging the levels from the seven-year-old gelding’s last outing in March at elementary.
“He’s very clever and had progressed so much that I felt he was ready,” said Joanna, describing Sirocco as “a complete black beauty.”