Emily decided to take advantage of her location this week and head do
wn to Lyon to watch the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Qualifier at Equita’Lyon, a vast indoor show that is several times larger than Olympia or Horse of the Year Show and which includes World Cup dressage and jumping as well as many other competitions including a reining championship and the French coloured horse championship.
The sheer scale of the exhibition was unimaginable: there were six vast halls with hundreds of trade stands in each, ranging from jewellery, clothing and horsecare products to horseboxes, horsewalkers and stables – some of which were even assembled on site. Huge brands such as Rolex, Hermès and Lamborghini had stands, with Hermès showcasing a line in saddles and Lamborghini selling its new range of helmets. Dotted around the exhibition were arenas with constant displays of all different kinds of equines from donkeys to Arabs, all of which were stabled inside the halls so the public could
get up close and personal with them, and even buy one if they wanted to! There was almost every breed of horse imaginable: Akhal Tekes, Arabs, Highland ponies, Connemaras, Andalucians, Lusitanos, Icelandic ponies, Selle Français and Welsh Cobs to name just a few.
However, this was all just a distraction from the evening’s main event: the World Cup qualifier. The start list really exciting as it contained eight combinations that participated in the Olympic Games in London: Jessica Michel with Riwera de Hus for France, Kristina Sprehe with Desperados and Anabel Balkenhol with Dablino for Germany, Edward Gal with Glock’s Undercover and Adelinde Cornelissen with Jerich Parzival for the Netherlands, Minna Telde with Santana and Patrik Kittel with Scandic for Sweden, and Valentina Truppa with Eremo del Castegno for Italy. In addition, there were other top European combinations in attendance: Elisabeth Eversfield-Koch with Rokoko N and Marcela Krinke Susmelj for Switzerland, Claire Gosselin with her beautiful liver chestnut stallion Karamel de Lauture for France, Silvia Rizzo with Donnerbube 2 for Italy, Daniel Watson with Fideramber for Great Britain, Luis Principe with World Performance Washington for Portugal, and Hans Peter Minderhoud with Glock’s Tango for the Netherlands. With such a fantastic line up this competition could hardly fail to disappoint and not only did it live up to expectations it exceeded them.
The highlight of the first half of the class was undoubtedly Minna Telde with her stunning black stallion, Santana. They produced a dynamic, fluent and exciting test for 76% and an early lead, made even more impressive by the fact that Santana is missing an eye which must make the close crowds and intense atmosphere of a big indoor show like Lyon very challenging for him; however, he kept his nerve admirably and some of the work he produced was simply breath-taking. He was not to keep his lead long, however, as the second half of the class was unbelievably strong. The first to go after the break was Olympic team silver medallist Kristina Sprehe who was riding Desperados FRH. This 
combination shrugged off the difficulties they had had in the piaffe and the tempi changes during the previous day’s Grand Prix and produced a supple and flowing test worthy of their 82%. Marcela Krinke Susmelj, winner of the World Cup Qualifier in Odense, followed with a test that occasionally bordered on tension but was a masterclass in how to channel the nervous energy of her talented piaffe-passage machine, Smeyers Molberg. The next combination was another Olympic rider: Germany’s Anabel Balkenhol and Dablino who had a few issues with the contact in the canter and yet still produced some amazingly powerful work. Glock’s Undercover was next to go with Edward Gal and the horse was far more relaxed, supple and freely stepping forward than he was in London, enabling him to produce some stunning moments especially in the trot. He was followed by his fellow bronze medal winning team member and individual silver medallist of the London Games, Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival, who had dominated the Grand Prix the day before and was the strong favourite to win. Parzival did not disappoint and performed his customary energetic and dynamic test with perhaps a bit more lightness in the contact than we’re used to seeing from him. The ground jury were suitably impressed and awarded Adelinde with a huge 89%. Sweden’s Patrik Kittel with Watermill Scandic H.B.C. and Italy’s Valentina Truppa with Eremo del Castegno were the final two combinations and both produced confident and expressive tests which showed off their experience on the international stage, with Valentina even riding a crowd-pleasing line of tempi changes with the reins in one hand. 
She was rewarded for her brave riding and interesting choreography and music with 83% which gave her the second place behind Adelinde.
It was a really exciting competition and the first of this high calibre since the London Olympics. It was interesting to see how some of the combinations, especially the two Dutch riders, had worked on some difficulties they experienced in London and came out three months later showing huge improvements in the horses’ way of going. The whole experience of Equita’Lyon is unbelievable and there is really nothing to compare it to in the UK; that coupled with the amazing quality of dressage in the World Cup Qualifier definitely makes Lyon a competition worth visiting.