Saturday, 4 August 2012

Peter Charles comments on his first taste of the arena


Peter Charles and Vindicat were the second British combination to be effected by the electric atmosphere of the Greenwich arena. They met fence three on a wrong stride and had both elements of the double down, recovering well to add just two time penalties and finish on a score of 10.

The result sees all members of the team go through to contest the team competition, with all but Peter also qualifying to contest the individual competition.

Peter commetned; "It’s not the start we wanted. He didn’t want to take the bridle, he didn’t want to canter, there’s no way of doing it, you need a quiet start. I did put a request in for them not to clap because he’s a good horse but a nervous horse and to keep it quiet, but we didn’t get it.

"I’m pleased how he ended up; it could have been a lot worse. He was worried starting off, usually he’s in my hand, taking me in the bridle and I didn’t have anything, in the circle when I went to canter he was right back at me which is unlike him. There’s nowhere like it. He’s a gamey little horse but that would frighten the socks off most horses. I’ve got to use all my experience somehow to work around it, I’ll go away and have a think about it and figure it out overnight.

"I ended up having eight strides to the double, I’d planned an outside seven and he wasn’t taking me, but I didn’t want to kick him either so we ended up in the middle of nowhere. There were two more doubles after that and he jumped them both fine. It’s not ideal but it is what it is, right?"

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