2023 European Pony Championship: Germany’s Lily Mary Colin completes her mission and secures a hat-trick, winning her third gold medal of the week on Sunday afternoon, July 30, 2023, at Le Mans, France, concluding the 2023 European Pony Championship with a kur gold.
Applauses and birdsong:
The 2023 European Pony Championship was held at Le Mans in Emanuelle and Philippe Rossi’s “Boulari Jump – Pole European du Cheval” and welcomed dressage, show jumping, and eventing all at the same time. This meant that the championship was extremely busy, and all three divisions were coming to an end on Sunday.
While the excitement and buzz made for a great atmosphere at the venue, the freestyle dressage final event was organized along with awarding medals. Sometimes, it was challenging to hear the music due to the announcer continuously speaking without pause, urging the audience to clap. While the tattoos seemed unaffected by it, it added a sense of calm and seriousness to the dressage conclusion.
The tattoos had to deal with another challenge when pigeons entered the arena in large numbers, and when some pigeons came close to the tattoos, they flew away. None of the top tattoos seemed bothered by it, but it created an interesting picture of unity between dressage horses and tattoos.
Lily Mary Colin concluded her international tattoo career in a splendid way as she would reach the age limit at the end of the year. Riding on the 8-year-old Westphalian stallion Cosmo Kallisto (by Cosmopolitan x Sir Cenci), she clearly won the ground jury’s favor, with Isabel Judet (FRA), Thomas Casaler (GER), Magnus Ringmark (SWE), Eva Wintervarmington (EST), and Suzanne Barup (DEN), who all placed unanimously first in freestyle.
Colin danced to Michael Bublé’s “It’s a Beautiful Day” for her winning performance. The trot work was energetic and forward, with much overtrack in the extended walk and a clear rhythm, although the nose could be slightly more in front. The collected walk sometimes stayed a bit too open in the frame. In the collected canter, a slight change in the movement was needed to make it even more pronounced, especially on the left side. Besides that, the left-counter canter was more balanced, but overall, the ride was very clear and balanced, showing many voltes, lines, and circles correctly and counter canters.This combination earned a score between 84.50 and 86.960% for the kur gold.
