Jimenez Continues Winning Streak on Euclides MOR at 2019 CDI Granada

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2019 CDI Granada

"Singing in the rain" was the melody that accompanied Juan Antonio Jiménez Cobo and Euclides MOR in his winning ride in the Grand Prix Special at the 2019 CDI La Carana near Granada, Spain in early April. The pair scored 71.234% in the 3* class.

Previously, the pair had come third in the Grand Prix with 68.565%, albeit under worse climatic conditions. Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and her new GP mount Elegance (who lived up to her name, by the way) was the winner of the Grand Prix.

The CDI was organized by Arena Dressage in the beautiful city of Granada. Unfortunately the event suffered three days from pouring rain, a situation which was good for Spain but not so beneficial for the conditions of the show. However, the competition arenas were able to cope with the sudden flooding quite well.

Euclides MOR, the silver-white Lusitano stallion from Mexican stud Las Morerías, is now in his second Grand Prix season and so far he has excelled in his class at top level with his collected gaits . Juan Antonio and Euclides MOR are one of the promising Spanish Grand Prix combinations. After opening the season with a hat trick in the CDI3* Seville and competing successfully in Madrid (first in the GP and second in the GPS), now in Granada they again led their class.

"It was amazing how he correctly performed almost every exercise on Friday," said Juan. "The level of stress for the horses was high; there was noise, things moving and flying around the competition arena under the strong rain and wind. So of course he was tense, but still I could keep him with me and on the bit. I am very happy that Euclides is more reliable each time and I am thankful to the owner for allowing me to take him further to the next level, I am sure he will be one of the best Grand Prix horses I have ever had.”

There were also some young guns from Las Morerias around. Lorena Morales, director of Dressage, stated, "I couldn’t be more pleased with our horses. I suffered when I saw Juan and Euclides MOR competing in such bad weather conditions, but I am happy with the results, and the youngsters also did very well. Troyano MOR, our 6 year old, is a son of Orgulloso MOR, who’s here with us in Mexico. He is a pleasure to ride and I see his offspring even better than him.

Also Virrey MOR (by Melchor x Que Gardenia), who is the current PRE World Champion of the 3 year old class at SICAB 2018, competed successfully in the national 4 year old class.

"We have high expectations for these young stallions," said Lorena. "But our expectations and goals are long term objectives, i.e. the World Championships in Ermelo are not our first goal. We can wait for our horses. Breeding is a question of decades and we do know that our horses will stand out at Grand Prix. Our offspring bears high quality due to a simple formula: a good head plus a big heart plus good mechanics plus good health will always make a respected Grand Prix horse in the right hands, that’s for sure. With Juan Antonio, we are pleased and the evolution meets expectations. This is a dream slowly coming true for me and my family.”

Juan Antonio added, "we will be present at the CDI3 * in Segovia and of course, in the National Championships, then we will see. Patience pays off.”

by Katharina Braren - Photos ©