Amy Stovold made the journey from her home in Balcombe, Sussex to Salzberg, Austria worthwhile as she secured second place in the grand prix freestyle 4 December 2010. Riding the 13 year old Swedish bred gelding MacBrian Amy scored a solid 67.80% at the CDI4* Pappas Amadeus Horse Indoors, an admirable achievement for a rider in her first international grand prix season.
Improving on her earlier score of 63.87% in the grand prix Amy explained, “On the first day both MacBrian and I were nervous and we made some stupid little mistakes which really cost us marks. When it came to our freestyle we had been there a couple of days longer, it is still quite a big deal for me to travel abroad and compete!”
Amy is now looking ahead to the World Cup Dressage Qualifier at Olympia with excitement, “Salzberg was a good warm up for Olympia, it has always been one of my dreams to compete there and I’m going to try and enjoy it as much as possible.” Her 17hh chestnut by Briar is showing good form ahead of the world cup, “MacBrian is as fresh as a daisy after his trip to Austria, he doesn’t even look like he’s been out competing. He’s fit and ready to go!”
2010 has been an incredible year for Amy who, having produced Macbrian from scratch, is now starting to reap the rewards. She told British Dressage: “It has been my goal to compete at grand prix level since I was 16. After Olympia we will compete at Zwolle (Netherlands); when you’re not as experienced as some of the other top riders I think it’s important to keep going out and competing internationally.”
Related Links
Scores 2010 CDI Salzburg
Amy Stovold Scores First International Win at 2010 CDI Pompadour