Polish dressage rider Katarzyna Milczarek admits she mostly bought her Paris Olympic ride Guapo for his buckskin colour.
“Of course, that was the main thing,” she smiled after her Olympic dressage grand prix test today. “I love him, he’s such a nice guy.”
Katarzyna bought the 13-year-old stallion, who is by Xarme out of a mare by Quebec, when he was nine.
“He had never competed, but he could do all the tricks – they weren’t all together, but they were there. We’ve worked together for three or four years now,” she said.
“We are getting better together. We are now a team. He was little bit wild, like a Lusitano that has lots of power, but that’s fine with me. He’s very intelligent and so active, which is a plus. But sometimes we have to control him because in the beginning, he didn’t walk or stand still.”
Katarzyna Milczarek said she wasn’t pleased with her test today, which scored 66.91%.
“We had two big mistakes in the one tempis and the first pirouette – normally they are a good note and he has beautiful pirouettes. These movements both carry double marks,” she said.
“I think it was the crowd and the arena that was a little bit too much for him. We have only been to small international shows which don’t have so many people, so when he heard the noise on the stairs, the tension came and then the mistakes follow.”
In general, the 58-year-old rider, who is based in north-west Poland and also contested the London 2012 Olympics, says she really enjoys riding Guapo.
“At my age, I have had so many other horses and he’s so easy for me to ride – you can just laugh and sit in,” she said.
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