Driving dressage underway at WEG

Australia’s Gavin Robson was in action on Thursday on the opening day of driving competition at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2014.

Some 23 drivers performed their tests in front of 3,000 spectators from all over the world.

Robson is at his second WEG and has brought with him a team of young horses, three of which are in their first season of competition.

With half the field having now completed the dressage phase, Robson is currently sitting in 16th position after receiving a score of 62.36.

Robson said he was pleased with how his young horses handled the atmosphere.  

“I was happy with the three young horses that I had, this is only their sixth show. For them to come to this atmosphere and cope with it is really encouraging.  

“The older horse got a bit upset from the clapping before we entered the arena. When it’s noisy, to him that means obstacles so he thinks it’s time to go.  

“It tells me there were a lot of people there who don’t know a lot about horses which is a good thing for our sport because they’ve never seen it before and they want to come and support it and see what it's all about."   

Robson said the obstacle course would be popular with spectators and would be a good test for the drivers.

“It’s typical of (course builder) Richard Nicols, a couple are tight but there are some good running options at every obstacle. For me that’s going to work better I think because I can run the horses rather than do the tight stuff.

“Where they’ve put the water obstacles, they’re made to run so it’s going to put on a good spectacle for the crowd.

“They’re well set out for the crowds so I think they’ll get good crowds at each end,” he said.  

Australia’s world Champion Boyd Exell will commence his title defence on Friday morning when he completes his dressage test at 10:22am local time (6:22pm AEST).

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