Harold Boisset opens Autumn MET 2016 with top honors in the Grand Prix
As the Autumn MET 2016 kicked off this week, Harold Boisset continued where he left off at the Spring Tour earlier this year: On a winning streak.
The 28-year-old French rider won sixteen competitions during the Spring Tour-edition of the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour, and is already well underway to achieve the same at the Autumn MET as he has opened week one of the Tour with no less than six victories only to add the Grand Prix to the record as well today when he steered Quolita Z to top honors in Oliva.
The 1.45m CSI2* Grand Prix presented by Grupo CHG had several world-class riders lined up to test their skills over Alan Wade’s thirteen fence track. Not a cloud could be seen on the blue sky, and with warm and sunny Spanish weather the conditions for horses and riders were perfect as the competition got underway.
In the end thirteen of the 62 riders in the class produced clear rounds, and moved on to the jump-off. “There are many good riders and horses here, so I thought that we would have around 15-17 in the jump-off,” Boisset said afterwards. “It was a well build course though; technical but fair to the horses.”
It was not until the ninth rider arrived in the ring for the jump-off that the crowds would witness a clear round. It came from Israel’s Danielle Goldstein who rode a beautiful and fast round on her new mount Lizziemary, a horse she has quickly formed a bond with. The two already have one CSI2* Grand Prix win under their belt despite their short partnership, and today they were close to recording one more – if it had not been for Boisset beating them by the tiniest of margins as next to go.
“Before I went in, it was just one double clear – posted by Danielle. However, I did not see her round. When I went into the ring I decided that I would ride to be clear, I did not want to go really fast but I was determined to tighten my turns to save some time. Actually, I thought I was a bit quicker then I really was – when I crossed the finish line it was only 0.09 seconds in between us so I was also a bit lucky to be in front today,” said a happy Boisset following his lap of honor.
About his fantastic horse Quolita Z, a tiny 10-year-old mare by Quasimodo Z x Ramiro that does sometimes seem to measure smaller than the fences she is jumping, Boisset said: “She is naturally fast and very willing, so she would always give me a good time. Quolita is super careful, and made for jumping – but sometimes she wants to do a bit too much so she can end up rushing. Then she can make a mistake, which was the case in Friday’s ranking class.”
“Today she was really in top shape and easy to ride, so I am very happy with her,” Boisset continued about the horse that has provided him with some big wins this season.
Harold Boisset is a regular visitor at the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour, and revealed that there are several factors that keep bringing him back – not only the fact that he wins a lot while in Oliva. “First of all the climate is very nice, although not so different from the south of France where I am based. However, the infrastructure here is much better than the shows I have access to where I live. Also, I always have a big amount of young horses and the Tour here enables me to bring them on – for the Autumn MET I have brought fourteen horses,” Boisset detailed. “I hardly do any indoor shows, I start up outdoors at the Spring MET at the beginning of the year and finish off here as well stretching the season outside. The quality of the footing and the rings here are second to none, and I always have a good show here so why stop to come?” Harold Boisset laughs.
Completing the top five in today’s Grand Prix was home rider Antonio Mariñas Soto on Cash and Go in third place, while Great Britain’s Jessica Dimmock produced the last double clear of the day aboard Cybel II to end fourth. Friday’s ranking class winner Alexander Butler from Ireland finished fifth with one fence down in the jump-off.
Full results can be found here.