‘I looked up and took it in’: British-based rider gets Australia’s Olympic dressage campaign under way

Jayden Brown has got Australia’s Olympic dressage campaign under way in the grand prix at the Paris Games this morning (30 July).

Competing in group A, Jayden scored 68.99% with Terry Snow’s Hanoverian gelding Quincy B in the opening day’s grand prix. 

Paris 2024 is Jayden’s first Olympics and the British-based rider took a moment to soak up the atmosphere as he rode down the centre line with Quincy B, who is one of the younger horses in the field aged 10.

“I looked up and took it in, and then onto the job,” said Jayden.

Jayden was pleased with his score, especially with Quincy B being an “incredibly spooky” horse. The pair performed a pleasing test under the Parisian heat, with the highlights being the pirouettes, earning them a number of 8s. A mistake with the first flying change cost them marks, as did the one-time tempi changes.

“I think without the mistakes, it would have been on track for what we’re sort of usually scoring. But just those little glitches crept in and pulled it down,” he said.

“We just had an early change at the end of the extended canter, and a little mistake in the ones, so it’s a little annoying. They are normally things that we can do pretty well, but he was good and the atmosphere didn’t get to him too much so I’m just super happy with him.”

The temperature has risen in Paris so Jayden gave Quincy B a gentler warm-up with the heat in mind.

“He’s a really big, solid horse so heats up much quicker than the lighter builds do. I did a lot more softening him in the walk, rather than doing too much of the hard work,” said Jayden. “I definitely would have preferred a cooler day, but that’s what you get.”

Jayden Brown on his Olympic dressage campaign

Jayden has been based in Gloucestershire for the past couple of years as he prepared for the World Championships in 2022 (with Sky Diamond) and Paris. He trains with Carl Hester and his Australian coach Jenny Gehrke.

“From the beginning it’s very much been a collaboration of a lot of people’s hard work,” said Jayden, who brought Quincy B and Sky Diamond over from Australia to the UK.

“We sort of set a goal of riding at the Olympics and said, ‘If we’re going to make it happen, we need to train with the best’. We knew we had a pretty young horse, and it all came together in the end.”

The grand prix acts at the qualifying competition for both the grand prix special (for the team medals) and the grand prix freestyle, which decides the individual medals. The top two from each group in the grand prix, along with the next six highest overall ranked pairs, advance to the freestyle.

This morning’s group A session has concluded, with Jayden and Quincy B, in seventh at the moment of 10 combinations. Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg tops the group with Zepter on 78.03%, and Carl Hester posted 77.35% with Fame, for third in the group.

Jayden’s teammates, William Matthew with Mysterious Star, and Simone Pearce with Destano, will ride their grand prix tests on the second day of Olympic dressage tomorrow (30 July). William at 12pm (11am UK time) and Simone at 2.42pm (1.42pm UK time).

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