Lyndal Oatley & Sandro Boy Post Highest Ever Australian CDI Grand Prix Score

Lyndal Oatley and Sandro Boy. File photo © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

Lyndal Oatley rode Sandro Boy to the highest ever Grand Prix score for an Australian international combination when the pair were awarded 72.800 per cent at the Sweden International Horse Show World Cup Saturday.

The score to place Lyndal and the 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding fifth beat their previous best of 72.680 per cent, and the previous high result for an Australian, at Deauville, France in July, 2014 that was a qualifier for the Australian team at the World Games in Normandy.

The 35-year-old Lyndal who is based in Germany with her Swedish Olympic team rider husband Patrik Kittel, began riding Sandro Boy, owned by her parents, in 2011. The pair were on the Australian team at the Olympics in London in 2012.

“We are constantly learning what we can do better,” said Lyndal who is seeking to ride for Australia at the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden next March.

“Patrik is, as always, putting his heart and soul into developing us and I am so fortunate for this.

“We have been flirting with this higher score for a while so it is nice to put in a soft, smooth and accurate test in a crowd atmosphere.”

She told dressage-news.com that Patrik helped her warm up until the last minute when he had to prepare for his ride on Watermill Scandic.

Mads Hendeliowitz, another Swedish rider who had already ridden and is familiar with Sandro Boy, then stepped in to help.

And unusual for Lyndal she had her own groom that allowed her to prepare properly for the ride.

“Sandro Boy needs quite a specific plan to prepare for a show before I ride with peeling and walking,” she said, “and when all this falls into place then we can do our best. Today was such a day.”

She was also lucky. she said, as Kyra (Kyrklund, the Swedish team coach and who has worked with Lyndal, “has really installed some great fundamentals with me. I think about it often and it’s so lovely to have her always around to bounce off ideas and talk details. I am very lucky for that.”