Watch and enjoy. Sigh. And he’s 8 years old! I imagine him in another year or two when the piaffe is stronger and it blows my mind. https://fb.watch/c_HnF_BkCt/
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That first piaffe was… jeez, why is a 7yo doing GP? Edit: Sorry, he’s 8. Not sure why I thought he was 7!
Nice horse, hope AH doesn’t brutalise him like Akeem.
I saw a video of this horse a few days ago from the stallion show. Disco lights, doof doof music… it was a rave.
I’d like to see this horse with someone like Carl or Charlotte or Steffan or Jessica vBH, allowed time to develop instead of being turning into a Toto v2.0 Party Piece.
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Reminds me of when Zonik came out with Gal. I guess we’ll see.
I’m sure it is very wrong of me, but that horse was so “springy” it made me laugh.
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He does remind me of those lambs or goat kids you see… booinga booinga booinga.
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A typical description from Ken Braddick:
The scores were the highest for first CDI Grand Prix and Special results by any of the horses that went on to become No. 1 in the world since Edward Gal and Totilas in 2009 who logged 79.149% at Grand Prix in Rotterdam and 83.042% in the duo’s first Special, at the European Championships the same year.
Readability is not Ken’s strong suit, but I think he means:
The scores were the highest for a first CDI Grand Prix and Special since Edward Gal’s debut at those levels with Totilas at the 2009 European Championships (their scores were 79.149% for GP and 83.042% for GPS). Totilas and Gal later went on to become the World’s #1 pair in Dressage.
That said, I hope the horse stays sound under the pressure of being pushed to GP at such a young age, and I hope he continues to compete for Denmark.
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I think he means the debut scores were the highest for any horse that went on to become #1 in the world since Totilas. Sort of a prediction that Jovian could go on to become #1 at some point? A rather premature prediction all the same…
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Non-existent extension, swinging through in the one tempis, terrible piaffe. He has a short back and is clearly very uphill yet during the canter the hind leg never really reaches under. The horse can’t do anything in trot except some version of a passage.
I would think this horse started half steps in piaffe before passage was introduced. Now he can passage like a machine but can’t piaffe at all. The natural rhythm is gone. That screams bad/rushed training to me that will be very hard to fix.
Beautiful horse though…
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You are probably right. I wondered why the heck he felt the need to add that bit about “No. 1 in the world,” especially since it had a major negative impact on the readability of the sentence.
But as I said, readability has never been his strong suit as he seems more interested in trying to impress his readers with his “knowledge.” 
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I am certainly far from an expert, but the horses I have known with a tendency toward a passagey trot have been very difficult to retrain to produce a reliable “true trot.” But then, they haven’t had AH as a trainer/rider.
And I agree about the piaffe - he doesn’t really appear ready for GP competition. I’m guessing AH is trying to get the horse sold as a prospect for Paris 2024, which is why he is out “showcasing” him.
Hopefully this horse will figure things out as he develops and gains strength.
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A lovely type and appears very rideable but his ability to sit is not good in movement requiring it: piaffe, canter pirouette etc. Every time he has to sit he instead goes on the forehand. I have watched him now for a few years and at 8 I am not sure that will change much. Training or conformation? Both I think. There appears to be a trade off in breeding between that kind of movement and the ability to really sit, carry weight behind and flex the hind leg with slow strength. Maybe it is structural I don’t know. I think the score is ridiculously high.
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Lovely stallion. I hope he stays sound.
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He is now second place at Aachen with a test score of 74.7% for a test in which he does not do one single step of true piaffe, cannot differentiate the collected trot from passage many times and he and looks drunk in the one-tempis He is a nice horse and Andreas is a good rider but he is 8 and not ready for this level of GP competition and certainly not to win. Unless, I suppose all else are even worse.
What is the point of competition if this is how it’s scored on potential to maybe be ready for the Olympics next year? Or to get a nice sale price.
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Starting to feel like these huge gaits are like dressage Big Lick. Has been for a while I guess. My friend breeds and competes Lipizzans and will never score like that at GP regardless of how much better their educated, collected work is.
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An interesting article from a retired FEI 4* judge re Jovian
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Excellent article, thanks for sharing.
There is some good insight about Jovian’s Aachen GP in the last paragraph of this article.
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Good to know I saw the same things as such an esteemed judge! And also interesting how she described good gaits as rescuing a poorly performed movement in the scores.
I think the scoring needs an overhaul. In my mind the quality of the gaits should only be used to distinguish between horses who have performed the movements correctly and has evenness: forwardness, collection etc. If the horse does not do the movement at all (Jovian in piaffe) the fact they are a nice mover should not rescue their score.
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I am no upper level rider but to my uneducated eye, an awful lot of the piaffe shown in the GP doesn’t seem correct. I see a lot of horses who look like their forelegs are planted with the croup bouncing up and down, hind and fore coming equally off the ground, or even hind coming higher than fore. And I mean established horses with several seasons at GP, horses in big international events, not just a youngster like Jovian, who I hope will continue to develop more strength and balance in future seasons.
No these piaffes aren’t getting great marks, usually 6 or 7, but should a piaffe that doesn’t meet the basic description set out in the FEI rules be deemed “satisfactory” or “fairly good?” I honestly don’t know the answer. But if it is satisfactory to piaffe like that (and it does seem so the way tests are scored) then the FEI description of the movement needs to be updated. If it is deemed unsatisfactory, then there has to be consensus in the judging community that such a piaffe earns no higher than a 4 or 5.
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Agree. At the risk of sounding like a biddy, I HATE the trend of starting horses at 2 so that they can do the four year old tests and be grand prix by the age of 7. Even if they are so naturally gifted, like Jovian, they are not mature or mentally mature. The horse is phenomenal, but he should not be asked to do this yet.
And the judges suck for rewarding it.
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