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| Catherine Haddad Flips Over Her Performance in s"Hertogenbosch CDI - Haddad Aims for World Cup Wild |
| March 25, 2007 | |
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Editor's note: DressageDaily has been following the quest of one American rider in Europe to compete for the United States at the Las Vegas World Cup Final for Dressage. Whatever the decision to select a wild card for the USA, we wish her well, and thank her for keeping us up to date in spite of her busy life. Here's Catherine flipping pancakes the morning after! Mary Phelps "To all of you hopeful dressage competitors out there, think about this: I sat in the stands (watching) at last year's World Cup Final in Amsterdam. That was one year ago. This year, I RODE the final in Europe! And I made the top 12!! Yes." Catherine Haddad Hello to Everyone! Mary has been after me for months to write a "dish" about my travels and experiences on the World Cup Tour this winter in Europe. I had a lot of stories to tell and wanted to share everything but had a really hard time finding a single quiet moment to sit at the computer and write this. Now it is the morning after Den Bosch and the Western European League Final. I have nothing on my agenda today except for cooking pancakes at noon for the whole group of friends who surprised me with a "victory" party last night. Firstly, THANK YOU to all my fans and supporters who wrote to me over the winter with congrats and encouragement. I hope you were all satisfied with the one line emails I sent in return! Sorry I couldn't spend more time on the replies. Sometimes when I get home from a show the "Inbox: 365 messages" sign on the computer just makes me turn a strange shade of blue. Secondly, Maximus was in true Gladiator form for the final at Den Bosch. I'm so happy that we were so well prepared because I got to the show, looked at the starting list after the draw, and had to sit down for a minute or two. I've competed against Europe's best all winter at every qualifier but I've never been up against all these great riders IN THE SAME COMPETITION! Whew. Maixmus pulled off 67.9% in the Grand Prix for 11th place. I have never experienced such a wave of relief in my whole life! Only 15 riders could qualify for the Final and we made it. I wasn't very happy with Grand Prix test--mostly because I let Maximus pull it off without much help from me. Our routine paid off in that we made no mistakes and put in our usual reliable performance. But we are both better than that and I just didn't make it happen. Too conservative! Not enough trust, not enough GO! Darn it. It was the Indian, not the Arrow.
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2007 March 2007 Catherine Haddad Flips Over Her Performance in s"Hertogenbosch CDI - Haddad Aims for World Cup Wild