Pablo Barrios clears 7 foot 3 to win in Wellington

Pablo Barrios and G&C Quivola.
By sportfot.com

Venezuelan Pablo Barrios and Gustavo Mirabal's G&C Quivola were the sole duo able to clear the 7ft 3in Hermes puissance wall in Wellington (5 March 2011) to claim the class outright.

The class started with seven entries and all were clear in the first round. Germany's Andre Thieme (Aragon Rouet) faulted in round two, however, when the wall stood at 6ft (1.83m).



Three riders knocked top blocks off at 6ft 6in (1.95m) in round three, so Ireland's Shane Sweetnam (Traffic Boy), the USA's Aaron Vale (Charmer) and Australian Benjamin Meredith (Charme Z) all tied for fourth.

Penultimate round
Pablo returned for a fourth run at the wall along with fellow Venezuelan Gustavo Arroyo, riding G&C Tropigold. The wall was 7ft (2.15m) at this point and Pablo went first with G&C Quivola. They cantered slowly down to the wall and the big chestnut powered off the ground to clear the jump. Gustavo and G&C Tropigold followed suit and the class went a fifth and final round. However, Ireland's Paul O'Shea (Primo Level) got no further than this stage.


Raising the wall
Course designer Steve Stephens and his crew raised the puissance wall to an impressive 7ft3in (2.21m). As Pablo cantered by, only his head was visible on the other side of the wall. Once again, he showed the crowd how a puissance is cleared. Gustavo and G&C Tropigold put in a great effort and cleared with the front end, but the horse's hind end just caught the top of the wall. The blocks fell and they finished in second place.

Pablo is becoming known for his skill at riding in the puissance classes: last year he won three of them. He and G&C Sinatra were victorious in the puissance in the FTI WEF held at The Stadium and they tied for the win at the Dublin Horse Show. Riding G&C Blanchee Z, Pablo was also a winner at the Washington International Horse Show.

Although he would normally choose G&C Sinatra for the puissance, he felt that G&C Quivola would be able to perform well in this class.

"Sinatra has been doing so well in the Grands Prix that I didn't want to use him," he said. " I'm going to use him in the Grand Prix next week.

"Quivola is a very scopey horse who is seven, so is quite young, but you can feel the scope when you ride him. He's Gustavo's horse, but Gustavo [Mirabal] hurt his knee and that is why I got the opportunity to ride him.

"He began to jump better and better every round. I didn't expect to win because I didn't know exactly how the horse would react to a big wall like that, especially at night. His worst jump was the first round. After that he just continued to improve."

Pablo feels that a special class like the puissance is a great addition to the horse show.

"It's nice to win two years in a row. I love puissance." he said. "You see that the crowd gets excited. It's a class for them. They should do it every year. If I have a horse that can do this type of class, I will always put them in. It's good for the crowd; it's good for the sport."

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