– He can’t stand having the mares around him very well, because then there will be too many hormones. That’s what Isabel Freese says after she and the stallion Total Hope Old delivered the goods and certainly saw it when they were in action in the dressage arena at the Olympics – a stone’s throw from the palace in Versailles. Thus, Total Hope Old had to be kept away from the mare in the arena. Her stallion is what is called a covering stallion, which means that the horse is used for breeding. Then it is not ideal that a mare started, both before and after her. – I was afraid that the stallion would spend too much “power” on the warm-up on useless things, says Freese. HORMONES: It is difficult to keep focus for the covering stallion Total Hope Old when there are so many mares around him, but Isabel Freese managed to keep him under control. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP So therefore she sacrificed a good warm-up for fear of her stallion losing focus. Thus she took the horse out of the warm-up hall and into the hot sun, which normally would not have been an ideal warm-up. Still, she planned the move as best she could. – Yesterday I studied how the others went in and out, and how many seconds and minutes they had and how I could make it happen, she says. – Poor you Because there was no automaticity in Freese going on from the qualification, she was in the group of death. Several people had noticed that. – Everyone came to me and said poor you, says Freese. But she used it as motivation and went straight to the final with a personal best. – I had a great feeling all the way through, and it’s obviously fun when it happens here, says Freese to news. Freese’s performance was awarded 76.397 percent by the judges, which is a 2 percent improvement on her career best. In this context, it is a big leap. – What is this lady made of? Now she may have secured her place in the final. It is so raw that I have no words. Absolutely crazy, said Discovery expert Heidi Skar after Freese had been in action. – It was magical, added commentator Tormod Bakke Johnsen. – Is it possible? The dressage competition takes place a little to the west of Paris, in fairytale-like surroundings. For the public, this is the view of the Palace of Versailles as they watch the Olympic practice: BEAUTIFUL: It was on this track that Freese and the stallion Total Hope Old delivered the impressive score of 76.397, which is also a personal best. Photo: Martine Sørhus / news – It was really nice. It was great fun. I noticed quite early in the program that he is super nice, that he listens to me and that it fits. It was fantastic, says Freese to news. She is the first Norwegian dressage rider in an Olympic context since 2012. Then it was Siril Helljesen who mounted the horse and was very close to a final. She now allows herself to be impressed by Freese. – It is completely raw. She delivers her personal best when it really matters, she says and continues: – What she achieves is very great. She delivers a fantastically good percentage. When I saw it I thought “Oh, is that possible”, it’s really well done. BLID: The Olympic performance of Norwegian Isabel Freese makes the experts gape. The best two in each group went directly to the final on Sunday, and in addition the final field was filled up by the six other riders with the best scores. The percentage of the German-resident rider was high enough, and she is therefore among the 20 riders who will participate in the final. – The fact that a Norwegian rider gets such a high percentage is incredibly well done. There is no Norwegian who has managed it in such a championship, says the former Olympic rider, Helljesen. Tough pool Freese and the stallion found themselves in a tough pool, where they were joined by some of the world’s best riders. But that didn’t stop the Norwegian rider from impressing. – It worked for both of us, we are a team after all. I felt in good shape today, and managed to keep my nerves pretty much under control, Freese said after the competition. Former commentator Rita Morvik is aware of what this means for equestrian sport in Norway. – This means a lot for Norwegian dressage. I think it’s fantastically funny what she gets up to. It is quite a feat, and is the best thing that has been done in modern times, she says. Quite a debut for the 45-year-old and her stallion, Total Hope Old. In the final, Morvik is excited to see what the Norwegian can achieve. Published 31.07.2024, at 15.08 Updated 31.07.2024, at 21.38
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Norwegian Isabel Freese ready for the final in the Olympics in Paris – Olympics Paris 2024
