Reynolds’ New Year focus on Tokyo target

Dressage rider Judy Reynolds made her first appearance in this year’s FEI World Cup qualifying series in Mechelen, Belgium at the weekend with Vancouver K where she finished in fifth place, but yesterday the Germany-based Kildare rider maintained that her focus for the year ahead is aimed beyond the annual championship and fixed on getting to Tokyo 2020.

The FEI World Cup is a yearly competition for individual dressage riders and show jumpers.

This year’s final takes place in Gothenburg in April and riders can contest six qualifying rounds with their best four results counting, but for Reynolds there are only three venues left at this stage of the season for her to add to the twelve points she earned in the Belgian round.

“Obviously it was a later start to the series than we had originally hoped for,” she told the Irish Examiner.

“I would like to do a couple of more rounds. At the moment I’m waiting to see if I can get an entry for Amsterdam so we’ll see how that works out and see if we can do another round after that, but our main focus already is on Tokyo.”

With Vancouver K, known as JP, having just turned 17, the year ahead will be managed carefully.

“We don’t want to be doing too much with him. We want to pick and choose our shows.

Obviously to do a World Cup Final would be great in that process because it would help us qualifying (for Tokyo) in terms of the points that would be on offer.

She missed all of last year’s World Cup series after the horse picked up an injury. The previous year they finished fourth in the final which was staged in Omaha, USA.

“I’d certainly love to do another one,” she said.

Outside of the World Cup series Reynolds is considering the five-star fixture in Doha, Qatar in March, and this year’s European Championships in Rotterdam in August will be a big part of the picture.

“The Europeans are a very important part of the qualifying process. Our ultimate goal would be to have a team qualified, and that would have to happen at the Europeans.”

She feels that with the slight increase in the number of Olympic team places on offer, Ireland have a chance.

“It would be fantastic if we could manage that. It’s not impossible. Everybody would need to be putting in their best performances, but it’s definitely what Dressage Ireland should be working towards.

"Obviously alongside that I will be working towards having an individual qualifying place if necessary.”

Her weekend appearance with Vancouver K was her first outing since the World Equestrian Games in North Carolina in September at which she became the first Irish rider ever to progress to the Freestyle final - a joy which was short-lived as the event was cancelled due to the weather.

“We hadn’t previously done anything close to that at a world championships so I was very disappointed that we weren’t going to have a chance again to show what we could do on that stage.”

One of the hardest things for Reynolds was that, while Vancouver K is in the picture for Tokyo, the next world championships will be beyond him.

“I was very disappointed for him and for us obviously as well. There are other championships, but every one is unique.”

That said, she muses that JP sometimes behaves like a much younger horse.

“At Mechelen at the weekend he was 16 going on 4, but at some point he won’t be able to compete at that level.

He’s still number one, no questions about that. There will be a bit of a gap after that so we’re always open to new horses, new owners, new ideas.”

Having been deprived of the chance to showcase her new Freestyle routine in North Carolina, Mechelen was the first competitive showcase and they scored 78.570%.

“You never know the first time you go out and ride it how it is going to run, so I was very happy with how it went. It was also JP’s first indoor start since Omaha (April 2107) and they are different to doing the outdoor shows.

"I was happy with how he coped. He was a little excited but happy to be there. We had a couple of blips but I’m sure the Freestyle will get into the 80s (percentage scores).”

The remaining Dressage World Cup qualifiers take place in Amsterdam later this month, Neumunster (Germany) in February and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands) in March.