Vigo is the second last leg of the current FEI Rolex 2007/2008 World Cup Tour. Vigo in Spain is located at the southern shore of the Ria of Vigo, which is the most magnificent and spectacular ria of Galicia. Vigo is an extensive and populous town in Galica, with approximately 350.000 inhabitants along 12 km of its coast. Vigo is the single most important fishing harbour of Europe, yet this weekend all our focus is on Mikael and jumping.

Sunday: Revenge from the World Cup mishap, Sunday's Grand Prix gave 4th place.

Mikael's horses travelled directly from Bordeaux to Vigo, so will se now again Isaac du Jonquet, Vanity and Quinault in the action. The qualifying class is as usual on Friday and the Vigo World Cup round is jumped on Saturday eve - look back for our updates.

Friday

Mikael enjoyed the climate in Spain and told it was a joy to train and stay in Vigo. The horses felt good and he was to proceed with the same scheme as in the two previous shows; Isaac du Jonquet would have an easy warm-up type task on Friday and Vanity would do the more demanding World Cup qualifier. For Quinault there weren’t any classes on Friday, but the stallion would jump on Saturday. Quinault is more a hope for incoming season and for the moment Mikael is focusing on strengthen the physique and psyche of the capable, but ever so complex horse.

Mikael did on Friday a clear round with Isaac on 1m45 level and all looks good in that sense. With Vanity Mikael pushed for a serious result in the 1m50 WC qualifier, but unfortunately had to settle with the fastest 4-faulter. Good try!

Saturday

The World Cup was once again a nerve tearing experience. So close, yet so far away was the success on Saturday. It was the last rail of the last fence, which fell. Mikael told all went well for him and Isaac all the way to the last fence, which they also jumped really well – at least he first thought so – until the sound of a falling rail caught his ear and instantly spoiled the upbeat with waive off utter disappointment and disbelief. Isaac had apparently ever so lightly touched the oxer’s hind rail  with his front hoof – a rare, but costly mistake of the normally so careful horse.

Sunday

For Sunday Mikael went for one more try and decided to give the Grand Prix a shoot. He changed Vanity for Isaac after the warm-up and decided also to try a normal bit instead of the hackamore they usually use with Isaac.

And Mikael took revenge from Saturday! He did with Isaac a neat double clear effort in Vigo’s Grand Prix and placed eventually fourth, 1,02 seconds behind winning Thomas Frühmann.  Mikael was happy about the Grand Prix placing, but told he did actually try to win… Mikael told that first he missed an attempt to leave out a stride on a related distance and had to put in an additional stride to save the situation. They came rather close, which resulted in a “slowish” jump. Then a second stride was lost for the last fence, a big vertical with a water mat. Mikael galloped flat out, but the winning horse and rider did on stride less on the same distance. Well, quite satisfying anyhow..!   

Official website:

1. Vigo CSI-W 2008

Results service:

1. Vigo LIVE

 FEI World Cup:

1. Current standings

Mikko's results in Vigo:

1. Results summary 

More FP news articles