Indoor Brabant

The 41st Indoor Brabant is the final World Cup qualifier for the jumping tour, which ends with the Final on the third weekend of April in Gothenburg, Sweden. The show features the full line-up of top 10 riders in the FEI World Ranking. Indoor Brabant is also the World Cup Dressage Final in the 2007/2008 Dressage World Tour.

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Mikael and Noora are attending the show with 3 horses. Noora is riding her new companion, the 14 year old Libero H mare Evli Maike and Mikael's horses are Nandele and Isaac du Jonquet. The first classes are due on Friday - look back for our reports.

Friday

 To start with the bad ones; unfortunately Mikael’s Isaac didn’t feel good in Friday’s warm-up and the decision was made to withdraw before the start. Mikael told the horse felt nervous and not at all the typical Isaac he knows. The unfortunate conclusion (and decision) was made to promote the horse’s uncompromised wellbeing and will mean that Mikael won’t jump either in Sunday’s world cup.

The good news is concerning the future and both Mikael’s Nandele and Noora’s Evli Maike went well. Mikael and Nandele had a small mistake on a combination’s a part, to which a short turn left them a little close. Mikael told the mare starts to feel very confident with him and is getting much more relaxed than initially on the course.

Noora’s told her first ever course with Evli Maike was probably equally exciting for horse and rider alike. The first small mistake came on the 1-2 distance and Noora assumed she left the horse a little alone. Thereafter she upped the pressure somewhat, which took them a little deep on a fence on the last line. All-in-all a good start and now they most of all need some more common mileage to get the final trust and control in place.

 Saturday and Sunday

After Friday's hardship with Isaac, the foremost task that remained was to build up the relationship with the two mares. Mikael jumped with Nandele an unhurried round on Saturday and the capable mare did flawless job. For Sunday Mikael upped the pace one minor knot, and horse and rider came back with nice placing in the 1m50 Accumulator. According to Noora, they are feeling increasingly confident about Nandele and hope to soon move up to even more demanding tasks.

Noora and Evli Maike had an exciting, but on the other hand an uneventful weekend. Noora thought Saturday's course was most satisfying, but naturally it will anyhow take its time to find the right approach to all situations. Noora had earlier jumped the mare only at home, but told that the biggest challenge is not any differences at shows, but rather learning how the horse reacts to any given situation. The technical and demanding courses are full with situations in which each horse requires an individual approach; learning how to ride any given task with a new horse is what will take time and offers few if any shortcuts. The next show for Noora and Evli Maike will be in the exotic Qatar, to where the mare will start its flight on Monday.

's-Hertogenbosch website:

1. Indoor Brabant

Result Service:

1. Results LIVE

Video feed from non-world cup classes:

1. Video feed 

Noora's and Mikael's classes:

1. Results summary

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