Stuart Tinney and Pluto Mio
“He was a little bit tense in there which was a bit of a shame, he was working really well outside” said Stuart Tinney after a test which scored 56.8 and left them at the lunch break in 42nd place. Pluto Mio raised his head and looked around at the crowd at the beginning of the test and from there he seemed to tense up, causing problems in the walk and collected canter
“Some of his trot work was nice but we lost a couple of changes so it was really mixed, some good stuff and some not to good stuff!” said Stuart
It certainly wasn’t what the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist was hoping for on the 18 year old Pluto Mio who has been pulling in scores of high 30’s and low 40’s in recent times but the experienced Australian campaigner knows that it is time to put this behind him and focus on the cross country
“It’s a big track, it’s much more technical than we were expecting and it’s really going to take some riding. I’m looking forward to it, I think it’s a really nice track but there’s a lot of circling to do and time is going to be really tight”
“Sydney was the last time it was really tough. Then when we went to the new format in Athens that was the first time they softened the cross country course and they’ve been softer tracks ever since but now we’re back to a tougher course”
And is he going to take all the direct routes? “At the moment I’m planning to!”
