Pawel Spisak and Banderas on cross country at Strzegom 2017
Pawel Spisak’s horse Banderas sadly was not accepted at the second horse inspection of the European Championships this morning but Pawel has done a power of good for Polish eventing during the past few days
Their performance at the Championships had been impressive to this point; 25th after the dressage (43.40) they moved up to 11th place after the cross country with just 0.40 time penalties to be the highest placed Polish rider on both days
36 year Pawel has competed at four Olympic Games, including Rio 2016 on Banderas, the 10-year-old Polish-bred gelding he has produced from 1* level, but he has recently found new motivation, and honed his skills, thanks to a new coach. The coach is none other than Michael Jung who has been by Pawel’s side throughout this event
“Michael is not only a fantastic rider, fantastic sportsman but also a great person and he has given me the motivation to go forward”
As Pawel explains in our interview there was a small to injury to Banderas in the stable on cross country morning which caused no problem on Saturday but may be the reason that Banderas did not pass the second trot up on Sunday
Hopefully Pawel will continue his current form as we would love to see more of him on the circuit. Not only is he performing well but he is charming, a great ambassador for Polish eventing (and he sounds like Rafael Nadal!)
Pawel Spisak
Coach Michael talks with Pawel after his dressage test
