Marcio Jorge and Lissy Mac Wayer lead the Event Rider Masters at Barbury
Getting ready for Rio – the gorgeous Brazilian rider Marcio C Jorge is already creating waves at Barbury
Brazil’s Marcio Jorge, the winner of the Olympic Test Event in Rio last year, scored a personal best on the 13 year old mare Lissy Mac Wayer to put him on top of the Event Rider Masters leader board at Barbury Castle
Márcio, a doctor and anaesthesiologist originally from Sao Paulo, celebrated with his family after completing a flowing test that showed great impulsion and was a delight to watch (watch Marcio’s test here, starting at 5:18:00)
His coaches, Mark Todd and Anna Ross were ‘thrilled’ with the test as they had implemented some new strategies in warming up the mare who is “such an expressive horse but can get hot” and Marcio himself was clearly emotional about the test they had put together
Marcio celebrating with his family
"She is very good and this means a lot. She's sensitive to ride, but we always knew she could perform a very good test. The big atmosphere in the arena today has been a good preparation for Rio and she tried so hard. It's great to have her feeling on song ahead of the Olympics."
Marcio overtook another late in the day rider, Sweden's Hedvig Wik, riding Chippie H, who also produced a strong dressage mark of 35.9. If the name Chippie H rings a bell, this is the horse that was previously ridden by Japanese rider and Buddhist monk Kenki Sato and is now competed by 23 year old Hedvig, who was formerly trained by Team GB's Olympic travelling reserve Pippa Funnell and is now based with Chris Burton
Watch Hedvig’s test here starting at 04:41:43
Andrew Nicholson, who has won the last four CIC three-star competitions at Barbury, lies in third place with his Olympic and World bronze medal winning horse Nereo (above) on 37.6
The riders show jump in reverse order today (Sunday) followed by the cross country phase, also in reverse order, which will be livestreamed here
