Thursday, 26 August 2021
The final class in the individual section of the para equestrian at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics was the Grade 3, which meant it was Natasha Baker’s chance to shine with her newest equine star, Keystone Dawn Chorus. They set the Bajikoen arena alight with a score of 76.265%, which gave them silver in their first championships performance together.
The first to go, Barbara Minneci for Belgium, set the early target with her new championship ride, Stuart, who she rides side saddle – they scored 70.835%, but were quickly over taken by Rixt van der Horst from the Netherlands with her partner Findsley. This duo have World and European championship medals to their credit and were certainly riding with the aim of adding a Paralympic prize to complete the set. They posted 75.765%, setting the bar quite high for the rest of the competitors.
Natasha Baker and Rixt have always had one of the sport’s notorious friendly rivalries, but this was the first time they’d gone head-to-head with Natasha partnering new ride, Keystone Dawn Chorus, owned by herself, Joanna Jensen, Christian Landolt and dad Phil Baker.
There was a moment of intake of breath when ‘Lottie’ spooked at a speaker just before going into the arena, but the duo were quickly firmly focused the job at hand. The test had a pleasing fluency and was a picture of harmony despite the fact that Lottie and Natasha are such a young partnership, having come together in March 2019, just as COVID struck. The British-bred mare by Dimaggio tried for her rider and Natasha had a smile throughout as the movements progressed.
They halted to end their round and it was huge pats of thanks for Lottie, who’d not put a foot wrong. The confirmed score was 76.265% – enough to go into the lead and a huge achievement on such a grand stage in only their fourth international together.
An elated Natasha said after the test: “I feel a little overwhelmed – it’s crazy that it’s actually happening! I’m so, so happy with Lottie [Keystone Dawn Chorus] out there. She did me proud.
“She had a little spook when I went past a speaker when I went in – she doesn’t normally do that, but I just tried to give her as much confidence in the arena as I could. I don’t think it was the best test we’ve done this year, but the most important thing is she went in there and let me ride her. I gave her a nice, confidence-giving round. Remember, it’s the first time she’s been out of the UK, it’s by far the biggest arena she’s been in and I’m just so proud of how she’s dealt with it. She’s been amazing.
“We’ve done our best to prepare in the circumstances we’ve been given. All of the horses in my class have done previous championships and they’ve been into big atmospheres, they’ve travelled. Every thing for Lottie has been new – I’m happy we were able to go in and deliver that performance.
“Today has given me the confidence to ask for more next time. I kind of cruised her round that test and the team test is actually her better test, where I’ve scored higher in this year. We’re lacking competition experience so I just look to keep improving. I don’t think if I was here 12 months ago, I’d have got 76%, but since March this year we’ve really become more established once we could start competing again. Each time out we’ve just got that little bit better, so you could say today was a little bit of a back step from where we were at Hartpury, but that’s fine.
“She’s so generous, kind and loving, there’s not a bad bone in her body. She’s so brave and confident – I am so grateful to my owners Joanna and Christian for enabling me to ride and compete such an incredible horse. She just gives me the best feeling – I’ve been able to do things on her that I haven’t been able to do on any of my other horses. I’ve cantered her around the farm, I did the same around the track at quarantine in new surroundings – she’s just the kindest person. I think having the time out during COVID and just focusing on us was amazing.”
The next threat was the ‘new kid on the block’, 21-year-old Tobias Thorning Jorgensen from Denmark with the eye-catching mare Jolene Hill. This duo impressed at the 2019 FEI European Championship with gold medal performances and there was little doubt they’d used their COVID layoff wisely. The test flowed well and was pin-point accurate to the very last halt – but was it enough? The final score was announced as 78.971% and the lead now belonged to Tobias, a position he held on to for the remainder of the class.
This meant it was silver for Natasha and Lottie, giving Natasha a sixth Paralympic medal and what looks to be their first of many as a partnership.
After the ceremony, Natasha told the media: “Oh my goodness! It feels really surreal to be honest. I didn’t have any expectation coming out here. I just wanted to give her a confidence-building test and let her enjoy and embrace it. I could not be more proud. The outcome always takes care of itself and all I could do was ride the best test in those circumstances, and that’s exactly what I did. Luckily enough, it was good enough for a silver.
“It’s amazing to be here at my third Paralympics. It’s been such an amazing year and to be able to come out and do it on another horse is just really, really special to me. She’s so talented and I’m so lucky to have her, she just means the world to me.”
Thoughts now turn to the team competition which runs over the next two days and Natasha reports that they are ready for the challenge. “The team is feeling great. We’re up against some really experienced teams on horses that have had championship experience but to get the results that we’ve had so far is just insane. We’ve got no expectations so we’re just going to go out there and give our horses a good ride, then, what will be, will be.”