Mythilus Rules in the Intermediaire Division and King Hopes to Compete Him at Aachen as Well

"It was an incredibly difficult decision. No chance for a medal, King's long time trainer and mentor Lendon Gray told DressageDaily. "But it is an opportunity to compete against many of the best riders in the world, at Aachen CHIO."

Riding Mythilus, a 13-year-old Dutch gelding by Ferro owned by Richard Malloch, King competed in the trio of small tour High Performance classes and claimed victory in two out of three. In the FEI Prix St. Georges, King and Mythilus earned 73.250% for first place. In the FEI Intermediare I, King and "Myth" notched another victory, scoring 71.167%. Rounding out the small tour classes, King and Mythilus executed a dramatic FEI Intermediate Freestyle and scored an impressive 73.167%, but were just edged into second place by .803%.

"Mythilus I was thrilled with," King enthused. "Since coming home from California with him, he has had a major breakthrough in throughness and softness. He's been amazing. I went to the show saying, 'Okay, now it's time to take chances and push my boundaries to see what I can get at Gladstone. And that's what we did. Our risks paid off in the St. Georges - it was really good. In the Intermediaire, I went for a 9 on the extended canter and nearly got it, but my first half halt bringing him back caused him to swap behind and then he just got all flustered, so we had a couple little lines we really found the boundary not to push. It was well worth it."

King noted that Mythilus had outgrown the freestyle she had debuted this past winter in Florida. "The tempo was completely wrong, which I anticipated but not as dramatically, and the choreography was far too simplistic for him now," King explained. "We did it that way on purpose at the beginning of the season because frankly I wasn't at all certain I could get him around a St. Georges test at that point. But times have changed. I totally revamped the kur when I got home."

Officiating for all of the High Performances classes at the ESDCTA Memorial Day Weekend show were Axel Steiner (S), Lorraine MacDonald, and Lilo Fore.

"I felt very ready coming into Gladstone and very excited," King said after the Memorial Day show. While preparing for the championships with Coach Balkenhol at the Gladstone facility the week before the championships, King withdrew from the Pan Am Selection Trials due to the scheduling conflicts - the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, take place July 14-29, and the World Equestrian Festival CDIO3* in Aachen, Germany, will be held July 3-8. "I tried to figure out a way to do both, but it is not possible," King explained. King was qualified for the I-I championships with two horses - Mythilus and Rendezvous 3 owned by Francine Walker. King said she very much wanted to compete the two horses in the Championships, but that there was a silver lining to the decision to withdraw. "The good thing is that now I can start to gear them up for the Grand Prix," she said. "It was an extremely hard decision, but Klaus's advice was to do Aachen because one year before the Olympics it is very important to be in front of the European judges."