After a self-confessed long time in the making, Sweden’s Louise Etzner Jakobsson landed her first gold medal, in the individual grade IV at the European Para Dressage Championships, on Thursday 4 September.
Louise and 14-year-old gelding Goldstrike BJ scored 72.92% to take the top spot in the grand prix A test, at the 65-year-old grandmother-of-four’s 10th championships.
“It took a while!” said Louise, with a twinkle in her eye. “His name is Goldstrike, so it was about time to take the gold medal.”
But Louise is no stranger to success, she won two bronzes at Rio in 2016 with former ride Zernard, and she and Goldstrike won an individual silver at Tokyo. They were out of the medals last summer in Paris, but they have been putting the work in, honing their craft – and it paid off in Ermelo.
“The canter has always been very good. I’ve been working with the trot for a couple of years now, and that was the happiest thing about my test,” said Louise after her medal-winning ride.
“I looked back at the test and the trot looked so nice. He was doing so well, the hard part was that he was very excited. It’s a difficult atmosphere for him, he can be afraid of cameras and different things, but now that we know each other so much more I feel that he trusts me. I can pat him and say ‘It’s ok’.”
Louise got Goldstrike shortly before Tokyo, with the Paralympics in mind.
“A friend had a contact in the Netherlands, and found him. We went and tried him during the pandemic,” said Louise.
“I thought this could be something, but I’ve had a lot of work to do. I taught him piaffe and passage and that’s helped improve his trot. He’s become much stronger and the trot has much more cadence. He’s very educated and he’s very proud when he does his canter work.”
Louise said Goldstrike has a “friendly character”.
“He loves when you scratch him, and he wants to scratch me back,” she said.
“He always wants to do his best, and it’s become easier as he trusts me more. It’s just about imagining that we are riding at home when we are in a competition.”
Louise added that her first gold medal hasn’t sunk in yet.
“It’s very special because I have a lot of help from my family,” she said.
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