Young Para-dressage talent Tobias Thorning Jørgensen: “My ultimate dream? Competing with my mother at the WEG in Herning”
For many riders present this weekend at Equestrian Centre The Peelbergen, this CPEDI is an important observation-moment towards the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. The talented, twenty-one year old Danish rider Tobias Thorning Jørgensen is already ensured of a place in the Danish Paralympic team. That doesn’t make him any less nervous though: “Every show I attend I’ve got a healthy bit of tension to perform the best I can, and a little bit more”, Tobias smiled to our DigiShots-reporter. This weekend he’s riding the thirteen year old grey Jolene Hill, just like he did when he won the Grade III individual gold medal and Freestyle at the European Championships in Rotterdam in 2019. Back then though, he only rode Jolene Hill for a mere two months. “She’s a proper mare. She can easily get offended, but when you value her worth and give her more then enough trust, she’ll do everything for you”, he says about his Blue Hors Schufro Hit-mare, out of a Windsor-mother.
Tobias used the Corona-period to get to know his mare better, which he put to good use yesterday. “The tension was a little high, but today we recovered from that. I managed to give her more trust in the test today.” And that worked out very well: his effort today was rewarded with an unanimous first score from the three judges and a total percentage of 78,383.”
“Para-dressage shows feel like a second home to me. I pretty much grew up with this style of life and its riders”, Tobias says. His mother, Line Thorning Jørgensen, is a very experienced para-dressage rider. She competed in three Paralympic Games in 2004, 2008 and 2012. At this moment Line rides the talented six year old Hoejgaardens Zackzimo (v. Blue Horse Zack). She started this gelding in his first international competition in April this year in Waregem. As you can imagine Tobias is incredibly proud to be selected for the Danish Paralympic team for Tokyo. “It’ll be my first Games: I’m incredibly happy I get to do this together with my mother, who’ll be present as my trainer.”
Competing at the Olympics sounds like everyone’s ultimate dream, but there’s one goal that’s probably even higher on Tobias’s bucket list: “I’d absolutely love to ride in a team together with my mother at the World Equestrian Games next year in Herning, which is only twenty kilometers from our home. “
