Invasor and Rafael Soto
This pair has competed for Spain since the beginning of Spanish Olympic dressage in 1996. Soto, an instructor at the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre in Jerez de la Frontera, and the then seven-year-old Invasor (Panadero VIII x Bravia IX), scored a 61 percent in their first Olympics Grand Prix test in Atlanta. They turned in markedly improved performances at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with scores ranging from 66.52 percent for the Grand Prix and 71.32 percent in the Grand Prix Freestyle, and ended up in 12th place in the individual dressage competition. At the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Invasor achieved a sixth place in individual dressage and
was integral to the Spanish team’s third place finish at the Games.
Then in Athens this year, the 15-year-old Invasor, characterized by dressage writer, Nancy Jaffer, as a “comfortable couch of a horse, an old-fashioned heavyset Andalusian,” produced the best Grand Prix test of his life. At the end of Grand Prix Round 1, Soto and Invasor were the leaders, posting an average score of 72.792 percent and paving the way for Spain’s team silver medal. Invasor ended the Grand Prix phase of the competition in seventh place.
