Sweet Sixteen

Team USA wins FEI World Equestrian Games dressage silver for the first time since 2002

 

2018 WEG team dressage silver medalists Kasey Perry-Glass, Adrienne Lyle, Steffen Peters, and Laura Graves of the USA with technical advisor and chef d'equipe Robert Dover. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

“They’ve worked very hard for this.”

Not that we had any doubts that the four members of the 2018 US World Equestrian Games dressage team had put in the time and the blood, sweat, and tears to get there; but there was the affirmation, standing next to me ringside for the dressage team medal ceremony at the FEI WEG Tryon 2018.

It was Diane Perry, Team USA member Kasey Perry-Glass’s mom and the owner of Perry-Glass’s WEG mount, Goerklintgaards Dublet. Between wielding her smartphone video camera to record the ceremony for posterity and exhorting “Dublet” to please keep all four feet on the ground, Perry was every horse-show mom writ large: proud, perhaps a little overwhelmed, adrenaline-fueled but tired from the long hours in the North Carolina heat and humidity, and already gearing up for her daughter’s next effort (asked whether they’d be celebrating tonight, Perry quickly replied: “Oh, no. We have a horse show tomorrow,” referring to the Grand Prix Special).

 

Group hug! Team USA's Debbie McDonald, Kasey Perry-Glass, Adrienne Lyle, and Steffen Peters embrace after watching Laura Graves clinch the team silver medal on Verdades, while sponsor Betsy Juliano and chef Robert Dover look on. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

It’s easy to forget, when we see our dressage idols on the covers of magazines, and when they and their entourages and their sponsorships and their celebrity make them seem larger than life, that top riders are daughters and wives and moms and dads—people who were endowed with a generous helping of talent and ambition and grit and of course luck, but also people who probably have a lot in common with those of you who are reading this. They love horses. They love riding. They love dressage. Watching Diane Perry cheer for her daughter as she stepped onto the WEG dressage medal podium for the first time, the glamorous medal ceremony suddenly felt very personal.

But competition at this international level isn’t really personal; it’s about national pride first and foremost, with glory for one’s team and one’s country superseding individual accomplishment. Although dressage is ultimately about one rider’s partnership with one horse, “top sport,” as the Europeans call it, is a machine the way NFL football is a machine: an industry and a very serious business while at the same time serving as entertainment and hobby for the spectator and fan.

 

German team gold medalist Isabell Werth and Bella Rose were the highest-scoring pair of the WEG Grand Prix team competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The German dressage machine has dominated the discipline for decades, and today was no exception. The team of Isabell Werth on Bella Rose, Sonke Rothenberger on Cosmo, Jessica Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB, and Dorothee Schneider on Sammy Davis Jr. swept the 2018 WEG dressage team competition with a total score of 242.950. Werth and her “dream horse,” Bella Rose, topped both her teammates and the entire field with their score of 84.829 percent in a largely flawless test marked by elegance and elasticity.

 

Top USA scorer Laura Graves and Verdades. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Last to go in the entire team competition was the most hotly anticipated pair of the largely American crowd: top-ranked US rider Laura Graves and her famous Verdades. They did not disappoint, laying down a powerful Grand Prix test marred only by “Diddy’s” slight spook at an FEI TV camera near C to earn a score of 81.537 percent, which put Graves second individually behind Werth. 

Graves’ usual sparkling smile seemed a bit dimmed during the medal ceremony, and at the press conference we found out why: She confessed to being “a little under the weather.” Here’s hoping she gets some needed rest and feels better for tomorrow’s GP Special—although she said that “adrenaline is an amazing thing” because as soon as she put her foot in the stirrup today, all else was forgotten.

Perry-Glass’s score of 76.739 percent was the second-highest of the US team, which clinched the silver medal on a team total score of 233.136.

“It felt great,” Perry-Glass said of her Grand Prix test afterward. “He was 100 percent in warm-up, and I really felt like he brought the power that we were looking for in the test.”

“He’s so sensitive,” Perry-Glass said of the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Diamond Hit x Ferro). “I had to figure out that balance between asking for more and not asking for too much. I think we’re really right on the cusp of being really great with that. 

“He has every opportunity to be up with Isabell and Laura,” Perry-Glass continued. Referring to their excellent finishes in Aachen this year, she said: “We’ve done it once before. I know we can do it again.” With tears welling, she said, “I’m going to cry because I love him so much.”

For a report on Team USA silver medalists Steffen Peters’ and Adrienne Lyle’s tests yesterday, click here.

Since the retirement of Charlotte Dujardin’s superstar mount Valegro, the dressage world has wondered whether Great Britain would remain among the top powers in the sport. The answer, as evidenced by today’s WEG team dressage bronze medal, is yes. 

 

Great Britain's Charlotte Dujardin and her new star partner, Mount St. John Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Dujardin, back on the international scene for the first time since winning individual gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics with Valegro, was Team GBR’s top scorer, earning 77.764 percent on the astonishingly young-yet-accomplished nine-year-old Hanoverian mare, Mount St. John Freestyle (Fidermark x Donnerhall). “Freestyle” handled the atmosphere in the US Trust Arena with ease, making just a few green mistakes—this was only Freestyle’s sixth Grand Prix—and Dujardin said afterward that the mare’s nickname of “Mrs. Valegro” is not an exaggeration.

“She has three very normal paces,” Dujardin said, “but when I started riding her, she has unbelievable trainability. And then her scope for what she can do: She can just put her legs wherever she wants! She’s so brave and she gives so much… She has the same attitude [as Valegro]: She goes in that arena, she’s not afraid of anything; she tries so hard. I know when she’s stronger and the mistakes aren’t there, it’s going to be very, very exciting. I think she may be as good as him one day. 

 

2018 WEG team bronze medalists Carl Hester of Great Britain on Hawtins Delicato. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Finishing just behind his most famous pupil was Carl Hester, also on a relatively inexperienced horse, the 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding Hawtins Delicato (Diamond Hit x Regazzoni). The stunning “Del” put in a lovely and elastic test with just a few bobbles to earn a score of 77.283. The British team was rounded out by Spencer Wilton on Super Nova II (74.581) and Emile Faurie on Dono di Maggio (72.795), for a team total of 229.628.

Said Hester afterward: “I said to Charlotte, with these young horses, we can’t compete them all around Europe and then fly them to a WEG and expect them to be on form. They would be exhausted. Our plan was to do the British shows and then come here. Having said that, I’ve had a week…it’s been a bit tense because the horse hasn’t really walked, he hasn’t really halted. Then this morning, one week later, we walked around the ring at 7:30 this morning on a loose rein; he walked around twice and I thought, I’m going to have a good ride today. And I did. He has such good paces, this horse. He might not be the superstar flash of some of the others, but he is so good with his hind legs, he has such a great walk.”

With that, the stage is set for an exciting start to the WEG individual dressage competition. Two medals are at stake—GP Special and GP Freestyle—and the Special kicks off tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. EDT. Watch on FEI TV or catch WEG dressage on NBC Sports' Olympic Channel.

For the New "Queen of Omaha," the Journey to the World Cup Dressage Final Was Werth the Trip

Germany's Isabell Werth and Weihegold OLD, the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final champions. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

She’s now known as the “Queen of Omaha”: Isabell Werth of Germany, living Olympic equestrian legend and winner of two previous FEI World Cup Dressage Finals, today added a third Final win to her dizzying long resume of international triumphs.

US FEI 5* dressage judge Anne Gribbons, who presided at C for the Grand Prix Freestyle final, likened Werth’s mount, the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare Weihegold OLD (Don Schufro x Sandro Hit), to a ballet dancer. “Weihe,” as Werth calls her, has a prowess for piaffe and passage that was unmatched by any other in the 14-horse field, Gribbons said afterward. The mare’s contact and connection in the bridle are also practically without peer thanks to Werth’s world-class training and riding, Gribbons said.

A record crowd of 8,578—the largest so far at these Dressage and Jumping Finals at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha—was on hand to watch Werth become the only competitor to top the 90-percent mark. She won the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final on a total combined score of 90.704 percent, with all seven judges—Gribbons, Maribel Alonso de Quinzanos (MEX), Raphael Saleh (FRA), Katrina Wuest (GER), Mariette Sanders van Gansewinkel (NED), Andrew Gardner (GBR), and Leif Tornblad (DEN)—placing Werth first.

 

Weihegold OLD's outstanding piaffe helped propel Isabell Werth to victory. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Werth’s freestyle, ridden to a pleasant but not compelling instrumental medley, had a degree of difficulty of 9.37, according to audio commentator and retired FEI 5* judge Axel Steiner. Although it wasn’t the most difficult freestyle of the competition—that honor goes to Judy Reynolds of Ireland, whose routine aboard Vancouver K has an eye-popping degree of difficulty of 9.78—it was certainly among the most difficult, and the points Werth racked up in the double-coefficient movements including the piaffe and passage put her test on top.

“I’m really proud of Weihe. She did a great job,” Werth said afterward. “She was so focused. She knew it could be her day today. Laura pushed me up to show the best we could show, and it worked. It was a fantastic atmosphere and a fantastic competition.”

Exulting after her own nearly flawless freestyle was second-place finisher Laura Graves on her own Verdades. The fifteen-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding’s (Florett As x Goya) tremendous power and strength perfectly suited his music, a series of themes football fans will have heard many times accompanying National Football League TV broadcasts.

 

Laura Graves and Verdades let it rip up their final center line. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Graves’ freestyle had a degree of difficulty of 8.91, according to Steiner. One crowd-pleasing sequence was a series of two-tempi flying changes on a curved line, followed by a diagonal straight line of one-tempis toward the corner marker, which produced spontaneous applause. And the sequence that Graves added at the end of the ride to amp up the difficulty—a piaffe “fan” to the left and right, with “Diddy” then erupting in a monstrous extended trot up the center line to the final halt and salute—had the audience cheering so loudly Graves said afterward she had to guess at when to halt because she couldn’t hear her music.

Graves was certainly the favorite of the primarily American audience, but her technical marks couldn’t quite catch Werth’s. She finished second on a score of 85.307 percent, with all judges placing her second except for one, who had her third behind the eventual third-place finisher, Great Britain’s Carl Hester on Nip Tuck (83.757).

 

Graves exults after her freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“I think I didn’t even realize how badly I wanted to win,” Graves said afterward. “I’m very competitive. When I saw the technical marks for Isabell’s ride go up and then [the broadcast crew] cut to a shot of the World Cup [trophy], I thought, ‘Oh, I want that so badly!’ To be honest, I was a little disappointed to come second, but as I said Thursday, coming second to Isabell, who’s number one in the world and has done this on so many horses, still feels an awful lot like winning.”

Nip Tuck, an enormous 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Don Ruto x Animo), was “bang on” with his instrumental music as Hester might put it. The music—I couldn’t identify it but it had that movie-score sound—had a pronounced percussive rhythm that perfectly matched “Barney’s” trot and piaffe/passage tempos.

 

Accuracy, relaxation, and correctness helped to put 2012 British Olympic team gold medalist Carl Hester and Nip Tuck on the World Cup Dressage Final podium in third place. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Hester had a few small bobbles in transitions, and the piaffe didn’t always “sit” behind. His final halt, which followed a sweeping half-pass zigzag, lacked crispness. But Barney’s work is so correct, and Hester has an incredible feel for contact. He also has an incredible way of managing his famously hot and spooky mount, and Barney appeared relaxed and totally focused. Afterward, Hester expressed complete satisfaction in the way his horse—who also hasn’t been eating well in Omaha because he misses his longtime travel buddy, Valegro, who is now retired—rose to the occasion and handled the electric atmosphere.

“If somebody says, are you disappointed to be third, how can I be disappointed in a horse that did his absolute best?” Hester said.

The USA’s Kasey Perry-Glass on Goerklintgaards Dublet (Diamond Hit x Ferro) finished seventh on a score of 77.068. Their Tom Hunt freestyle, to music from The Avengers and Lord of the Rings, featured “Dublet’s” piaffe and passage, including passage half-passes, a relaxed and expressive line of one-tempis, piaffe fans, and a difficult transition from passage to extended walk. (Steiner’s comment: “That’s what an extended walk should look like, with the horse stretching to the bit.”)

The judges varied in Perry-Glass’s placing: from as high as fifth (Gribbons, at C) to as low as tenth (Saleh, at E).

In ninth was the USA’s newest and youngest international dressage horse, Rosamunde, who finished on a score of 75.879. The experienced Steffen Peters (who won the World Cup Dressage Final in 2009 aboard the legendary Ravel) said his goal was to give the 10-year-old Rhinelander mare (Rock Forever x Fidermark) a good, solid experience to build on in the future. But it certainly wasn’t a beginner’s choreography: With a degree of difficulty of 9.4 and choreography including steep half-passes and transitions from canter pirouettes directly into piaffe, Peters wasn’t babying the talented mare. It is evident watching “Rosie” that she will grow into her astonishing ability to “sit” behind; currently she can get her hind legs so far underneath herself that she can “pedestal” in the piaffe and have some difficulty getting out of it.

Peters promised a surprise in today’s freestyle, and it came toward the end of his test, when the strains of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” rang out for the final piaffe/passage work. Fans of a certain age will recognize the music as from Peter’s championship freestyle with Ravel, and it served as a nice coda to the new music, which included a vocal passage from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” Afterward, Peters said he hadn’t been entirely happy with Rosie’s trot music, and so he decided to replace it with the portion of Ravel’s music inasmuch as it suited Rosie so well.

But today was Isabell Werth’s day to shine, and the German Olympian got the party started early when she playfully sprayed Hester and Graves with sparkling wine while on the podium—then took a deep pull from the bottle, gave drinks to her podium-mates, and then gave each of the horses’ grooms a swig.

 

World Cup Dressage Final champion Isabell Werth (center) sprays third-place finisher Carl Hester with sparkling wine after dousing second-placed Laura Graves. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“This night I think we will have [a party]!” Werth said afterward at the press conference. She had effusive praise for Omaha, World Cup Finals organizer Lisa Roskens, and the entire event; so it looks as if the USA has a lot to celebrate right along with the German champion.

It's Shaping up to Be an Isabell-Laura Showdown

Germany's Werth wins Grand Prix, with the USA's Laura Graves right behind

The queen of collection: Weihegold OLD's outstanding pirouettes and piaffe-passage tour put Germany's Isabell Werth on top in the World Cup Dressage Final Grand Prix. The photo captured the moment that Werth is making a transition from passage to piaffe, rocking the mare back on her haunches. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

For much of the afternoon, British Olympic team gold medalist Carl Hester and Nip Tuck looked untouchable in the Grand Prix, the first leg of the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha.

Hester’s score of 76.671% set the bar high, and it wasn’t until the last two riders that anyone was able to top it.

 

Great Britain's Carl Hester and Nip Tuck led in the Grand Prix until the last two riders. They finished third. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Dutchman Edward Gal, who won the Final in 2010 aboard Totilas, seemed Hester’s closest contender. But his score of 74.485% with Glock’s Voice put Gal in fourth place after the last of the 16 riders had gone.

Along the way, the USA saw strong scores from 2016 Olympians Kasey Perry-Glass on Goerklintgaards Dublet (who finished seventh on 73.828%) and Steffen Peters on his new partner, Rosamunde (eighth on 72.257%). “Dublet’s” test showed lovely harmony and relaxation, with accurate and correct work that prompted audio commentator and retired US FEI 5* dressage judge Axel Steiner to call the 29-year-old Perry-Glass “one of our up-and-coming stars.”

“I think she has what it takes to really move up” in the international standings,” Steiner said.

The almost ridiculously supple Rosamunde can flex her loins and hindquarter joints so much that she can “pedestal” in the piaffe, and one wonders if she can be a bit of a Gummy Worm in movements requiring straightness. Her tempi changes “swing” a bit—more noticeable in the twos—and she became a bit quick and frantic for a moment in the final piaffe/passage tour, probably a result of a momentary loss of balance. But it’s important to keep in mind that this mare is only 10 years old—and, as Steiner pointed out, Peters wasn’t really aiming her for this World Cup Final; he knows she needs to mature a bit, and she’ll be stronger, more experienced, and better by the time the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games and the 2020 Olympics roll around.

 

Although judge Katrina Wuest said Verdades has so much power that his straightness occasionally wavered, in this photo he appears arrow-straight with the USA's Laura Graves in piaffe on the center line. The top US pair was second in the Grand Prix. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

In today’s Grand Prix, however, both Perry-Glass and Peters took a back seat to the USA’s current number-one pair, Laura Graves and Verdades, who didn’t quite break the 80-percent barrier with their score of 79.800, which was good enough for second place. Graves put in a powerful and accurate test. There was one unsteady moment in the transition from passage to extended walk, and from my vantage point it appeared that “Diddy’s” haunches led in one canter half-pass right in the zigzags. The overall impression, though, was of great correctness and gaits that head judge Katrina Wuest of Germany praised as “maybe the best paces” of the three highest-placed finishers.

The adage about saving the best for last was true today: Isabell Werth of Germany, ranked number one aboard Weihegold OLD coming in to this Final and favored to win, did not disappoint. Despite a flubbed line of two-tempis that Werth later called pure rider error, the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare put in collected work of such high quality that she alone broke 80, winning the Grand Prix on a score of 82.300%. At the post-competition press conference, Carl Hester praised Werth’s unsurpassed ability to produce outstanding piaffe, passage, and other collected work from her mounts, with great shortening of the strides yet maintaining maximum activity.

“I was very happy,” Werth said afterward. “She felt a little bit tense when I came in, and of course there was big applause for Laura, so I had to start a bit careful. Besides the two-tempis—and certainly it was my fault, like always it’s the rider’s fault when you have mistakes—I felt safe. The rest was really good, very fantastic. The pirouettes and piaffe/passage, I’m completely happy, and I’m looking forward to the next days.”

“I came here to win,” Graves said, “and finishing second to Isabell still feels a lot like winning. I’m super-proud of my horse and the way he’s developed in the past two years. He’s extremely spooky; he’s a lot to manage in that kind of environment. He felt really honest. We had a couple of mistakes, mostly rider error, and they were unfortunately in double-coefficient movements, but that puts me in a place to be very excited about Saturday—knowing that if [I] ride clean, it could be a really good show.”

Wuest, who officiated at “C,” offered her assessment of the day’s top finishers.

“Verdades is an extremely powerful horse…. But sometimes Laura has to keep this big, big impulsion under control, and that made her appear sometimes just a little crooked on the center line. Isabell’s horse is extremely collected and does everything with ease and is extremely straight. Except for the two-tempis, there was not the slightest hint of an inconsistency or a mistake. The same with Carl. The motor of his horse is not a Ferrari, and he knows, but he gets a 9 for [the entry halt and salute] for straightness and accuracy.”

Hester has said many times that “Barney” is hot and spooky, and he said that his World Cup strategy was “to give him an easy Grand Prix, coast around so that he’s fresh for Saturday.” But I’m going to make sure I put my foot on the pedal for Saturday,” he said in response to Wuest’s observation, garnering laughs from the audience and the other riders.

Saturday, of course, is the one that counts: the Grand Prix Freestyle, the winner of which will be crowned the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final champion.

One incident marred the otherwise outstanding day of competition: Wendi Williamson of New Zealand was eliminated after the Grand Prix when the FEI steward’s post-competition equipment check revealed blood in the mouth of her mount, Dejavu MH. The FEI “blood rule” mandates automatic elimination.

A score of 60% or better in the Grand Prix is required for a World Cup Dressage Final competitor to advance to the freestyle final. Therefore, the other rider who will not compete Saturday is Hanna Karasiova of Belarus, who achieved only a 58.885% aboard Arlekino today.

Grand Prix Starting Order: It's a Draw

Judy Reynolds of Ireland and Carl Hester of Great Britain ready to draw the dressage starting order for the Grand Prix. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

There's a dressy hoopla at major international championships known as a draw party.

In my limited experience, it's a chichi affair held at some cool offsite location, where competitors, coaches, officials, and assorted hangers-on (that would include yours truly, as a member of the media) gather to nosh on hors d'oeuvres, quench their thirst at the open bar, listen to music, and generally see and be seen.

(Clarification: There usually aren't enough morsels to go around. And, being both on duty and on an empty stomach, yours truly figured she'd better lay off the sauce lest she end up either making a spectacle of herself or falling asleep in a corner.)

The real purpose of this fete, however, is to draw the starting order for the next day's competition. I'm sure a simple computer program could dispatch this task easily and cheaply in seconds, but I guess it's considered more fun to stage a party around the event, with selected riders drawing numbers and names out of fishbowls for a bit of live entertainment. Last night, at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, orders of go were drawn for today's dressage Grand Prix and first round of jumping.

For the dressage, competitors Judy Reynolds of Ireland and Carl Hester of Great Britain did the honors. There were the requisite speeches and acknowledgments, including a few words from the Omaha Equestrian Foundation's Lisa Roskens, the driving force behind the city's successful bid to host these FEI World Cup Finals.

Fishbowls containing numbers and rider names are displayed on stage along with the jumping and dressage World Cup Final trophies at the draw party. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

I'm told I missed a great after-party (and real food!) in the aquarium, but I was hustling back to my hotel to rest up for today's big event, the Grand Prix. Here are the ride times and the results of the dressage draw. All times are local (CDT).

2:00 p.m. Maria Florencia Manfredi (ARG)/Bandurria Kacero
2:09 Edward Gal (NED)/Glock's Voice
2:18 Marcela Krinke-Susmelj (SUI)/Smeyers Molberg
2:27 Hanna Karasiova (BLR)/Arlekino
2:36 Joao Victor Marcari Oliva (BRA)/Xama Dos Pinhais
2:45 Carl Hester (GBR)/Nip Tuck
2:54 Mai Tofte Olesen (DEN)/Rustique
3:03 Madeleine Witte-Vrees (NED)/Cennin
BREAK
3:32 Kasey Perry-Glass (USA)/Goerklintgaards Dublet
3:41 Steffen Peters (USA)/Rosamunde
3:50 Judy Reynolds (IRL)/Vancouver K
3:59 Kristy Oatley (AUS)/Du Soleil
4:08 Wendi Williamson (NZL)/Dejavu MH
4:17 Inessa Merkulova/RUS)/Mister X
4:26 Laura Graves (USA)/Verdades
4:35 Isabell Werth (GER)/Weihegold OLD.