A Perfect Storm

WEG dressage freestyle cancelled

 

A too-brief shining moment: Team USA's Kasey Perry-Glass, Laura Graves, Steffen Peters, and Adrienne Lyle take a lap of honor after winning the silver medal in the 2018 WEG dressage competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It’s a desperately sad break for FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 dressage spectators, Tryon WEG organizers, all of the participating nations, and the horses, riders, and supporters who worked so hard to get here: The WEG Grand Prix Freestyle, which was scheduled for tomorrow, has been canceled. It will not be rescheduled.

In an extreme stroke of bad luck, the worst of Tropical Storm Florence is scheduled to arrive tonight in the area of the Tryon International Equestrian Center, and Florence is expected to hang around tomorrow, bringing rain and high winds to western North Carolina. Speculation about the fate of the dressage freestyle has been running rampant for days. As of yesterday we were hopeful that the competition could be rescheduled for Monday, which is supposed to be the “dark day” of no competition between the two weeks of the WEG. But the dressage horses are supposed to fly out Monday, and this afternoon the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) confirmed that the freestyle is not to be. 

Here is the text of the FEI’s statement announcing the cancellation:

Following yesterday’s announcement of the intention to hold the Helgstrand Dressage Freestyle competition on Monday morning due to extreme rainfall forecast for Sunday’s original time slot of 8.30am, further discussions have been taking place to review the options available to reschedule.

Despite the best efforts of the whole Tryon 2018 team and the Officials, who have been working on plans for rescheduling since yesterday evening, including meetings with the Chefs de Mission and Chefs d’Equipe, the logistics of putting all necessary elements into place in time have proved insurmountable. As a result, and very regrettably, the Dressage Freestyle will now be cancelled.

“This was not an easy decision, but we have explored every option, including trying to reschedule the horse departures, and even looking at moving the competition into the indoor with a change of footing, but the logistics of making all this happen are just not possible,” Tryon 2018 Organising Committee President Michael Stone said.

“We know this is desperately disappointing for the 15 athletes who had qualified their horses for the Freestyle, and of course for all the spectators who had bought tickets, but the weather has simply left us with no choice. Horse welfare has to be the top priority and flying the horses out on the same day as competition doesn’t work, so sadly the decision to cancel the Freestyle had to be taken.”

“Although we are devastated that this decision has had to be taken, we’ve had two absolutely world-class competitions here at Tryon, including yesterday’s Grand Prix Special, and to see Germany’s Isabell Werth and Bella Rose taking double gold and Team USA claiming silver was a real treat for Dressage fans.”

The decision does not affect the Olympic qualification process, as this was completed on Thursday. The teams that have earned their ticket to Tokyo 2020 are Germany, USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Netherlands and Spain.

Girl Power

Two mares win WEG dressage medals; Grand Prix Special medal podium is all-female

 

Germany's Isabell Werth exults after her gold-medal-winning Grand Prix Special aboard Bella Rose. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

They say you can’t beat a good mare. Today that horseman’s adage proved true.

Fresh off yesterday’s team gold-medal win, Germany’s Isabell Werth and her “dream horse,” the 14-year-old Westfalen mare Bella Rose (Belissimo x Cacir AA), proved unstoppable again. The leggy, elegant, very feminine liver-chestnut mare danced her way to an individual gold medal in the Grand Prix Special at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018. 

 

Werth said Bella Rose's half-passes "couldn't be better." Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

According to Werth, she knew from the start of her test that it was going to be one to remember.

“When she started to trot, I said, Wow, she wants to go. The half-passes, I think they couldn’t be better. The piaffe-passage, it’s so easy. The charisma and the lightness—it makes the rider really happy to have such a horse.”

Werth spoke matter-of-factly, but the gold medal was unmistakably an emotional experience, as the international veteran—who has stood on the medal podiums too many times to count—wept openly on the podium today.

The only down side for Werth was the fact that Bella Rose’s owner, Werth’s longtime sponsor Madeleine Winter-Schulze, suffered a broken leg and had to have surgery yesterday, Werth said at the post-competition press conference. Werth said she was eager to wrap up the press obligation in order to visit her patron in the hospital, where she is said to be doing well. 

 

Verdades powered Laura Graves to the 2018 WEG Grand Prix Special individual silver medal. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Werth’s score of 86.246 percent made her untouchable by her closest rival, the USA’s Laura Graves and her KWPN gelding, Verdades (Florett As x Goya). The only male in the GP Special medals, “Diddy” laid down his signature uber-powerful, thrilling performance to earn a score of 81.717 percent and the silver medal. It was the second silver for Graves, who won team silver yesterday.

It was the first individual WEG dressage medal for the USA since Steffen Peters’ GP Special and GP Freestyle bronzes aboard Ravel at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

 

Praise for "Diddy" after his silver-medal-winning performance with Graves. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

“For me, it’s always a matter of riding this horse in his mind,” Graves said afterward. “Physically he’ll do whatever I ask him to, but sometimes it’s a matter of convincing him to do what he’s a little bit afraid of, or go where he’s afraid to go. It’s always a challenge, and it’s different every time we ride. Today I actually was very proud of how he let me ride him.”

A second mare blazed her way onto the medal podium with a stunningly mature performance for her tender nine years. British superstar Charlotte Dujardin’s new international mount, the Hanoverian mare Mount St. John Freestyle (Fidermark x Donnerhall)—the youngest horse in this WEG dressage competition—yesterday helped Team Great Britain win bronze and today put Dujardin back on the podium with a bronze-medal-winning score of 81.489 percent. To say that “Freestyle’s” scope, relaxation, and elasticity make her an exciting horse for the future is a gross understatement.

 

At just 9 years of age, Mount St. John Freestyle danced her way to GP Special bronze with Charlotte Dujardin of Great Britain. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“It was unbelievable; I couldn’t have asked any more from her,” said Dujardin. “That’s her third-ever Grand Prix Special….I was like the jam between the sandwich, with Isabell on one end [in the order of go] and Sönke [Rothenberger] in the other. I thought, oh my god, I’ve got to really up my game so I come out and don’t look like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“When she’s stronger and more confident, we’re going to give Isabell a run for her money!” Dujardin said. 

 

A huge smile and a fist-pump from the USA's Kasey Perry-Glass after her GP Special test aboard Goerklintgaards Dublet. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The next-highest American rider, Kasey Perry-Glass on the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding Goerklintgaards Dublet (Diamond Hit x Ferro), finished sixth on a score of 78.541. “Dublet” put in a fantastic test that showed even more power and engagement than in yesterday’s team Grand Prix. 

 

American fans cheer Kasey Perry-Glass's performance. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Unfortunately for Steffen Peters and Adrienne Lyle, glitches marred both of their tests and put the remaining two American riders out of the medal hunt. Both Suppenkasper and Salvino showed resistance in the transition from collected walk to piaffe at G. The costly mistakes put Peters and Lyle at the bottom of the field of 29 starters, with Peters finishing on 69.073 percent and Lyle, on 69.043.

There should have been 30 horses in today’s competition, but in another unfortunate turn, Great Britain’s Spencer Wilton and Super Nova II, who won team bronze yesterday, withdrew from the Special.

According to a statement from Team GB, “the horse [was] not feeling 100% after getting excited in yesterday’s medal ceremony.”

“Prize-givings are not ‘Neville’s’ favourite thing,” Wilton stated, “and normally I wouldn’t do them with him, but we’re at a championship. I helped the team secure qualification for Tokyo 2020 [Olympics] and that’s my primary focus, so with that in mind, his welfare was key to this tough decision.”

In preparation for the finale of the 2018 WEG dressage competition—the individual freestyle final on Sunday—the second horse inspection is scheduled for tomorrow morning. As of this writing the show will go on, and no postponements or cancellations due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Florence have been announced. I’ve just checked my weather app, and at the moment the forecasters are predicting 3 to 4 inches of rain for the Tryon area, with winds of up to 35 mph and possibly higher gusts. Rain is expected to move in tomorrow afternoon, with the worst of the weather being tomorrow night and—unfortunately for dressage-freestyle ticket holders—Sunday. But with luck it will be more like a miserably wet horse show and less like a natural disaster. 

In case you’re on the fence about coming Sunday, here are two tidbits to entice you: Both Graves and Dujardin will be unveiling brand-new freestyles—with music that, according to both riders, arrived just yesterday! (Dujardin quipped that her motto going in will be “Hope and pray.”) Graves refused to divulge any details about the new program or the music, so if you want to witness the world premiere, bring your wellies and don’t miss the WEG Grand Prix Freestyle. 

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.

J Is for Jog

FEI officials including Anne Gribbons, head of the 2018 WEG dressage ground jury (center), look on as Belgian competitor Isabel Cool jogs Aranco V during the horse inspection. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

As disappointing as it must be not to make a World Equestrian Games team, or to make a team but have to withdraw in advance—just ask American eventer Marilyn Little, who was forced to withdraw RF Scandalous when “Kitty” sustained a minor injury in training just prior to shipping to Tryon—the ultimate heartbreak must be arriving at the venue unscathed only to see one’s mount fail to pass the horse inspection.

 

Team USA's Kasey Perry-Glass walks Goerklintgaards Dublet before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Groom Holly Gorman gives Goerklintgaards Dublet a final polish with a fleece mitt before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

In “the jog,” FEI veterinary officials and members of the ground jury watch like the proverbial hawks as the horses are stood up, then trotted in hand—usually, but not always, by their riders—down and back so that their “fitness to compete” can be evaluated. This can be a challenge because some horses prefer to canter, rear, or otherwise emulate kites on strings rather than trot. 

 

Officials and VIPs including American dressage sponsor Betsy Juliano (right) watch the dressage jog at the WEG. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

A supporter films a competitor's jog for posterity, aided by what might be a good-luck charm. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

USDF secretary and US Equestrian "S" judge Margaret Freeman, who will be scribing for dressage at the WEG, watches the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Hijinks aside, the jog is a tense time, and tradition dictates that horses are impeccably braided and turned out as they will be for the actual tests, but in snaffle bridles. Most national federations kit out the handlers with matching outfits that range from suits to polo shirts and jeans. (Some getups seem more ridiculous than others.) Grooms fuss and polish, then cluster at the sidelines to look on anxiously with federation officials, owners, and sponsors until they hear the magic words from the announcer: “[Horse name] is accepted.”

 

Laura Graves gives Verdades a kiss before the jog. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Suppenkasper ("Mopsie") is in good form for US competitor Steffen Peters. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Olympic and WEG veteran Adrienne Lyle jogs her 2018 WEG partner, Salvino. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

At this morning’s dressage horse inspection, all four Team USA horses—Suppenkasper with Steffen Peters, Verdades with Laura Graves, Salvino with Adrienne Lyle, and Goerklintgaards Dublet with Kasey Perry-Glass—passed the jog. Of the total 77 horses from 31 countries, none was not accepted, although an Australian horse and a Portuguese horse was “held” for reinspection later this afternoon. On reinspection, officials will decide whether the two horses will start tomorrow, which is the first day of competition at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 and day 1 of the two-day dressage Grand Prix competition for the team medals. 

 

Because he's based in the USA, Spanish rider and WEG first-timer Juan Matute Guimon  (with Quantico Ymas) has many American well-wishers. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

The dressage competition is set to begin at 9:00 a.m. EDT. It, like all WEG competition, will be broadcast on FEI TV; you’ll have to pay to access the live stream. 

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.

First, the Fun Stuff

As the inept dressage rider "Brett Kidding," Aussie horsemanship expert Tristan Tucker brought laughs to the entertainment portion of the Dressage Showcase at the 2017 FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Friday afternoon’s Dressage Showcase, held on the “dark day” of no dressage competition at the 2017 FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha, was a split-personality event.

The first half consisted of lighthearted dressage exhibitions and freestyle performances (with a dollop of educational value). Audiences enjoyed them, but what I suspect got many of them in the door was the second half of the showcase: a “through the levels” mini-clinic with the world’s #1 ranked dressage rider (and winner of yesterday’s Grand Prix), Isabell Werth of Germany.

In a statistic that should prove heartening for the USDF, which has dressage education as its core mission, more people came to watch the Dressage Showcase than yesterday’s Grand Prix: 4,755 vs. 3,806, to be exact. Put another way, last night’s round 1 of the World Cup Jumping Final drew 5,126 spectators—fewer than 400 more than attended the showcase. That’s a lot of people who paid for dressage education in Omaha!

I want to do justice to Werth’s presentation, and it dovetails nicely with another aspect of this event, which is the fact that the warm-up is smack-dab in the middle of the facility—the trade-fair vendor booths actually surround it—and so there’s a veritable feast of education for the taking for anyone savvy enough to park themselves beside the warm-up. So I’m going to tell you about the educational angles in my next blog post.

 

The Frontier Strings from the Omaha Conservatory of Music performed. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

A Devocoux Saddlery demonstration-cum-exhibition served as a preamble of sorts to the showcase, with a fancy liver chestnut horse passaging extravagantly to show off his freedom of movement. Then the Dressage Showcase opened with a performance by the Frontier Strings, a youth ensemble of Omaha Conservatory of Music students.

 

World Cup Dressage Final competitors Steffen Peters, Inessa Merkulova, Laura Graves, and Isabell Werth were honored for achieving scores of 80 percent or better in World Cup Final series competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Audiences thrilled to see four of the world’s top dressage riders—Steffen Peters and Laura Graves of the USA, Isabell Werth, and Inessa Merkulova of Russia—together in the arena to receive the “80 Percent Award”: jeweled browbands to commemorate their having earned a score of 80 percent or better at a World Cup Dressage Final or qualifier. The award was created by Dressage-News.com’s Ken Braddick, and Braddick was on hand to bestow the browbands as well as a blingy belt for Werth, whom Braddick said is the only rider to have achieved scores of 80 percent or better on three different horses.

 

Katie Jackson, who lost part of her right leg to cancer, gave an impressive para-equestrian dressage demonstration. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Impressive freestyles by two high-performance para-equestrian dressage riders followed. First up was Katie Jackson of Texas, who lost part of her right leg to cancer. Riding the mare Royal Dancer, who is a veteran of the 2014 World Equestrian Games and the 2016 Paralympics with rider Roxanne Trunnell, Jackson performed a Grade 5 freestyle. Announcer Nicho Meredith explained that para-dressage riders are classified into grades according to severity of physical disability. Grade 5 is the least severe (Grade 1 is the highest degree of disability), and its tests approximate US Equestrian Third Level dressage, with walk, trot, and canter and lateral movements but no flying changes.

 

Para-dressage freestyle by 2016 Paralympics competitors Annie Peavy and Lancelot Warrior. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The Grade 4 athlete Angela “Annie” Peavy, a 2016 Paralympic Games veteran, rode her Rio freestyle with her longtime partner Lancelot Warrior. Both riders did a good job of showcasing the talents and determination of those talented equestrians who are determined not to let disabilities stand in the way of their dreams.

It is its own discipline separate from dressage, but there’s no denying that Western dressage has grown in popularity in recent years. Some riders of stock breeds—particularly if they’d rather wear chaps than breeches—have embraced the opportunity to compete against similar horses, in their preferred tack and attire. And when it comes to excellence in both dressage and Western dressage, surely one of the country’s best and most well-known is the Florida-based Lynn Palm, who performed two Western dressage musical freestyles—to Western music, of course, including “Riders in the Sky” and the themes from Bonanza and other classic TV westerns.

 

Western dressage demo by Lynn Palm on Hot Royal. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Palm’s first mount was the appendix Quarter Horse Hot Royal. Later in the program she was back aboard the colorful 20-year-old American Paint Horse Rugged Painted Lark. Quarter Horse and equestrian sport enthusiasts alike know his sire, the legendary Rugged Lark, who with Palm gave a memorable bridleless exhibition at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Son Rugged Painted Lark must be doing OK for himself, too, as he’s been immortalized as a Breyer model.

The top Young Rider Barbara “Bebe” Davis performed her championship dressage freestyle to a medley of pop vocals including “Hundred Miles” by Yall, “Here for You” by Kygo, and an updated version of the 1980s hit “Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better).” But for some different musical innovation, one needed only to look up in the stands during the freestyle performance of FEI-level rider Amanda Johnson of Wisconsin, where a DJ appeared to be live-mixing her music. Aboard the Hanoverian gelding Foley, Johnson rode to a dance-worthy mix of Bruno Mars tunes including “Treasure” and “Chunky.”

 

Amanda Johnson on Foley. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Johnson's musical accompaniment? Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

(Are you starting to see why I’m saving the education for later? There was a lot of entertainment!)

A type of performance I hadn’t seen before was the pas de deux with living props. That sounds peculiar, and it looked a bit unusual, with five or six spotlighted groups of people standing in the purple-light-bathed arena while dressage riders Missy Fladland and Grace Schoenfeld trotted and cantered around them. The groups represented the “behind the scenes” supporters all riders need—veterinarians, farriers, show organizers, and others—and a country-music singer performed an original song honoring these unsung heroes’ efforts.

 

Honoring those who work behind the scenes in the horse industry: a unique pas de deux to an original song. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The entertainment segment of the Dressage Showcase ended on the day’s lightest note. The Australian “horsemanship guru” and equine desensitizer donned an ill-fitting shadbelly, a stovepipe top hat, and a wig as his equestrian alter ego, Brett Kidding. Aboard “Legless” (that’s a parody of Steffen Peters’ Legolas, friends), “Brett” was an inept dressage rider attempting to perform a Grand Prix test while voicing the imagined thoughts of his long-suffering mount. “Brett” may have dreadful equitation, but I’d like to see you execute one-tempi changes while “talking on the phone”! It’s safe to say that it takes a really good rider to get a horse to perform well while looking like a really bad rider.

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.