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.

A Strong Showing and a Surprise on Day 1 of WEG Team Dressage Competition

Adrienne Lyle and Salvino piaffed Team USA into third place after the first day of team dressage competition at the 2018 WEG. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

With two days of dressage competition needed to accommodate the 77 entries at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018, half of each team competes each day. After the draw that determined start order, each team’s chef d’équipe got to decide which horse-rider combinations would ride today, day 1; and which will go tomorrow.

The usual strategy is to have the less-experienced combinations go on day 1, thereby saving the team’s biggest guns for the end, and perhaps the higher-scoring end of the competition.

 

Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Team USA’s newest combination, Suppenkasper and Steffen Peters (“a young kid and an old rider,” as Peters put it), was first of the four Americans to go down center line in the U.S. Trust Arena. Ten-year-old “Mopsie,” a KWPN gelding (Spielberg x Krack C) owned by Four Winds Farm, put in a solid effort (although, quivering with excitement at the applause from the home-country crowd, he couldn’t bring himself to stand immobile in the entry halt) to earn a more-than-respectable score of 73.494 percent. 

 

Scott Hassler and Steffen Peters chat before the start of competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

“I’m very happy with how he handled this,” Peters said afterward, “because it’s a huge step up from Aachen as far as relaxation. He walked beautifully; the rein back was a little bit better; there was overall less tension in there. I could actually push some of the extensions, which was new: Usually I just hold my breath and hope he doesn’t break into the canter because it’s so big. He did beautiful pirouettes today; the zigzag was also good—that’s also a bit tricky for him. The changes felt nice. For this stage and his sensitivity, it’s really good.”

 

The USA's Olivia LaGoy-Weltz, who did the test Grand Prix ride on Lonoir before the start of competition, receives congratulations from a WEG official. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It’s hard to think of a WEG as a warm-up act, but that’s sort of what it is for Mopsie, said Peters, who said that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are “the reason for the purchase. We [‘we’ being himself and sponsor Akiko Yamazaki] are hoping when he turns 12, 13, that will be his prime.”

 

Crowds were sparse for the start of WEG dressage competition but filled in as the day went on. Some attendees reported hearing tales of spectators' being scared off by the threat of the impending Hurricane Florence. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Mopsie is “the kindest, sweetest horse I’ve ever dealt with,” Peters said. The horse turns his head for approving scratches when he halts, and “his favorite thing is to [have someone] scratch his nose. He can do that for hours. He’s a puppy dog. He’s a big Labradoodle, that’s what he is.”

 

Getting ready to step onto the world stage is a major production. An FEI TV camera crew records every moment of last-minute preparation of the first dressage rider to go, Portugal's Manuel Veiga on Ben Hur Da Broa. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Peters said he’s content with the decision to enter Mopsie instead of his originally named mount, Rosamunde, also owned by Four Winds Farm. In training this week, the gelding was stepping up to the plate a bit more “and I was having to ask him to do a bit less,” he said. Mopsie’s can-do attitude won him the spot on Team USA for these Games.

 

A rain-dampened Robert Dover and Debbie McDonald look on during Adrienne Lyle's Grand Prix test. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Besting Peters, with a score of 74.860 percent, was his 2012 London Olympics and 2014 WEG teammate Adrienne Lyle, back on the international stage with Salvino, an 11-year-old Hanoverian stallion (Sandro Hit x Donnerhall) owned by Betsy Juliano LLC. Echoing her experience at the 2014 WEG in Normandy, Lyle encountered a sudden drenching rain that lasted just long enough to soak herself and the previous competitor, the Netherlands’ Hans Peter Minderhoud on Glock’s Dream Boy N.O.P. Mother Nature turned off the faucet just as Lyle went down center line—and turned back on the oppressively sticky heat that reduced competitors, spectators, and officials alike to soggy puddles.

“It starting pouring when I was warming up, and I said to Debbie [McDonald, her coach of 13 years], ‘Well, I know it’s WEG if it’s pouring!’” Lyle said afterward.

“I’ve never ridden in front of our home country [at an international championships] before, and I didn’t know how he was going to handle it, with all the extra cheering,” Lyle said of Salvino, “but I think he liked it.”

The downpour “was a bit of a disruption,” said Lyle, who scrambled to “change gloves and dry off things so I could hold the reins. And then it’s blazing hot the next second! Fitness is a big factor here, as well. He’s a big, dark horse, and I’ve done my best to get him as fit as I could, and I’m glad I did because it took every ounce of fitness he had out there to get through the heat.”

 

WEG dressage spectators did their best to keep cool in the afternoon sun and sticky humidity. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

You can’t open a social-media feed these days without seeing a warm-and-fuzzy photo of members of the US dressage team hugging and looking like BFFs. According to Lyle, it’s not an act.

“We’re all such a good group of friends. It really does make a difference when you know they’ll be there for you at the drop of a hat and support you in any way possible.”

Lyle says she’s “going to have a lot of fun with the [Grand Prix] Special,” Lyle said. “I like that test better.” She feels the Special plays to Salvino’s strengths, including piaffe/passage and extensions, and hopes for higher scores on Friday.

 

German eventing competitor Ingrid Klimke (center) applauds the dressage effort of her countrywoman Jessica von Bredow-Werndl. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB put Germany in the lead after the first of two days of dressage competition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Before then, we have team medals to decide tomorrow. After the first day of competition, the USA stood in third place, with Germany leading and—in a bit of a surprise—the Swedish team in second. Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on the 11-year-old Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB (Easy Game x Handryk) posted the day’s top score of 76.677 percent. Juliette Ramel on Buriel K.H., a 12-year-old KWPN gelding (Osmium x Krack C), was the top rider for Sweden, and Lyle lies in third. Team standings were calculated based on the top score of the two riders who competed today. 

Isabell Werth's Dream Horse

Just a girl with her "dream horse": German superstar Isabell Werth and her 2014 and 2018 WEG mount, Bella Rose, before the 2018 WEG dressage horse inspection. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The five-time German dressage Olympian Isabell Werth is one of our sport's greats. She has almost too many gold medals and championship titles to count, and deep-pocketed sponsorship has kept Werth, 49, in top international horses for 25 years.

So when Werth calls a mount her "dream horse" and says she wanted to bring this special one to the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018, naturally I was eager to learn more. After a phalanx of German journalists had their way with the 2018 German WEG dressage team yesterday, I finally got the chance to take a deep breath and (in English) ask Werth about Bella Rose.

Werth's bond with the 14-year-old Westfalen mare (Belissimo x Cacir AA), owned by Madeleine Winter-Schulze, was evident four years ago at the 2014 WEG in Normandy. The pair completed the team Grand Prix test but then withdrew from the remainder of competition. Werth is reluctant to discuss details ("Sorry, but you know how dressage is"), saying only that Bella Rose was injured "around three years ago." 

"It was in the bone; it was not easy to find, that was the reason it took us so long," Werth says. "We really built her up slowly and step by step and took a long time to bring her back into the sport because she’s really, really full of temperament, so to keep her calm step by step was the most difficult thing."

Bella Rose resumed her competition career just this year, Werth says, and did well enough to be selected as one of three potential WEG mounts with Werth. (The other contenders were Emilio and Werth's 2016 Olympic Games and 2017 and 2018 FEI World Cup Dressage Final gold-medal partner, Weihegold OLD.)

Choosing Bella Rose for Tryon "doesn’t mean it was a decision against Emilio or Weihegold," Werth says. "It’s just a decision for Bella Rose because she’s really my dream horse, and everyone knew this horse had outstanding potential, and this was my dream after four years, to bring her back for a championship. 

Bella Rose has been in Werth's stable since the age of three, and Werth has brought the mare up to the international Grand Prix level. 

"A groom of mine said there was an interesting horse" at a breeder's farm," Werth recalls. "I came and watched, and from the first second I was electrified. The whole horse is full of charisma, full of power, full of lightness and elegance. She combines all things: All of my other great horses have one or two or three things, and she has an outstanding piaffe and passage, super movement, the whole thing."

With construction noise a constant at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in the hours before the opening ceremony, competitors were rapidly becoming accustomed to being quizzed about their horses' reactions to the sights and sounds. According to Werth, "the atmosphere is not a problem" for Bella Rose; "it’s the power. I have to calm her down and keep her concentrated on herself. It’s not a question of some buildings or noise or the arena, or a hurricane! She has no problems with the weather. Day by day I try to make her more supple, more calm."

Werth and her "dream horse" ride in the team Grand Prix competition tomorrow, on day 2, as the anchor pair for Germany. According to Werth, even if Bella Rose doesn't bring home gold, the experience will be a dream come true. 

On Fun Freestyle Day, Grease Is the Word

Danny (Jan Ebeling on Darling) woos Sandy (Charlotte Bredahl-Baker on Chanel) in their winning Grease-themed exhibition pas de deux. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The dark day of no competition at the 2015 Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final proved an opportunity for spectators as well as riders to cut loose and show the lighter side of our buttoned-down sport.

Just as many enthusiasts packed the Thomas & Mack Center for today’s Las Vegas Dressage Showcase as attended yesterday’s Grand Prix competition, which drew more than 7,300 spectators. But today was all about music, fun, and costumed exhibition rides – all by California-based riders and horses – plus a couple of milestone tributes.

The midday program kicked off with two “rising star” freestyles, ridden sans costumes: an Intermediate I Freestyle by Sabine Schut-Kery on Sanceo, and a Grand Prix Freestyle by Steffen Peters (who’s contesting the World Cup Final with Legolas 92) on the up-and-comer Rosamunde.

 

Sabine Schut-Kery rides Sanceo in an Intermediate I Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The crowd was “looser” than at a traditional dressage competition, clapping and vocalizing freely during the rides. When Sanceo first entered the Thomas & Mack and spooked at a patch of unevenly dragged footing, the audience laughed; then when the stallion neighed, the crowd responded with a chorus of “awww.”

Light moments aside, Sanceo is a stunner, with tremendous scope and presence. His pirouettes and extensions drew cheers, and Schut-Kery was clearly thrilled with his performance.

 

OK, maybe she's a little too far underneath herself in front. But holy moly, can Rosamunde sit! Steffen Peters and his new wunderkind perform their Grand Prix Freestyle at the Las Vegas Dressage Showcase exhibition. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The other stunner is Rosamunde. It’s really hard to believe that this mare is only eight years old because her relaxation in the electric environment, coupled with her ease with the demands of the Grand Prix level, belie her age. She was so comfortable in the arena that I only saw her flinch once at some stimulus, and Peters was able to drop the reins and leave the arena on the buckle amidst the thunderous applause after his final halt and salute. Peters is not one to push a horse, and it’s obvious that Rosamunde has not been pushed. She’s extraordinary, and I expect great things from this pair in the future.

 

Not all dressage judging is this much fun! Linda Zang, Stephen Clarke, and Hans-Christian Matthiesen share a laugh with World Cup Finals announcer Bob Tallman (who's a well-known voice in the rodeo world). Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

With those more serious demonstrations concluded, it was time to turn the volume up – way up – for a three-way Dancing with the Stars-style pas de deux competition, complete with celebrity judges. FEI 5* judges Linda Zang of the US, Stephen Clarke of Great Britain, and Hans-Christian Matthiesen of Denmark made up the celebrity panel, awarding their scores via card after each ride.

 

Poison Ivy (Shannon Peters on Weltino's Magic) tries to put Batman (David Blake on Ikaros) under her evil spell. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Each pas de deux was themed, elaborately costumed, and expertly choreographed and edited. First up were Batman and Poison Ivy, aka David Blake on Ikaros and Shannon Peters on Weltino’s Magic. The horses – all of the horses today, actually – handled the atmosphere really well, in fact better than during the much quieter schooling session on Wednesday.

 

The Indian (Anna Dahlberg on Rico) meets the cowboy (Mette Rosencrantz on Marron). Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Then we visited the “Wild Wild West” courtesy of cowboy Mette Rosencrantz on Marron and Indian chief Anna Dahlberg on Rico. The upbeat soundtrack included themes from The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and Bonanza. The excitable Marron did give a half-rear during the program, but I think the audience thought it was part of the act! The judges scored the program higher than the Batman performance – but as Clarke (who was obviously relishing his role as the Simon Cowell of the panel) quipped, “Mette has a gun, so I’m going up.”

It was the final pas de deux, however, that brought down the house, winning top marks both from the judges and from the audience applause meter. “Danny” (Jan Ebeling on Darling) pursued “Sandy” (Charlotte Bredahl-Baker on Chanel) to the well-loved songs from Grease. Judge Linda Zang commended the horses’ synchrony and also confessed an affection for the 1950s-style music, saying that “This was my era!”

 

Elvis (Guenter Seidel on Zamorin) is a hunka-hunka burnin' love accompanied by showgirls (from left) Michelle Reilly on Umeeko, Sarah Christy on Xirope, and Elizabeth Ball on Orion. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The final musical showcase of the exhibition was a “Viva Las Vegas” quadrille. Elvis (Guenter Seidel on Zamorin) was most definitely in the building, accompanied by the scantily clad showgirls Michelle Reilly on Umeeko, Sarah Christy on Xirope, and Elizabeth Ball on Orion. The quadrille wasn’t part of the celebrity judging, but it was the perfect extravaganza to conclude the exhibitions.

Tributes and Touching Moments

Two short, related ceremonies punctuated the otherwise-exuberant Las Vegas Dressage Showcase with a serious note. The first honored the contributions of E. Parry Thomas – yes, of the Thomas & Mack Center – to both Las Vegas and dressage. Thomas, now 94, was a banker who was instrumental in developing Las Vegas as a city and a resort destination. And thanks to the equestrian interests of his wife, Peggy, and daughter Jane, Thomas became a strong supporter of the sport. He and Peggy developed their River Grove Farm in Hailey, ID, where husband-and-wife team Bob and Debbie McDonald became the trainers. The Thomases went on to sponsor Debbie McDonald through their purchases of many top horses, including the legendary Brentina, McDonald’s 2004 and 2008 Olympic mount.

 

Rider Adrienne Lyle (right) helps to lead Wizard from the arena after his retirement ceremony. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

A former working student of Debbie McDonald’s also benefited from the Thomases’ patronage. Adrienne Lyle was given the ride on their Wizard, whose career culminated in performances at the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 World Equestrian Games. The 16-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Weltmeyer x Classiker) appeared in public one last time in full show regalia (quite amped up in the T&M Center) before Lyle dismounted and the great horse was unsaddled, draped with a cooler, and led from the arena.

The tributes were a reminder that without supporters like Thomas and horses like Wizard, who give so much of themselves, dressage would be a pale shadow of the robust and thriving sport we have today. It was fitting that the ceremonies were bookended by the lighthearted and uplifting exhibition rides that, like our horses themselves, brought joy to so many.

Looking for WEG Para-Equestrian Dressage Stories?

Yours truly did double duty at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (yes, I'm home from Normandy, and happy to be back with my family and our menagerie of four-footed friends).

As you know, I've been devoting most of this blog to the dressage competition, for the United States Dressage Federation. But for the first time, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the para-equestrian dressage WEG competition for the United States Para-Equestrian Association.

The WEG para-equestrian dressage venue: US competitor Angela Peavy rides Ozzy Cooper at the Hippodrome at La Prairie Racecourse in Caen. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

In case you missed the USPEA's daily features and press releases as they happened, click here for a link to the USPEA's news page, with all the stories, results, and photos archived.

I have some additional great material on para-equestrian dressage that didn't make the cut. Look for it in the November issue of USDF Connection, USDF's member magazine.

Speaking of great material, stay tuned for some additional WEG photos in my next post. I was hoping to curate and post them during the flight home, but there was no onboard wifi, and I was also beginning to succumb to some sort of in-flight respiratory crud. My apologies for the delay.

Thanks, but I Think I'll Stick with Dressage

Adrienne Lyle of the USA rewards Wizard for his strong WEG Grand Prix team performance in a downpour. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The first half of the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games has drawn to a close, and I've been surprised at how many of my journalist colleagues have said this WEG will be their last.

On further reflection, I'm not all that surprised. For one, attending is frightfully expensive, and a lot of us (including yours truly) are freelancers, meaning that we pay our own way.

But there's more to it than financial considerations. Equestrian journalists are, on the whole, horse people, and some are getting fed up with what they see in some of the disciplines.

One common sentiment: "I've had it with endurance." This sport has come under fire in recent years, with numerous allegations of doping, injuries, and shady equine-welfare practices, much of it focusing on Middle Eastern competitors. A widely circulated photo of an apparently emaciated endurance horse at a FEI-sanctioned 160-km event in May provoked outrage.

The mess is political, too, as so many messes seem to be: One of the competitors and horse owners who has undergone scrutiny, Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, is married to Princess Haya, president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI). Haya herself convened a task force to come up with ways to clean up the sport -- now that's gotta be awkward. Necessary, but awkward.

Classy move: Eventing competitor Nicola Wilson of Great Britain reassures Annie Clover as ring crew reassembles the show-jumping fence she refused. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Now to eventing. I have an uneasy relationship with this discipline, at least at the top levels. On the one hand, as a former eventer myself, I have a fondness for the sport. A keen event horse loves his job and is a blast to ride, and event riders are the ne plus ultra of horsemen: They are down there in the muck with everybody else, they know every inch of their mounts, and their horse-management skills are superb.

On the other hand, eventing has always been a dangerous sport (ask me about the horses and riders who nearly drowned at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics). Sensibilities have changed in past decades, and the general public no longer tolerates reports of horse injuries or deaths; the advent of social media has a lot to do with that, of course.

Reacting to the outcry, the FEI has changed the makeup of top-level three-day events by removing the roads-and-tracks and the steeplechase portions of the cross-country phase. That's either a good thing or a terrible thing, depending on whose opinion you listen to. And xc fences are now constructed using frangible pins in an effort to reduce the number of catastrophic rotational falls. But course designers have to challenge competitors somehow, and so xc courses have become more and more technical -- almost like stadium-jumping courses set over natural terrain. The obstacles themselves are bearing less resemblance to traditional xc fences -- logs and gates and ditches and so forth -- and instead skew toward the weird, the wacky, and the super-skinny. (Check out Eventing Nation's 2014 WEG virtual course walk and you'll see what I mean.)

Some of these super-tricky courses seem not to have been designed with much tolerance for poor footing -- which we had in abundance at Haras du Pin at the WEG, so much so that wags dubbed the 2014 WEG xc "the Woodstock of eventing." When such veteran competitors as Olympic team gold medalist Phillip Dutton retire or are eliminated, is the course too difficult for the conditions, or are the horses insufficiently prepared, as some allege? I don't know the answer, but for some additional food for thought, read the award-winning British journalist Pippa Cuckson's column about Badminton 2014.

The other equestrian discipline featured during week 1 of the 2014 WEG was reining. I'd watched reining competition at the 2010 WEG in Kentucky, but before Normandy I'd never seen the warm-up. Let me preface this by stating that the top competitors I saw weren't engaging in questionable practices, but those of you who decry "rollkur" in dressage had better keep away from reining. Some horses' chins were on their chests. Post-sliding stop, some riders jerked the reins sideways -- why, I couldn't tell. One horse opened its mouth wide, in obvious pain, every time the rider touched the reins.

In the competition arena, one reining horse's front legs buckled so badly after it stopped that I (and other journalists) feared it might go down. And from the lesser competitors, the lack of a horse-rider connection was almost palpable: There was plenty of machismo and showboating for the audience, but not so much as a pat for the horse.

So although I dislike our sport's "dressage queens" and know that whenever an animal is involved the possibility of abuse exists, on the whole dressage and para-equestrian dressage are two disciplines that appear to be going in the right direction. The judging standard is increasing, meaning not only higher scores but a renewed emphasis on harmony between horse and rider. The brilliant, tense, explosive, non-halting tests of yesteryear no longer cut it.

I can't vouch for every single competitor at the WEG, but the top riders I talked to expressed concern for their horses' well-being and pride in their training. They're critical of themselves, happy with their mounts, and the scores and medals are secondary. OK, I know they weren't here for a fun outing, and these people have a mean competitive streak, but a sense of horsemanship comes through -- of not having lost sight of the reason they started riding in the first place.

WEG individual Grand Prix Special and Freestyle silver medalists Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill NRW of Germany. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

As Grand Prix Special and Freestyle individual silver medalist Helen Langehanenberg said of her mount, Damon Hill NRW: "He has the best character someone can have. He’s absolutely honest and he’s the best.”

Langehanenberg thinks her horse is the best in the world. I happen to think my horse is the best in the world. And that's the way it should be. For if we don't love them and do our best for them, all the medals in the world are just so many pieces of meaningless tin.

All Hail Queen Charlotte!

2014 WEG Grand Prix Freestyle gold medalists Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro (with Norman, the WEG horse mascot, redubbed Freddy by the British team) wave to British fans during their victory lap. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro won everything in sight at the 2012 London Olympic Games, and they’re not stopping any time soon.

The 29-year-old protégé of British dressage veteran (and Dujardin’s 2012 Olympics and 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games teammate) Carl Hester has a lock on the individual WEG dressage gold medals. Today in Caen, Dujardin picked up her second individual gold of the week, adding a Grand Prix Freestyle medal (and a Rolex watch) to the GP Special gold she won on Wednesday.

 

"Blueberry" in piaffe: "He's good at everything," Dujardin said. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

It was a decisive victory, with judges Isabelle Judet (FRA), Lilo Fore (USA), Stephen Clarke (GBR), Francis Verbeek (NED), Elizabeth McMullen (CAN), and Dietrich Plewa (GER) awarding Dujardin and Valegro a score of 92.161 percent over silver medalist Helen Langehanenberg of Germany on Damon Hill NRW (88.286).

 

The 2014 WEG Grand Prix Freestyle medalists: Helen Langehanenberg of Germany (silver), Charlotte Dujardin of Great Britain (gold), and Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands (bronze). Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

From the audience’s viewpoint, it was almost a toss-up as to who would win bronze, Langehanenberg or the Netherlands’ Adelinde Cornelissen. But although Damon Hill looked a bit tired, his supple and harmonious test got the nod over Jerich Parzival NOP’s greater power and flamboyance that occasionally showed moments of tension, earning the Dutch veterans a score of 85.714 percent.

 

Helen Langehanenberg of Germany thanks Damon Hill NRW for his freestyle performance. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“After London, I didn’t really think it could get much better,” Dujardin said afterward. “But then at the Europeans [Championships], two golds there, and then I focused on my first World Equestrian Games. To win any medal is always a great achievement, but to come away here with two individual golds and the team silver is just unbelievable. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Dujardin, like most riders, is well aware that the best rider in the world can’t do it on a horse that is not at the top of the international standard. She currently sits on the greatest jackpot the dressage world has ever known. Valegro, a twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Negro x Gerschwin), is the Secretariat of dressage. He is more supple, more straight, more ridable, and with greater talent for both extended and highly collected work than any other horse today. The fact that he has an adorable pony face and is called Blueberry is icing on the cake.

Although Dujardin and Valegro have smashed all the high-score records and have nothing left to prove, the rider knows that although getting to the top is hard, staying there is harder.

“The challenge is then to recreate [the success], and try to do it on some other horse, a younger horse. I enjoy training young horses and getting them up to Grand Prix, so maybe I can do it again on another horse,” Dujardin said.

All of the riders who stood atop the medium podium today expressed fierce pride in their mounts. Dujardin said simply: “He’s just good at everything.”

 

Adelinde Cornelissen of the Netherlands describes Jerich Parzival NOP as "seventeen going on seven." Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“He really deserved a medal today. I’m really proud of him. He just keeps on doing it, over and over again,” said Cornelissen of Jerich Parzival NOP, a seventeen-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Jazz x Ulft). Several times this week, Cornelissen said: “He’s seventeen going on seven.”

Of the medalists today, Langehanenberg gushed the longest about her mount, Damon Hill NRW, a fifteen-year-old Westfalen stallion (Donnerhall x Rubinstein I).

“He can speak and read; he’s something else than a horse,” she said. “Every time, he gets better and better and better. You think that [a performance] was perfect and the best, and then the next time it’s wow, even better. He has no weaknesses; he has perfect gaits, his mind is perfect. He is like a little dog. If he were a little smaller, he’d sit beside us on the sofa. He has the best character someone can have. He’s absolutely honest and he’s the best.”

 

French judge Isabelle Judet, the president of the ground jury for the GP Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Although most of the fifteen freestyles today were not mistake-free—most of the horses showed a few signs of fatigue from the long week of competition—French judge Isabelle Judet, the president of the ground jury today, had nothing but praise for the standard.

“We are like the spectators: We just loved it. We had great fun,” Judet said.

All five judges were in agreement regarding the placings of the gold- and silver-medal winners, and there was little discrepancy regarding the bronze, as well.

Said Judet: “When you are in the booth, you are not thinking about the results. We don’t try to do any placing; it just comes out. We’ve had a lot of experience, all of us. [In the moment] we’re almost not thinking; it’s like second nature. We just trust our feeling and that everybody will do their best. Sometimes, like today, it happens that we all have the same idea. It’s not quite always like this, but today we did.”

 

Steffen Peters and Legolas 92 performing their "Under Pressure" freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Steffen and Legolas: Looking Ahead to Las Vegas

Aboard Four Winds Farm’s twelve-year-old Westfalen gelding, Legolas 92 (Laomedon x Florestan II), Olympic team and WEG individual bronze medalist Steffen Peters expressed satisfaction with today’s “Under Pressure” freestyle, which earned a score of 77.321 percent for tenth place.

“A lot of things worked out great, especially the difficult parts: going from the extended canter to the pirouette, from the pirouette to the piaffe. And when he’s this excited, as he was today, the walk can be difficult. But today he walked absolutely beautifully, very relaxed. I could push him actually a little bit in the extended walk. The collected walk was great; I could actually relax for a moment myself. Then he came very nicely into the piaffe from the walk. Overall, a very good freestyle. I’m super happy,” Peters said. “It’s always the one-tempis that are tricky, but they worked out today. There was one where he was a bit tense, they were not perfectly straight; but I don’t think we had a mistake.”

Of his score, Peters said: “Seventy-seven at the World Games, nothing wrong with that. Of course you’re always hoping in the freestyle that you get a little closer to 80 percent, but we’ll leave that up to Laura today.”

The US dressage-team veteran already has a long-term strategy planned for Legolas: “The next big step is the [2015 FEI] World Cup [Dressage Final] in Las Vegas,” he said. Referring to the very electric atmosphere in the Thomas & Mack Center, with the audience positioned very close to the arena, he said: “It’s obviously a very difficult arena for Legolas, a bit of a nervous horse, but we’ll go there in plenty of time, a few days before, to practice there. Right now he gets a long break, at least four weeks; then we’ll pick up again from there.”

Legolas’s freestyle won’t be quite the same when we see it again in Las Vegas, Peters said. “When we made the music for the freestyle, we made a couple versions of the music. There is room for some new ideas. Those I’ll show you guys in Vegas.”

 

Laura Graves and Verdades have trotted -- make that galloped -- onto the world scene, finishing fifth in the WEG GP Freestyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Hello, World, I’m Laura Graves

The 27-year-old American phenom from Geneva, FL, was the talk of the WEG dressage competition. If I had a nickel for every time a foreign journalist asked me what the US press knew about her before the WEG and whether we were surprised that she was doing so well, I’d be considerably wealthier.

Graves’s story has grown more and more remarkable this week. I’d never heard her name before the US WEG selection trials in June. She stormed in and finished second to Steffen Peters on her developing superstar horse, Verdades, a twelve-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Florett AS x Goya), elbowing many decorated veterans aside. She and “Diddy” proceeded to travel to Europe—their first time—and made the Europeans sit up and take notice at the CDIs Aachen and Fritzens. To top it off, the pair came to Caen, qualified for the Grand Prix Freestyle, and then finished fifth—fifth!—on a score of 82.036 percent.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to break 80 percent in, well, any competition, but particularly international championship competition? And the WEG was Graves’s first score over 80.

“It’s a great feeling,” she said afterward. “If we hit 82 now, I’m excited to see where this could go. Just because your horse is talented doesn’t mean you’re going to get the big scores right away. It has to be really reliable; it has to be beautiful; it has to be strong; it has to be relaxed. All these things have to come together.”

“I wasn’t even expecting to come to Europe, let alone ride on this team,” Graves said.

Of her freestyle performance, Graves was particularly thrilled that Diddy “was really, really calm in [the stadium]. I could feel how cool he was. That was the most exciting of all. I worked him really lightly this morning; I didn’t want him to be tired, but I didn’t want him to be wild.” As it turned out, Diddy was a bit lazy in the trot half-passes early in the freestyle—but “he’s an easier horse to rev up than to cool down.”

Whenever a horse starts to get noticed, purchase offers usually follow. Graves concedes that she’s been approached, but “I refuse to hear numbers because he is never for sale,” she says.

Diddy is a gem, and “I want a horse for many years,” Graves said. So she’ll “take really good care of him” and then begin pointing him, carefully, toward the 2016 Olympics in Rio. But the US dressage team didn’t qualify for Rio here at the WEG—we would have had to medal in the team competition in order to do so—so there’s work to be done before then, she said.

Meanwhile, although “everyone’s looking forward to going home,” there’s little time to relax and celebrate. “The horses have to be out of here between six and seven tomorrow morning,” Graves said. The riders will return to their Belgian training base, and then Graves flies from Belgium to Miami on Monday. So let’s get the party started without further ado: “Hopefully there’s cold champagne at the barn!”