Currency DC, From World Young Horse Championships to Over 100 CDI Grand Prix, To Be Retired by USA’s Susan Dutta
8 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Currency DC, From World Young Horse Championships to Over 100 CDI Grand Prix, To Be Retired by USA’s Susan Dutta
Aug. 18, 2017
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Currency DC, an Oldenburg gelding that Susan Dutta took to the World Young Horse Championships as a five-year-old in 2005 and went on to compete in 112 international Grand Prix on both sides of the Atlantic over eight years, will be retired next month.
Now 17 years old, Currency’s last competition will be a CDI3* at Saumur, France, home of the Cadre Noir, France’s national riding school Sept. 21-24.
The retirement of Currency (Clintino x Classiker) will also mark an upgrade in the quality of horses for Susan of Wellington, Florida who, on a tight budget, developed 13 of the 15 horses she has competed at Big Tour.
Susan and her husband, Tim Dutta (the DC stands for Dutta Corp. that he has built into a global horse transportation business) bought Currency in 2002 at the age of 2 1/2.
In 2005, she and “Curry” were ranked among the best five-year-old horses in the United States. The pair won the East Coast leg of three competitions–the others were in the Midwest and the West Coast–to qualify for the World Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany.
The duo placed 11th in the world championships then came home to win the United States title and a couple of months later at Devon, Pennsylvania set a new world record for the age division of 9.24 points.
Currency qualified for the six-year-old world championships in 2006, but when the horse was found to have ulcers Susie pulled him from competition and put him out in a field for six months.
Currency returned to the show arena in 2007.
Meantime, Susie won selection on another horse for the U.S. team for the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, the championships held once every four years and at small tour at the time. The United States won gold and qualified a team for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Susie trained Currency to Grand Prix and the horse made his Big Tour debut in Spain, in March 2010.
Through to this summer, Susie and Currency started 112 times at Big Tour, more than half in Europe including multiple times at the premier events of Aachen, Stuttgart and Perl in Germany, including second place in the Grand Prix Special at the Hamburg Dressage Derby in 2010.
Seven Nations Cups were among their competitions for the United States.
At the same time, she was competing Currency Susie rode three other horses at Big Tour and one at Medium Tour, a lineup unusual outside Europe’s top tier.
“We need to retire him sound, ” Susie said, “and enjoy him by riding him a bit.
“We didn’t have much money when we bought Currency, so we got what we could afford and made it work. The nice thing now is we have better horses.”
