Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 10, 2020–The Global Dressage Festival CDI5* will be highly competitive with riders from several nations competing to start at the Tokyo Olympics but two top American contenders are delaying runs for the team.

Adrienne Lyle on Salvino and Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet, both combinations on the United States silver medal team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, will miss the 5* but Adrienne is expected to show in the CDI4* at the end of February to be ready for the grueling journey leading to Tokyo. Kasey and Dublet were also on the 2016 Rio Olympic bronze medal squad.

Coming a month after the announcement of the retirement of Verdades, ridden by Laura Graves to become the top American pair, the absence of two other top combinations from the CDI5* billed as a “mandatory” competition is expected to raise questions about the prospective U.S. team for Tokyo. Entries for the 5* close Tuesday.

Debbie McDonald, both the U.S. team as well as personal coach of both Adrienne and Kasey, explained the delay in their competition schedules. Adrienne and Salvino, she said, would be “right on” top form and competing at the 4*. The competition schedule for Kasey and Dublet was not known.

The tentative schedule for selection of three riders and horses for the team and a fourth combination as a reserve calls for qualifying for a short list during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida through the end of March. A European tour of Nations Cups possibly at Compiègne, France May 14-17 and Aachen, Germany June 1-7 follows before a return to the U.S. for quarantine.

The team horses leave from New York for Tokyo for Olympic dressage at the end of July.

The U.S. Equestrian Federation has declared the top rated CDI5* Feb. 19-23 with $174,000 in prize money a “mandatory” outing for the top 10 athletes on the U.S. Olympic ranking list beginning with the start of U.S. qualifying in September and as of the end of January.

Neither Kasey and Dublet, 17-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, nor Adrienne and the 13-year-old Hanoverian stallion Salvino have competed in that time so are not on the list as of Monday, Feb. 10. The last competition for Kasey/Dublet was the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden last April and for Adrienne/Salvino the Aachen Nations Cup last July.

Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper tops the list, with Ashley Holzer on Mango Eastwood second, Nick Wagman on Don John third, Charlotte Jorst on Kastel’s Nintendo fourth, Sabine Schut-Kery on Sanceo fifth, Adrienne Lyle on Harmony’s Duval sixth, Katherine Bateson-Chandler on Alcazar seventh, Tina Konyot on Diamantino II eighth, Anna Marek on Dee Clair ninth and Günter Seidel on Equirelle 10th.

Steffen and Suppenkasper, 12-year-old KWPN gelding, has competed in three Global CDIs so far, is entered for the CDI5* and plans to remain in Florida to compete on the Nations Cup team Mar. 11-15 as well as the World Cup Final in Las Vegas in mid-April.

The absence of Adrienne/Salvino and Kasey’Dublet from the CDI5* that was chosen to see combinations from both the West and East Coasts compete head-to-head, does not eliminate them from consideration for the team. Waivers and exceptions can be sought from the selectors.

Debbie McDonald explained to dressage-news.com:

“Salvino had a little setback in December. He never was lame but had some filling. They scanned it. They decided to back off. He’s never gone out of work, ever. But we just feel it’s a little soon with his fitness getting back to full work that it’s pressing it.

“Why? Because we have so much to do this year. He is fit and he’s sound. It’s not in his best interest to go out full bore right now. He will right after (the CDI5*). That’s her (Adrienne’s) plan right now, and we’re targeting that for sure. He looks fantastic.

“They’re both proven 77-80%. They know they have to go out and prove it again, but I don’t doubt that that’s not there when they go in. She’s a good competitor, she knows what she’s doing.

“Dublet is sound and in work. She’s (Kasey) being extremely cautious because of his age more than anything. She just feels again that if she didn’t have to do this one she’s thinking about her plan from that point on, in his best interest and knowing she has to come out and lay it down.

“It puts a ton of pressure on these girls. But they still want do what’s best for the horse. And I want them to do what’s best for the horse, as it just gives me a really fresh team to work with.

“At the end of the day when you think about Tokyo backwards and if we want to try to go to Europe as well that’s a lot on these horses, a lot. I think a lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is for the Americans to try to get head-to-head with the Europeans without a huge amount of travel and then come back to the U.S. to quarantine and then go to Tokyo.”

“There’s no major issue. It’s just that they’re not in top fit form for competition. So give them another couple of weeks and they’ll be right on.”