Dressage-News

Story & Photos by ILSE SCHWARZ

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Apr. 20–The OFFICIAL entertainment started with a fun Pas de Deux challenge between three Olympians paired up with their students and having fun with choreography, costume and music.

Debbie McDonald and student Adrienne Lyle teamed up in red jackets and snazzy hats to Blues Brothers music. Debbie’s horse, Felix, tried to out do every other horse on the planet with his front leg action, much to the amusement of the crowd.

The two Charlottes, Charlotte Bredahl-Baker and Charlotte Nielson, dressed in turquoise, impressed with their choreography,
and finally Guenter Seidel and Elizabeth Ball turned it on in all categories, music, choreography and costumes. To the strains of Phantom of the Opera, Guenter sporting a Phantom mask and Elizabeth in a white dress won over the judges who awarded them a 21 (out of a possible 20) followed by Linda Zang making some “open for interpretation” comments about male riders.

Brian O’Connor, the official announcer, also interjected that the Bellagio (or similar casino – I was laughing too hard to remember exactly which one) was building a new arena and wanted the act for the next two years. Really good fun.

During the proceedings, Brian also made the announcement that following the tremendous performance of Steffen Peters in the Grand Prix, ticket sales for the freestyle on Saturday night had gone through the roof. I’m guessing that many of those Southern Californian fans who were undecided on attending suddenly decided that the drive wasn’t so far after all.