Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

GLADSTONE, New Jersey, USA, June 20–Katherine Bateson-Chandler, so much “in the zone” she ignored heavy rain, Saturday rode Dea II to a second straight day of victory in the Colecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Intermediaire I National Championship.

The pair posted a score of 74.579 per cent in the Intermediaire 1 to follow Friday’s Prix St. Georges win with Jan Brons and Teutobod again in second place but by a sliver on 74.526 per cent while Shelly Francis and Wig Wam were third on 71.737 per cent. All three riders are based in Wellington, Florida. Bateson-Chandler’s second horse, Rutherford, who like Dea II is owned by Jane F. Clark, came fourth.

“I saw Jan’s score as I rode into the ring and realized I had to go for it,” said Bateson-Chandler.

The 11-year-old Hanoverian mare, she said, is still “very green” at FEI-level competition but has shown so much talent that she will move Dea up to Grand Prix after the championhips.

“With a mare, I believe it is important to have a a very special relationship,” she said. “I spend a lot of time with her in the barn because that’s what I like to do. We’re building a real, trusting relationship.”

Katherine said that expects to compete at national Grand Prix later in the summer and may go to Europe later in the year to get more experience in preparation for trying for the U.S. team for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky next year.

Brons said he had the same goal as Bateson-Chandler, the 2010 WEG.

“My horse is still green at Grand Prix but we well start showi9ng him in national shows late in the sumer,” he said.

“If you don’t set a goal you’ll never get there.”

Batesone-Chandler agreed and said that much of the joy of striving to represnt the U.S. was simply to compete in the company of many great riders she had admired for years.