Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Apr. 20–Tina Konyot and Calecto V captured the Grand Prix at the Kentucky Cup CDI3* World Equestrian Games test event Tuesday, with Steffen Peters, flying in for the day to lend support to his fellow Americans.

Although appearing for the first time in the spacious main stadium that will be the competition arena for WEG at the end of September, the 12-year-old Danish warmblood black stallion displayed more confidence than previous outings during the recent Florida winter circuit and posted a score of 70.638 per cent.

Canadian Belinda Trussell of Newmarket, Ontario, on Anton was the only other combination to score above 70 per cent (70.312 per cent), while fellow Canadian Bonny Bonnello of Calgary, Alberta, on Pikardi, a 13-year-old Canadian-bred gelding, scored 68.638 per cent for third place.

At the age of 59, Bonny is seeking to qualify for the Canadian WEG team 30 years after she first competed for her national team, at the alternate Olympics at Goodwood, England, and competed again at Los Angeles four years later.

The event is billed as a WEG test event at the Kentucky Horse Park but it is being held simultaneously with the Rolex Kentucky Three -Day Event 4* as well as the jumping test event. The three-day event drew 102,000 spectators at this venue two years ago.

The dressage test event also had to scramble to enlist two judges to when Stephen Clarke of Great Britain and Wotjek Markowski of Poland were caught in the volcanic ash-created no-fly zone throughout much of Europe.

Tina Konyot said that Steffen Peters told her that Calecto could be getting scores three to four percentage points higher with more confidence and experience.

“It should not be such a big effort to get him to that point, to deal with the little bobbles here and there that take away from what we are capable of producing,” she said.

“But he is doing really well for his first year at Grand Prix.”

(See accompanying story on rider reactions to the WEG venue)

Grand Prix results