Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Jan. 5–Allison Brock competed on Rosevelt at Intermediate II Saturday to notch a victory in her first show since returning from 18 months training in Europe and take another step toward her goal of riding at the top level of the sport internationally.

Ali was just relieved to get the first show behind her with the win at the national competition, an added bonus after settling back into the Florida winter circuit following training with Kyra Kyrklund and  Richard White at their English base.

Rosevelt, an 11-year-old Hanoverian stallion (Rotspon x Lore x Laurie’s Crusader XX) that Ali competed with success at national levels while based in England, is owned by Claudine and Fritz Kindrun of Keswick, Virginia. The Kundruns owned Flim Flam that Sue Blinks rode for team bronze at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000 and team silver at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain in 2002.

The 33-year-old Ali, who took over training and competing the Kundrun’s horses after Sue moved to California, was successful with their Schumacher in qualifying the horse as a six-year-old for the world young horse championships in 2011 and improved Rosevelt’s results from below 60 per cent when they first arrived in England to more than 72 per cent by the time they left.

“My feelings are mixed about being back,” Ali told dressage-news. “I’m happy to be home. But I really loved and cherished my time with Kyra and Richard. Every day, they inspire you to ride better–they are really looking for art.”

Rosevelt is her main high level horse at the moment as Schumacher has been sick since returning from Europe.

“With Rosevelt, I thought we’d be ready to start Intermediate II and Grand Prix at the end of 2011 but it was just not the case. As a stallion he is still coming into himself and that’s why I’m not busting to do the Grand Prix. I want him to feel secure about himself.”

She plans to show Rosevelt a couple more times before deciding whether to move him up to national Grand Prix where he will do as many shows as needed until he feels confident enough to step up to CDIs.

“I am very methodical with the horse,” she said. “I want to give him a chance to bloom into it. More than anything, I want to be sure he is not overfaced.”

Ali said her excitement at being home was that warming up in the same arena was Catherine Haddad Staller, competing on the Florida circuit for the first time since returning to the United States after 20 years in Europe, and Katherine Bateson-Chandler had been entered in the same show with Alcazar after training for the summer with Carl Hester in England.

“I think things are going to be fun. exciting and cool,” she said.

The long term plan is to compete at international Grand Prix, Ali said, and that could mean returning to Kyra’s training center later this year.

She described Fritz and Claudine Kundrun as “so super supportive, dream owners, who have enabled me to fulfill my dreams to climb the ladder.

“I want to fulfill our mutual dream to be on a U.S. team; that’s the goal.”