Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén & Don Auriello, Heather Blitz & Paragon Finish 1-2 After Storm Break in Florida CDI-W Grand Prix
12 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén & Don Auriello, Heather Blitz & Paragon Finish 1-2 After Storm Break in Florida CDI-W Grand Prix
WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 14–Tinne Vilhelmsson-Silfvén on Don Auriello finished first and Heather Blitz on Paragon was second in the Global Dressage Festival’s World Cup Grand Prix Thursday, after an hour-long interruption for a torrential downpour and a tornado warning. The Swedish Olympian also finished third on Divertimento and will ride the 11-year-old Westfalen gelding to a newly created Freestyle in Friday night’s kür.
“I must say I was extremely impressed with how he coped with everything,” said Tinne of the peformance on her Olympic mount that won them an award of 75.511 per cent after having to break their warmup, returning to the arena an hour later then being soaked when the heavy rain started again.
“I was starting the warmup and then stopped, I lost a bit of focus, it’s somehow difficult to stay on top.”
Heather Blitz of Wellington and the horse she took to London as reserve for the United States team were about one-fourth the way through their competition ride before heavy rain and lightning forced a halt to the ride, walked Paragon out of the arena then resumed an hour later to score 71.128 per cent.
“Yeah,” she said, “it was a challenge to have an hour in between, then come back. It was much cooler when we were warming up the second time and it did not take too much power away from him. The breeze and the clouds helped get my mind on the test. I pretended we never left. When lightning struck I was so disappointed, but there were no mistakes after the break.”
Tinne and Divertimento’s result of 70.574 per cent for third place was the only other score above 70 per cent among the 18 combinations that started the Grand Prix that with other CDI classes and an accompanying national show made it the largest event at the world class dressage grounds that opened last year.
Although dressage at The Stadium complex at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center was held for an hour, the storm caused cancellation of the Winter Equestrian Festival Challenge jumping at the same show grounds.
Spectators at Friday night’s Freestyle will have a chance to win special prizes.
| Class: 500 – FEI Grand Prix | Ring: International |
| E: Hotz – USA | H: Loriston-Clarke – GBR | C: Roudier – FRA | M: VanDaele – BEL | B: Mandl – AUT |
| Rider | Ctzn | E % | H % | C % | M % | B % | T % | Pl. | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vilhelmson-Silfven, Tinne | SWE | 75.319% | 78.085% | 77.979% | 71.809% | 74.362% | 75.511% | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Blitz, Heather | USA | 71.064% | 72.447% | 72.340% | 67.021% | 72.766% | 71.128% | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Vilhelmson-Silfven, Tinne | SWE | 68.723% | 70.957% | 71.277% | 73.617% | 68.298% | 70.574% | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Wilcox, Lisa | USA | 67.553% | 73.404% | 71.702% | 67.979% | 68.191% | 69.766% | 4 | ||||||||||||
| Francis, Shelly | USA | 65.426% | 69.894% | 67.447% | 66.170% | 69.681% | 67.723% | 5 | ||||||||||||
| Marcus, David | CAN | 66.277% | 67.128% | 68.936% | 65.000% | 68.404% | 67.149% | 6 | ||||||||||||
| Konyot, Tina | USA | 69.681% | 66.383% | 69.149% | 64.787% | 64.255% | 66.851% | 7 | ||||||||||||
| Gundersen, Mikala Munter | DEN | 65.213% | 68.617% | 66.702% | 66.596% | 65.957% | 66.617% | 8 | ||||||||||||
| Brooks, Jacquline M. | CAN | 65.106% | 65.957% | 66.702% | 65.638% | 66.064% | 65.894% | |||||||||||||
| Cordia-Van Reesema, Elaine | USA | 64.362% | 66.277% | 63.936% | 65.957% | 65.319% | 65.170% | |||||||||||||
| Strasser, Evi | CAN | 65.000% | 65.638% | 65.745% | 64.149% | 65.000% | 65.106% | |||||||||||||
| Irwin, Jaimey | CAN | 66.383% | 65.319% | 63.617% | 63.085% | 65.000% | 64.681% | |||||||||||||
| Koford, James | USA | 63.085% | 65.745% | 64.787% | 61.915% | 66.383% | 64.383% | |||||||||||||
| Dutta, Susan | USA | 63.830% | 64.787% | 66.064% | 63.085% | 63.617% | 64.277% | |||||||||||||
| Meisner, Cheryl | CAN | 62.660% | 64.468% | 63.191% | 64.255% | 65.426% | 64.000% | |||||||||||||
| Rosencrantz, Mette | USA | 63.617% | 62.234% | 61.489% | 64.787% | 63.936% | 63.213% | |||||||||||||
| Strawson, Barbara | USA | 59.574% | 60.106% | 61.489% | 61.170% | 61.915% | 60.851% | |||||||||||||
| Flettrich, Todd | USA | 60.106% | 58.723% | 53.511% | 58.404% | |||||||||||||||
| 62.340% | 58.617% | |||||||||||||||||||
