Dressage-News

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 4–The inaugural Florida Youth Dressage Championships presented by Dressage4kids was confirmed for the WEF Dressage Classic CDI3* at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival grounds Mar. 14-17.

Equestrian Sport Productions, organizers of GDF at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center’s Stadium complex, provided details of the event for pony, junior, young rider, and Brentina Cup Under-25 divisions.

Lendon Gray, president of Dressage4kids, Inc. that created the annual Youth Dressage Festival, said: “After 14 years of supporting and educating mostly the grass roots of youth dressage, D4K is pleased that it can now support a competitive experience for some of our youth reaching the high performance levels. However, in keeping with D4K’s emphasis on education, there will be educational activities offered during the show.

“Our riders coming into the international levels of competition need opportunities to compete together in a championship setting. In the summer they have the North American Junior & Young Rider Championships and the Festival of Champions, but that is not enough for them to gain the skills of riding under pressure, testing themselves against their most skilled peers.”

Lendon described the show grounds as providing “a wonderful feel of a true championship venue” with superb footing and a championship atmosphere.

Top riders in each division will receive cash awards and Hampton Green Farm will award the use of one stall at their facility in Wellington for the 2014 season to the overall highest placed rider in each division based on their combined scores of the two required tests. Local international trainers have also donated lessons to be awarded to the competitors.

Wellington Equestrian Partner and Hampton Green Farm owner Kim Boyer said:”We are very excited to host these first championships to help young riders reach their goals and learn more about the sport of high performance dressage. We believe this will be a popular event and want to see it grow.”

Open to all youth riders of any nationality who receive qualifying scores or by organizer wildcards, riders will compete in two tests of their level. Riders may ride two horses at the same level or two horses, one in each of two levels for qualified horse and rider combinations.

For FEI Juniors and FEI Young Riders, an average of 64 per cent or better from either the team or the individual test with scores from at least two shows from Mar. 1, 2012 to Mar. 1, 2013.

For FEI Pony Riders and Brentina Cup, an average of 62 per cent or better from at least two shows from Mar. 1, 2012 to Mar. 1, 2013. The qualifying tests for the FEI Pony can be either the team or Individual. The qualifying test for the Brentina Cup division will be the USEF National Young Adult ‘Brentina Cup’ test or the FEI Young Rider Grand Prix 16-25.

The organizing committee can also invite one wild card rider for each division.

For the competition, riders in the FEI Juniors, FEI Young Riders, and the FEI Pony will ride both the FEI team and individual tests. For the Juniors, this will be class numbers 234 and 335. The Young Riders will ride class numbers 237 and 338. The FEI Pony division will ride classes 231 and 332.

Riders in the Brentina Cup division will ride both the USEF National Young Adult ‘Brentina Cup’ test and the FEI Young Rider Grand Prix 16-25, class numbers 515 and 516.

All classes will be held in the national division except Brentina Cup, which must be shown in the CDI division under FEI rules. All classes will be judged by two to three judges. The two tests of each division will count equally for each test for final results and placing.