Puissance to Lead off Wellington’s Global CDI3* Freestyle Friday Night Under Lights
12 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Puissance to Lead off Wellington’s Global CDI3* Freestyle Friday Night Under Lights
The $35,000 Puissance will lead off the Grand Prix Freestyle under the lights Friday night at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI3* that will also feature the inaugural Florida Youth Championships at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
The puissance–a fancy name for the high jump–will kick off the event in the first combined dressage and jumping competitions in the two winter seasons since the multimillion dollar dressage grounds were built at the Stadium complex.
The $35,000 G&C Farm Puissance will be the opening performance at 6 p.m., horse and rider combinations competing over the puissance wall to see who can jump the highest for the top prize. The annual competition is usually held at the main Winter Equestrian Festival grounds.
The Puissance starts with fences at a minimum of 4 ft.6 ins. (1.37m) in height. Fences are then raised before each of a maximum of five rounds. The winner is the horse and rider combination that clears the “brick” (actually hollow wooden blocks) wall at the greatest height.
Franke Sloothaak of Germany on Leonardo holds the world record for the event, 7 ft. 10 ins. (2.387m) while the American indoor record is held by Anthony d’Ambrosio and Sweet ‘n’ Low, who jumped 7 ft. 7½ ins. (2.234m) in 1983.
The Yale Spizzwinks(?), America’s oldest underclassmen a capell group, will also perform Friday night.
First formed in 1906, the Yale Spizzwinks(?)–the question mark is part of their name–sing over one hundred concerts every year, entertaining audiences across the country and around the world.
The Florida Youth Championships are a new addition to the calendar at the AGDF.
The event for riders in pony, junior, young rider and Brentina Cup Under-25 divisions was created in partnership with Lendon Gray’s Dressage4kids as a step toward high performance levels.
