Lisa Wilcox Competes Denzello in CDI Debut at Odense, Denmark World Cup Event
11 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Lisa Wilcox Competes Denzello in CDI Debut at Odense, Denmark World Cup Event
ODENSE, Denmark, Oct. 19–America’s Lisa Wilcox rode Denzello in their first international-level Grand Prix Saturday at this competition launching the Western European League World Cup season, and “very, very happy” with the way the 10-year-old gelding performed.
Lisa, based in Wellington, Florida, and the Hanoverian (De Niro x Rhodiamant) scored 66.064 per cent for 12th place in the big indoor arena with its highly charged atmosphere.
For Lisa, who rode Relevant for the United States to win team medals at the 2002 World Equestrian Games and the 2004 Athens Olympics as well as rank as high as No. 2 in the world, this was also her first time back in a European competition since competing on Naomi at this same event in 2007.
Before this debut, she competed Denzello in Florida last month and again in Germany at national level when she arrived in Europe as one of more than a dozen American combinations competing and training in Europe this summer and fall. She is coached by her long time trainer Ernst Hoyos.
The American pair was the first of the 17 entries from seven nations, among them at least seven Olympians including the winning combination and home town favorite of Anna Kasprzak and Donnperignon.
All five judges placed Lisa and Denzello, owned by Canadian Betty Wells, in the same order with the scores within one percenatge point difference. The judges had not seen the horse compete before and many spectators thought the scores were conservative.
The highest scores were awarded for the two extended trots and the extended walk while the lowest were for the final centerline piaffe and one-tempi changes.
“I am thrilled,” she told dressage-news.com. “Dino was awesome.
“We are very. very happy with the way he performed.
“I am thrilled to be back in the big league, smiling ear to ear.”
Lisa and Denzello will be first into the arena for the Freestyle on Sunday.
She also brought to European the U.S.-bred Pikko del Cerro, a Hanoverian stallion (Pik L x Rohdiamant) owned by Horses Unlimited of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
On her schedule after Odense is the CDI4* at Lyon, France and the prestigious German Masters at Stuttgart, Germany, another World Cup qualifier, in November before returning to the United States.
