Arlene “Tuny” Page & Woodstock Claim 1st Victory with Personal Best to Take Florida CDI-W Grand Prix Special
9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Arlene “Tuny” Page & Woodstock Claim 1st Victory with Personal Best to Take Florida CDI-W Grand Prix Special
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 30, 2016–Arlene “Tuny” Page and her Woodstock claimed their first international victory to win the Adequan Global Dressage Festival World Cup Grand Prix Special on Saturday with a personal best score.
Tuny and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding were awarded 73.059 per cent, the first time the pair have cracked 70 per cent since beginning their international Grand Prix career together in the summer of 2014.
Kasey Perry-Glass on Goerklintgaards Dublet that had never before performed an international Grand Prix Special were second on 72.902 per cent and came after their third place in the Grand Prix that was the CDI Big Tour debut for the pair.
Shelly Francis of Loxahatchee, Florida on Danilo was third on 71.980 per cent.
The duo placed second in the Grand Prix Thursday to start their campaign to become a member of the squad of up to eight combinations that will head to Europe in the spring for competitions to select the American team for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Woodstock has become the main competition mount for Tuny, of Wellington, who also shows Alina which she did in the Freestyle Friday night.
The pair launched their Grand Prix career in France in 2014 then competed in Wellington for the winter of 2015 and returned to Europe to ride on the U.S. Nations Cup teams at Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Hagen in Germany.
Tuny, who rode in the 2006 World Cup Final, described Woodstock as a “remarkably good show horse. He gets to the show ring and wants to go, wants to perform. He’s tense and tight sometimes because of his adrenaline but he’s exactly the horse I want. I have to refine my riding to accommodate that.
“I got closer to that today than ever before. There are so many more points in there it scares me.”
The 28-year-old Kasey Perry-Glass moved to Wellington from California late last year to pursue high performance dressage to train with Debbie McDonald. She is also aiming to make the group to go to Europe for Olympic selection.
She took Dublet to Europe last year and he has grown up since then, she said.
“I couldn’t ask for a better first CDI for the horse. He was strong and relaxed throughout the whole weekend, but really manageable. I’m lucky to have him.”
