Mariett to be Ridden by Lars Petersen in Danish Championships as Prospect for Olympics
9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Mariett to be Ridden by Lars Petersen in Danish Championships as Prospect for Olympics
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, April 29, 2016–Mariett will be competed by Lars Petersen in the Danish Championships in June as a prospect for the nation’s team at the summer Olympic Games.
Lars, based in Florida and who became an American citizen earlier this year but still rides for Denmark, will go to Europe at the end of May for the championships at Broholm June 15-19.
It likely will be the last competition year for the 18-year-old Danish Warmblood mare.
“We will take it one show at a time,” Lars told dressage-news Friday of the decision to take Mariett to Europe.
Mariett made a miraculous year-long recovery from what was thought to be a career-ending hoof injury to become a leading money winner in the five years of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington and was on the Danish team at the World Games in Normandy in 2014 and competed in the World Cup Final in Las Vegas in 2015.
In 20 years of top sport, Lars has competed at Olympics, two World Games,, three European Championships and three World Cup Finals.
Mariett, owned by American Marcia Pepper and Lars, along with Anna Kasprzak on Donnperignon, Mikala Gundersen, also based in Florida, on My Lady and Agnete Kirk ThingGaard on Jojo Az earned Denmark four individual starting places at the Olympics that enable the country to form a so-called “composite” team.
Based on results at the Danish Championships, teams will be selected to compete in Nations Cups at Falsterbo, Sweden and Aachen, Germany in July to determine the four combinations to go to the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro for the dressage competition in August.
Other Danish prospects are Anne van Olst/Zidhane; Cathrine Dufour/Atterupgaards Cassidy; Daniel Bachmann Andersen/Blue Hors Hotline; Lisbet Seierskilde/Raneur; Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein/Fabienne; Rikke Svane/Finckenstein and Anders Dahl, the England-based rider, on Selten HW.
