Charlotte Jorst & Nintendo Take Wellington CDI3* Grand Prix for 2nd Win of Year
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 8, 2017–Charlotte Jorst and Kastel’s Nintendo won the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Wednesday for the second victory of the year for the American and her KWPN stallion.
Charlotte of Reno, Nevada and the 14-year-old Nintendo scored 71.300 per cent for the win 11 days after taking the World Cup Grand Prix Special at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center’s Stadium complex.
Great Britain’s Suzan Pape on Harmony’s Don Noblesse placed second on 70.880 per cent in a year where so far the rider has become the leading prize money winner on the Wellington circuit.
Dawn White O’Connor in only her second CDI Grand Prix on Legolas, the horse she took over after Steffen Peters rode the Westfalen gelding to Olympic team bronze medal last summer, placed third on 70.560 per cent.
Some of the loudest applause came for Olivia LaGoy-Weltz on Lonoir, posting a personal best score of 70.280 per cent just two weeks after the rider returned to the saddle after being trampled by a horse that broke her left collar bone requiring the insertion of seven pins.
Olivia of Middleburg, Virginia and Lonoir, a 13-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, began the Big Tour 11 months ago after being named as the traveling reserve at small tour for the American team at the 2015 Pan American Games.
She had been holding a horse for another rider when she was trampled six weeks ago. As one of the corps of riders working with Debbie McDonald, Lonoir was kept in training until Olivia could return to riding two weeks ago.
Dawn White O’Connor, an assistant trainer for the past decade at Steffen’s San Diego, California training center, has built a bond with Legolas, often traveling with the Westfalen gelding now 15 years old to competitions in the Americas and Europe.
As Steffen focused on Rosamunde, the 10-year-old Rhinelander mare aiming for the World Cup in Omaha in March, Dawn began working with Legolas and had their first start at a new World Cup event in Las Vegas a month ago. The pair placed second behind Steffen and “Rosie” in both the Grand Prix and the Freestyle using the music that Steffen rode to.
Devon Kane, whose family’s Diamante Farms is the sponsor of this CDI5* week, rode Destiny to a score of 68.920 per cent for sixth place, the highest score in two years on the Danish Warmblood gelding now 14 years old that she has worked with for more than a decade.
On Sir Galanto, her second mount, she scored 64.520 per cent. The 12-year-old stallion Devon was competing in only his second Grand Prix spooked at his own shadow.
Canada’s Leah Wilkins, returning to the competition arena with Fabian JS, an 18-year-old Hanoverian gelding, for the first time since winning a World Cup Grand Prix Special here a year ago then having a baby boy she named Levi eight months ago, scored 66.720 per cent for ninth place.
Michael Klimke of Germany rode Royal Dancer in the 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding’s first Grand Prix for a score of 65.360 per cent. Michael began CDI competition on Royal Dancer at small tour in Florida last winter.
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