Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, June 22, 2017–The United States was led by Laura Graves and Verdades as the top individual pair in the Grand Prix to the lead in the CDIO5* Nations Cup Thursday with a powerful Dutch team at home standing second.

Top performances by Americans Laura and Verdades on 79.460 per cent, Olivia LaGoy-Weltz on Lonoir with a personal best 74.580 per cent and third individually and Kasey Perry-Glass on Dublet at 71.560 per cent overcame the elimination of Dawn White-O’Connor on Legolas in the first European competition for the pair.

With seven countries competing in the fourth of seven Nations Cups this year and the United States as the defending champion from the inaugural 2016 series, results of the Grand Prix were: 1. USA 225.560; 2. Netherlands 222.080; 3. Sweden 206.760; 4. Germany 206.300; 5. Great Britain 205.340; 6. Belgium 202.640; 7. France 197.300.

The position of the Americans drew high praise from Lauren van Lierens, director of dressage at this event, the premier equestrian competition in the Netherlands who described the U.S. team as one of “shooting stars.”

Occasional high winds caused some minor issues–Germany’s Anabel Bakenhol on Dablino stopped partway through her ride when an entire long side of the arena blew over and Glock’s Johnson TN ridden by Hans Peter Minderhoud had a sneezing fit during their performance.

Madeleine Witte Vrees on Cennin, her Omaha World Cup Final mount, was the highest placed Dutch pair on 75.660 per cent. Hans Peter Minderhoud on Glock’s Johnson TN placed fifth on 73.400 per cent with Edward Gal on Glock’s Voice sixth on 73.020 per cent.

Laura Graves of Geneva, Florida, No. 4 in the world and a member of the U.S. Olympic bronze medal team at last year’s Rio Olympics on her 15-year-old KWPN gelding, said it was “very exciting” riding as the anchor of the American team.

“It was so fantastic,” she said. “Now he’s 15 and Robert (Dover, U.S. chef d’equipe) says he wants to freeze dry him. We really want to hold on to him for next year. We’ll show him very sparingly. He is such a solid citizen and never ever lets me down.”

Olivia made what she described as a “last-minute” change in training when she believed that both her and Lonoir, her 13-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding in their first Big Tour event in Europe, were “at a place where we were ready to up it.”

Both Robert Dover and Debbie McDonald with whom she trained during the winter in Florida, agreed to her request to work with a trainer she had stabled with in Germany.

It proved, she said, “to be a really, really good thing.”

The result in the Nations Cup that was a personal best Grand Prix score made her “super happy, over the moon happy. I couldn’t be happier, to do it in a team setting so you’re doing it not only for yourself.”

Both Laura and Olivia said the elimination of Dawn and Legolas did not alter their approach.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” Laura said. “We all watched the horse warm up. I don’t think anyone of us saw it coming. It was a moment in time for the particular movement. The welfare of the horse is always our top priority.

“To me it doesn’t matter whether we have three horses or six horses, I’m not going to ride any differently. My heart just went out for Dawn; an incredibly difficult situation for anyone.”

Olivia of Haymarket, Virginia was the first American to ride after Dawn. But she had already planned the ride she was hoping to perform so when she rode into the arena she was “100 per cent focused on my horse and doing the best we can.”

Results:

Individual CDIO5* Grand Prix