USA Olympic Medalist Kasey Perry-Glass & Dublet Return to Competition, Winning Wellington CDI3* Grand Prix
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 28, 2018–The American Olympic team bronze medal partnership of Kasey Perry-Glass and Dublet returned with a winning performance after an eight-month break by capturing the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Wednesday.
Kasey and the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding that are also the 2017 United States Grand Prix champions were awarded 73.217 per cent after an error-free ride as the last combination in the starting lineup of 19 pairs representing seven nation.
“I haven’t had that feeling in a long time,” the 31-year-old described the return from a break that she described as a “re-set.”
“He felt like a young horse again. He’s 15, but he felt young. I’m very happy to have that feeling.
“I haven’t felt that feeling in a long time. After three years in Grand Prix, I feel that after three years I’m at that point where I’m able to channel it. I feel like he deserves the best. He is one of the best. Now its up to me to find out how I can get him there.”
Arlene “Tuny” Page of Wellington, Florida on Woodstock placed second on 71.435 per cent with Yvonne Losos de Muñiz of the Dominican Republic on Foco Loco W, the horse she will take to the World Cup Final in Paris next month, third on 70.804 per cent.
Kasey, one of six combinations on the U.S. Elite squad, is one the relatively new generation of riders that have become a “team” in and out of the competition arena. She won the Groom of the Week award when grooming for Olympic team mate Laura Graves and Verdades earlier on this winter circuit, a favor Laura will return later this week.
Originally from California but based in Wellington to work with Debbie McDonald, as does Laura Graves on Verdades, U.S. team riders Adrienne Lyle, Olivia LaGoy-Weltz, Jennifer Baumert and others, she plans to go to Tryon. North Carolina next month to compete in the CDI3* World Equestrian Games test event. If all goes as planned, Europe is on the schedule for the summer along with several other pairs looking to be selected for the American team for the WEG in September.
Kasey and Dublet first competed at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington in 2014 and again in 2015, at small tour. The duo went with the Pan American Games long listed combinations to Europe that summer.
The pair moved up to Grand Prix in 2016, competing on Wellington’s winter circuit to earn a place on the group to go to Europe in the summer. She was successful in being selected for the team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that went on to win bronze, the first medal at the Games for the Americans since 2004.
Kasey and Dublet competed on the Wellington circuit again in 2017, to qualify for one of the two spots reserved for North America at the World Cup Final in Omaha.
Then, the pair went on to claim the U.S. Grand Prix title and qualified and went to Europe with the United States team, winning gold at the Nations Cup in Rotterdam and silver at the World Equestrian Festival Nations Cup in Aachen, Germany, their last competition before Wednesday.
“We had three years of really hard work,” she explained. “It was time for him to have a break. We both needed it; It was a really trying year for both us.”
Of Dublet’s downtime over the fall, Kasey said, “he’s a Rio medalist. He deserved it… and all the bananas in the world.”
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