Dressage-News

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 2, 2019–The Dominican Republic’s Yvonne Losos de Muñiz on Felicia won the Iron Spring Farm Future Stars Performance Series qualifier Saturday while the USA’s Barbie Asplundh on Gorgeous as runner-up also earned an invitation to the final at the Global Dressage Festival at the end of March.

Yvonne and the nine-year-old KWPN mare (Vivaldi x Polansky) scored 71.438 per cent in the developing Prix St. Georges to qualify for the $10,000 final at the end of the Global winter circuit. Barbie of neighboring Loxahatchee and Gorgeous, her eight-year-old Dutch gelding (Charmeur x Special D) were runner-up in the qualifier.

The series-long event with the final scheduled for Global’s centerpiece international arena is sponsored by Iron Spring Farm of Coatesville, Pennsylvania and supported by Cunningham & Cunningham Livestock insurance and Legacy Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida operated by Melissa Taylor and Lars Petersen.

Yvonne, who competed at the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 World Cup Final and is a Pan American Games medalist, becomes the sixth foreign rider to qualify, joining two Germans, an Australian, a Canadian and a Swiss competitor with two more qualifying events to go.

Barbie, an adult amateur, is the fifth American to earn an invitation to the final of the series that is loosely based on the format of Germany’s Nürnberger Burg-Pokal for small tour horses aged seven to nine years old.

The series was introduced by Global for the first time this year as a national level competition with the aim of keeping showing costs to a minimum.

Once the first two combinations in any competition qualify, riders and horses next in line are offered an invitation to the final.

Qualifying Future Stars Performance Series competitions remaining for this winter circuit are scheduled for:

-GDF9 Mar. 7-10
-GDF10 Mar. 13-17

Final: GDF12 Mar. 27-31-International Arena, Global Dressage Festival