Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 10, 2020–Canada’s Pan American Games team gold medal partnership of Jill Irving and Degas posted a personal best score to win the Adequan Global Dressage Festival World Cup Freestyle Friday night and lead a Canadian sweep of the top three places for the second day.

Jill and the 18-year-old Hanoverian gelding scored 76.060% for the win, a day after capturing the Grand Prix and logging only their second Grand Prix freestyle victory in almost six years of Big Tour competition. The previous win was at Saugerties, New York in 2016.

Jill, who got Degas at age six, said the horse now 18 years old now was not as nervous as in the past which prevented her from riding the victory gallop.

Britanny Fraser-Beaulieu and All In, as they did in the Grand Prix, placed second on 75.740%, in only their second competition since she gave birth to her first child last summer.

Brittany said the start of her ride on the 15-year-old KWPN gelding “felt absolutely incredible, probably the best feeling I’ve ever had on him.”

She and All In, on Canada’s Pan Am silver medal team in 2015 and at the Tryon World Equestrian Games in 2018, “came out ready to rock,” but needs more time in the arena to get back into top form.

This was the first Friday night under lights musical performance for Naima Moreira-Laliberté on Statesman, also on Canada’s 2019 Pan Am gold medal team, that placed third on a personal best 75.645%.

Naima, 23 years old, was “just happy to break the ice” of dealing with the atmosphere in only the third Big Tour freestyle for Statesman since the pair moved up from the Under-25 division eight months ago.

“I’ve been looking forward to this moment for a long time,” she said of the horse she began riding 18 months ago. “I thought he did a great job.”

None of the riders complained of intermittent and occasional heavy rain showers and gusty winds in the first of four World Cup qualifiers in Florida leading to the final in Las Vegas in April.

Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper, who did not compete in the World Cup freestyle, is the clear leader in the North American League standings with two of three scores required, averaging 80.370%. Steffen, World Cup champion on Ravel in 2009, has said he plans to pursue one of the two places reserved for North America.

Canada’s Lindsay Kellock who placed sixth on a score of 73.455% is the only combination in North America to have completed three competitions, and have an average of 73.641%. The Rhinelander gelding is 14 years old but was competing in only its fourth Big Tour competition.

Results:

CDI-W World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle