Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 27, 2021–Sabine Schut-Kerry rode Sanceo to a career high Grand Prix Special score and the highest of USA Olympic team prospects so far in winning the Global Dressage Festival CDI5* Saturday.

Sabine of Thousand Oaks, California and the 15-year-old Hanoverian stallion scored 77.468% to squeeze past the highest Special result of Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper of 77.340% posted in Thermal, California in November.

“I feel so much joy and happy tears,” the 52-year-old Sabine said, “it’s very emotional. Aside from those feelings, to ride the test, you are focused in there of course, but it’s also joyful; it’s an amazing feeling to have an animal like that to respond to you in there with such small aids and cues. That’s after 30 plus years that amazing feeling is still there for me, how we can communicate with an animal like that.”

Canada’s Lindsay Kellock on Sebastien placed second on 73.234%, the pair’s second Special result above 73% this year in the campaign for a place on her nation’s Olympic team.

Adrienne Lyle of Wellington, who was third on the U.S.-bred Harmony’s Duval on 73.149%, said the highlight of her day was to watch “Sabine’s amazing ride and watching those scores climb higher and higher to the point we know we’re all trying to get the US riders to. That made me cry on the sideline. It was so beautiful.”

The 52-year-old Sabine has been getting help from U.S. team coach Debbie McDonald since she has been in Wellington this year.

She first competed Sanceo (San Remo x Ramiro’s Son II) and owned by Alice Womble as a four-year-old in California then went to the World Six-Year-Old Championships in 2012 and was on the U.S. gold medal team at the 2015 Pan American Games.

“How many times in your life do you have a plan and you hope you can stick to it, but it doesn’t go right?” Sabine said. “This really feels like it all went to plan today. My goal was the Special, I did it a week before in the national show to prepare because we had been out of the ring since November, so today was nice. Thursday (the Grand Prix) was a little disappointing on my part as a rider, so it’s nice that today it worked out so well. It’s one of those special moments, and I know that I will always have to work hard for it, but it’s a moment of joy.”

Lindsay, who rode on Canada’s gold medal team at the 2019 Pan Ams, said of her ride on Sebastien, a 15-year-old Rhinelander gelding owned by Enterprise Farm Equestrian LLC: “Today he gave me everything and more than I was asking.

“I felt like I could push his passage way more than normal and he still came into that piaffe transition well; normally that is a little bit difficult because he has such a big passage.

“I’m just happy with how it’s all come together over the last year, having this year for training has been big, this is only his second year at international grand prix so I’m really thrilled with where he is and I just hope he can keep getting better.

“This is very helpful for me. Of course, my goal is to go to the Olympic Games. Our qualifiers are still not over and we’ll have to do another show after April 1, so anything can happen, but it puts us in a great position so I’m very happy about that.”

Results:

CDI5* Grand Prix Special