Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar 19, 2021–Frederic Wandres, riding Quizmaster to a musical routine borrowed a day earlier, won the Global Dressage Festival CDIO3* Intermediate I Freestyle under lights Friday night to complete a Small Tour sweep of the Nations Cup that was also a farewell performance before returning home to Germany.

In the first musical performance for Frederic and the nine-year-old Hanoverian stallion, the duo received a score of 78.875% for the freestyle that was borrowed from his Hagen, Germany neighbor Patricia Koschel who had ridden Leuchtfeuer DE to it. His only rehearsal was to watch it once on clipmyhorse.de. Patricia, who with her husband Christoph, spends winters in Wellington missed the ride as she was home in Germany with her children.

Nations Cup team mate Kevin Kohmann on Five Star was second on 77.040% in what was likely his last ride under the German flag as he has become an American citizen and intends to compete under the Stars and Stripes. Kevin has been a trainer at Diamante Farms, owned by Terri and Devon Kane, in Wellington for the past five years.

Australia’s Sally Lofting, based in West Grove, Pennsylvania, was third on Quinlan CF on 69.345%.

Frederic, on Germany’s Olympic squad with Duke of Britain that he will resume training when he returns home next Wednesday, has experienced an emotional roller coaster in his first ever competition season in the United States.

In the first week of competition at the end of January, he rode Harrods at Small Tour and a day later Rebroff, a 12-year-old Rhinelander gelding, to win the CDI3* Grand Prix, the first Big Tour start for the partnership. The next day, the horse collapsed and died in his stall at the show grounds from what turned out to be a ruptured aorta.

The 33-year-old Frederic returned to the arena two weeks later with Quizmaster that he later rode at Small Tour in the mixed format Nations Cup.

Despite three straight days of Nations Cup competition–Prix St. Georges, Intermediate 1 and Intermediate Freestyle–in really hot South Florida weather Quizmaster was ready to keep going.

“I realized in the prize giving earlier that when he hears the music the fire gets on,” he said. “Today in the extended canter I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa… he was on.

“It’s the third day of competition in really hot weather and he wants to go more and more. After the test I said to Lars, my groom, ‘I have the feeling I can do exactly the same round again and he will be fresh.’ He is full of energy.”

This was the first year of Hof Kasselmann establishing a sales operation in Wellington that he said had gone well–all the horses that were brought over were sold.

With no shows being held in Germany, he said, “to come here and to compete and see how the horses develop, it was time to bring them out, and to do it here in Wellington with this atmosphere, around those who support us even when it’s not so good, I feel super lucky to be here.”

However, he misses Duke of Britain but gets two three videos a week of the horse being worked in Hagen.

The schedule of training and shows is uncertain because of the  viruses, but Frederic is hoping for a resumption of competition in Germany by the Hagen CDI3* the third week of April.

Results:

CDIO3* Int. 1 Freestyle