Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 14, 2022–Germany’s Frederic Wandres and Bluetooth OLD posted their first score above 80% to win the Global Dressage Festival World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle under lights and before spectators Friday night.

The USA’s Anna Buffini rode FRH Davinia la Douce to a personal best score for runner-up in the performance to which she sang the lyrics that were recorded for her music, while Ashley Holzer on Havanna clinched a start in the World Cup Final, if it is held in Leipzig, Germany after being canceled for the past two years.

Frederic and the 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding scored  81.065% for the victory and beat the pair’s previous best of 79.330% set at Aachen, Germany in September. The pair rode to a personal best score of 74.158% in the Grand Prix Thursday.

Video of the winning ride: https://s3.amazonaws.com/pbiec-cdn/video/gdf/2022/GDF%201/2022_GDF%201_CDI4W%20Freestyle.mp4

The German team rider, in his second year at Global, leads the World Cup Western European League with results in Europe on Bluetooth, Duke of Britain and Hot Hit.

Anna Buffini of San Diego, California and Davinia la Douce were awarded 78.485% that easily beat the duo’s previous best Freestyle result of 75.505% logged at this same show grounds exactly 11 months ago.

Ashley Holzer, based in Wellington, and Havanna, 15-year-old Hanoverian mare, scored 77.250% for third place and enough to clinch one of the two spots allocated to North America in the lineup of 18 combinations in the World Cup Final. Ashley, a four-time Olympian for Canada before switching to ride for the United States, and Havanna that was bought by Diane Fellows from Jessica von Bredow-Werndl in 2017, won two World Cup qualifiers last fall.

Frederic, a rider for Hof Kasselmann in Hagen, Germany, said the score of 81% “is really something I’m working for and to reach over 80% is always something really feeling fantastic and incredible.”

“I’m super happy,” he said of Bluetooth that is his backup mount to Duke of Britain, “that he’s in that atmosphere also really delivering that kind of super results.”

He admitted he had been “a little bit afraid” when he saw the performances of some of the first of 11 combinations in the competition react to spectators for the first time in two years as well as packed VIP pavilions in temperatures at ride time of 52F/11C, unseasonably chilly for sub-tropical Florida.

The 27-year-old Anna Buffini and Davinia la Douce that she bought from Anabel Balkenhol of Germany 15 months ago admitted she entered this World Cup qualifier on a whim.

“It’s incredible,” she said after her ride. “I really came into this season again with not a lot of expectations. It’s my second Grand Prix year, and I still haven’t had the mare super long. We’ve upped our degree of difficulty to 10 a few weeks ago because we knew we needed to be harder, and to come out here and do what she did was incredible. I’m so proud of her.

“She just tries so hard. I think you can see her heart out there, how hard she tries. She’s not a huge mare, she’s not the biggest-moving mare, and she gives absolutely everything she can every single time.”

Anna bought Davinia after a successful career at youth levels on Sundayboy that was retired four years ago.

She recently bought Fiontini, the Danish Warmblood mare that was ridden for Helgstrand Dressage by Severo Jurado Lopez to the triple world young horse championships at the ages of five, six and seven and in 2021 was competed successfully by Patrik Kittel of Sweden. A competition schedule for Fiontini has not yet been set though her coach, Günter Seidel, the three-time Olympic team bronze medalist for the U.S., is in Wellington to work with Annna.

Anontio Ax:son Johnson, whose Lövsta Stuteri sponsored the competition, said: “I thought this was going to be a very dull experience tonight, because after last year where we struggled, there was no audience and it’s been really difficult. When we walked in and there was all the usual noise plus even more, it was really unbelievable, because we’ve been coming here for so many years and seeing that everything is so vibrant again, it’s really exciting because we need it. We need it for dressage and the sport, and we need it for our horses, and we need it for ourselves. I thought that was terrific. It was really nice coming back.”

Results:

World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle