Dressage-News

WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb 26, 2022–Carrie Schopf, the sole Armenian in international equestrian sport, rode Saumur to victory on a career high score at the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Special Saturday for the second victory in the competition.

The score of 70.979% for Carrie and the 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding was the first of at least 70% for the 64-year-old American-born rider in 15 years of international dressage on four different horses in Europe and Florida. The 64-year-old Carrie won the Grand Prix Thursday on 69.087%.

“It is exciting,” she said after the ride. “But you ride them every day, and you’re working toward kind of a goal. So in the end, if he would’ve been first, second, or third, or fifth, or whatever today, when he goes into the show ring and does what he did, which is to meet me in there, and as long as I rode properly, he went properly, so then your feeling is that you’re on the right track.

“That you’re doing the right work that benefits the horse, and helps him to become the athlete that our sport would like him to become. And so it’s very gratifying. I mean, winning is… you know, anybody can win on a given day, especially when the scores were as close as they were today. And today I just turned out to be the one that ended up with the top score. But it’s gratifying to have your work and your thought process, and the way you think you want to develop a horse to have that rewarded.”

Jessica Howington of Ocala, Florida on Cavalia was second on 70.149% with Codi Harrison of Wellington on Katholt’s Bossco third on 68.872%.

Carrie, who lives in Bremen, Germany, is the only Armenian known to have ever competed in international dressage. A review of records for all international equestrian disciplines found no other Armenian participants.

Carrie has competed on the Wellington winter circuit for the past seven years and her results fulfill qualifying requirements to compete at the world championships in Herning, Denmark in August. The pair rode at the 2019 European Championships.

While riding as an amateur, Carrie and Saumur won an Intermediate II at Wellington four years ago.

With her husband, Bernd, she keeps her horses at home.

She was born in the United States to her parents who had fled the former Soviet state of Armenia to escape genocide. She later moved to Germany and while there sought Armenian citizenship. She began riding for the nation of fewer than three million people in 2018.

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix Special