Dressage-News

DEVON, Pennsylvania, Oct. 1, 2022–Alice Tarjan and the American-bred Serenade MF won the World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle Saturday night, the first qualifying competition in North America in the six-month long campaign to earn a start in the Final at Omaha in six months.

Alice and the nine-year-old Hanoverian mare scored 76.515% the highest of the two international level musical performances by the partnership based at nearby Oldwick, New Jersey.

The result earned the pair 20 points with nine more qualifiers, four of them in Florida where Alice bases herself for the winter. North America, comprising Canada, Mexico and the United States gets three of the 18 places in the Final.

Alice, who has never competed at the World Cup or any international championship, claimed the United States Grand Prix Championship with Serenade in August after a European tour where the pair were reserve for the American team at the world championships. Alice and Candescent, like Serenade one of several horses she has bought as a youngster and trained to top sport, won the U.S. Grand Prix championship in 2021.

Canada’s Megan Lane and Zodiac MW also posted a personal best 75.220% to place second,  on 67.100%. Zodiac, a KWPN gelding now 19 years old, was ridden by Megan at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon.

Michael Bragdell rode Qredit Hilltop, a 14-year-old Oldenburg stallion owned by Hilltop Farm in Colora, Maryland to third place on 73.130%. Michael is Hilltop’s rider.

This was the first of 10 qualifiers in the North America league comprising Canada, Mexico and the United States that will qualify three riders for the Final of the only international championships. It will be held in Omaha next April, after the Midwestern city staged it for the first time in 2017.

Results:

World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle