Dressage-News

By ILSE SCHWARZ

WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 13, 2023–During the 12 weeks of the Global Dressage Festival, there are “Future Challenge” qualifiers running during each CDI week, culminating in the finals in week 12.

Many of you are aware that I cover the Young Horse World Championships almost every year, so I thought I would focus some coverage on this series to bring awareness to something that could be seen as the next step after the young horse classes. I love the process of developing and training horses and then presenting them at competition and this series is all about development of future CDI horses.There is a Prix St. Georges class for horses aged 7-9 years old, sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings, and an Intermediate II class, for horses 8-10 years old, sponsored by Lövsta, the Swedish company that has made significant investments on both sides of the Atlantic to promote development of horse sports.

The young horse classes for 4-6 year-old horses, generally do not receive many entries in Wellington, though FEI entries especially are generally rather enormous–entries for the Prix St Georges classes in GDF5 in both national and the CDI1* were no exception with 27 entries in the CDI and entries of close to or more than 20 in the national classes, from Thursday through Sunday. It was the same for the Grand Prix classes.

Clearly the idea of competition that supports the development of young FEI horses makes sense here. A competition that allows young horses to experience CDI judging without the pressure of actually having to be CDI ready.

In the first year, the qualification classes were held in the national arenas on Sunday mornings, with the final in the International arena. To say that this first final was something of a train wreck would not probably not be an overstatement!

The talented, confident horses that had shone in their comfort zone of the national arenas were asked to perform in the international arena for the finals and were suddenly surrounded by spectator stands, could not see any of the horses in other arenas. People in the VIP tents were clunking forks on plates, and walking around above equine eye level… basically a potential nightmare scenario for every horse. On top of that, many of the riders are not seasoned CDI competitors and comfortable in the international arena, so many also rode quite differently.

It was rather eye-opening, so rather than abandon the idea of this series, the qualifications were changed to take place, every CDI Sunday in the international arena, with three CDI judges. Replicating the environment where the final would be held and giving both riders and horses a chance to experience the “big arena” during qualification.

In the PSG qualifier, the top two placegetters are qualified for the final. In the Int. II class just the winner is qualified. Unfortunately I was unable to watch the first qualifiers, during GDF3. The PSG horses and riders qualified from that show are: Michael Klimke of Germany and the 9-year-old Harmony’s Fado (Fairytale x Sir Donnerhall) and Kelly Layne, a Wellington-based Australian, and the 8-year-old Living Diamond (Livaldon x Furst Rousseau). The Int. II horse was Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, New Jersey and the eight-year-old Somersby (Sezuan x Sandro Hit).

The St. Georges qualifier for AGDF5 had nine entries, a few of whom had ridden in the first qualifier. There is no limit to how many times you can ride in the qualifiers. So insecure horses have a chance to settle over the series.

All were clearly nice moving talented horses. Unfortunately, the weather Gods decided on a very windy day bringing a cold front into Florida. A couple of the horses were clearly overwhelmed by the baskets of pink hydrangeas at each letter and perhaps by the noise of the VIP tent flapping.

It became apparent very quickly that if the riders could just pilot a mistake-free ride with harmony and correct walk pirouettes and good canter pirouettes, it was likely they were going to win the class.

And this is exactly what Charlotte Jorst of Reno, Nevada and her nine-year-old mare Federle (Furstenball x Farewell 111) did for first place on 71.666%. The test looked so confident and harmonious. This combination had placed third in the previous qualifier and put their experience to good use.

Charlotte assured me that there was plenty left in the tank to “go for it” a little more in the finals.

Most of the horses all were above or near 70% at the end of the trot tour but the walk and then canter tour separated the field.

Marcus Orlob, a long time coach of Alice Tarjan, and the Alice-owned Glory Day, a seven-year-old stallion by Kastel’s Grand Galaxy Win x Deemster has an incredible trot with power, lift, cadence… and was well in front after the trot tour… but then had some small mistakes in both the walk and canter pirouettes. His score of 69.264% was enough for second.

The Intermediare11 class is a tough one to find many rides, I think.

Although there are many many Grand Prix horses competing in Wellington, it takes a special horse and rider to be ready to show in this age bracket. So there are many fewer entries in this class. I know there are more developing Grand Prix hoses competing here, so maybe by raising awareness of this series entries can increase the entries.

Marcus Orlob and the 9-year-old Spirit of Joy (Sir Calypso x Sandro Bedo) was the sole entry, and are qualified for the final.