Dressage-News

By ILSE SCHWARZ

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 5, 2023–It was a very busy show for Global Dressage Festival week 8, also known as the Palm Beach Dressage Derby. The last classes in the international arena on Sunday were the Future Challenge qualifiers to wrap up a week of unseasonably hot, no, make that very hot, weather. It was exhausting for everyone but this didn’t stop a true quality line up of horses trying to qualify for the finals to be held during GDF 11,  Saturday, March 25. As a concession to the heat, the enormous and airy Van Kampen covered arena was opened up for the warm up; what a relief for horses and riders.

It is also interesting that we see an increasing percentage of riders in these classes being seasoned trainers and international competitors. This week alone saw Charlotte Jorst, Mikala Münter, Alice Tarjan, Emily Miles, Catherine Haddad Staller and Olivia Lagoy Weltz. This would seem to suggest that riders are starting to recognize the opportunity to show their developing stars in this environment when the atmosphere is decidedly low key. On Sunday, we were all wilting, with not a breath of air in the 90F (31C) temperatures. I am sure there was no breeze in the arena either, but the horses all looked fresh and energetic

I think Sunday showed overall the highest quality of horses I have seen in these qualifications. Across the board the horses all had three good gaits, with many more good walks than I am used to seeing. This is a wonderful thing.

The Buffalo Wild Wings Prix St Georges challenge started with Catherine Haddad Staller on the elegant mare Sola Diva (Sarotti Mocca-Sahne x De Niro). This mare gives a lovely first impression with a beautiful uphill frame and lovely energy, but at only seven years old she is understandably still green and this could be seen in some inability to maintain the beautiful uphill and correct carriage that she entered in. Hopefully, Catherine presents her again and we are able to see her in the finals. Fifth place on 66.421%.

The winner was Charlotte Jorst on her own eight-year-old gelding, Straight Horse Cosmo (Kastel’s Grand Galaxy Win x Glock’s Romanov). Charlotte clearly demonstrated the benefit of having a straight, balanced and confident entry and halt, followed by a quality medium trot, so she was at 75% early on. The test that followed was clean, flowing and correct. Charlotte asked a little more where she could, kept it quiet where necessary and just kept receiving marks of seven and 7.5 to finish with the winning score of 70.833%. There were no absolute highlights, but no mistakes and just a pleasure to watch from beginning to end. It will be fun to see what extra gears are in there for the final.

Second place and also earning a start in the final went to Olivia Lagoy Weltz on the eight-year-old mare Fade to Black (Fantastic 33 x St Moritz). Another mare of pure quality. Coincidentally, she is owned by Mary Anne McPhail, owner of the derby event. The horse has three beautiful gaits. Really uphill with lots of jump in the canter and a relaxed, ground covering walk. This test divided the judges somewhat with Clive Halsall at C and William Warren at B rewarding quality, each scoring the test with over 72%. Judge at H, Kari McClean, awarded them 65.735% as she focused more attention to the execution of the test, and for sure there were some small errors. Regardless, with a 7% spread, the judges had a discussion.

Alice Tarjan on her incredible nine-year-old mare, Jane (Desperado N.O.P x Metall), was the clear winner of the Lövsta Future Challenge Intermediare II class.
Alice has owned Jane since she was three.

“She’s a super honest horse and she’s got her own motor,” Alice said, “she always wants to go, which is nice to train—but she’s also very lightly shown and very spooky and aware of the environment. So, the puzzle is to try and figure out how to get her more comfortable in the show ring. It was sort of a funny test; we missed the twos but overall the issue is just to keep her more on my aids so I can ride a softer half-halt.”

Alice may have missed the twos but the piaffe/passage was an absolute highlight with the judge at C rewarding piaffe and transition at A with a 10 for both movements. I will go ahead and say that it was probably the best piaffe/passage I have seen all season at Global. The mare was really moving through her whole body with elasticity and suppleness. Although the mare appeared quite relaxed and focused, the test was somewhat marred by very audible grinding of her teeth, which definitely affected the scores. What a horse though, to watch her is to want her!

Emily Miles rode two horses, both stallions owned by Leslie Waterman—Sole Mio and Daily Show—into second and third places, respectively. Both show a lot of promise for the Grand Prix work but had truly green mistakes. Emily is based in La Cygne, Kansas, well away from dressage hot spots on the east and west coasts. She  is in Wellington through March. You can be sure she will be ironing out mistakes and planning more competition experience in this environment for her young talented stallions

Results:

Lövsta Future Challenge – Intermediate II

Buffalo Wild Wings Future Challenge – Prix St Georges