Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 23, 2023–Morgan Barbançon rode both Habana Libre A and Bolero with such confidence gained from three months competing at the Global Dressage Festival that she placed first and second Thursday for the first time in 16 years of horse sports.

Morgan who rides for France placed first on 72.370% on Habana Libre, the 11-year-old that she has been competing at Big Tour for just one year, and runner-up on 71.109% on Bolero, aged 17. Both are KWPN geldings and both rides were mistake-free.

Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén of Sweden on Devanto, 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding, was third on 70.543%.

The 30-year-old Morgan with two Olympics, two world championships, four World Cup Finals and six European Championships from ponies in 2007 to Big Tour in 2021 made her first ever appearance on Florida’s winter circuit in early January.

She has started 25 times so far in Wellington, with six victories and two third places on Habana Libre, two wins, two second and a third on Bolero, and on a third horse, Deodoro,  a 12-year-old Westfalen gelding that she is scheduled to start in the CDI3* Grand Prix Friday, a win and a third place.

She goes home next week but will return to the United States by the end of next week with Sir Donnerhall II OLD that has been her main mount since 2018 for Omaha and their fourth World Cup Final.

Laughing that she wouldn’t be able to call Habana Libre a baby any more because of his successes here, Morgan said the horse was motivated to go. “I can feel he’s getting more and more confident week by week and I’m so excited for the summer.”

“I used to be sometimes not really confident but competing here so much with so many different horses gave me a boost of confidence,” she said. “Like today I came and, ‘OK!, I’m riding’.”

“I used to be sometimes not really confident but competing here so much with so many different horses in a row gave me a boost of confidence,” she said. “Like today I came and, I’m like ‘OK!, I’m riding’.

“I was not, ‘Who’s going to make a mistake. No, today I’m riding. Today, we’re going to do it together, we’re going to go through it’.

“I feel I’ve grown in confidence in the ring. Sometimes I get stressed with a new horse, some things are not stable, mistakes are right around the corner.

“It’s not that way now–I feel like I can really ride it through. I know what I have to do. It has made me grow as a rider as well as the horse–rider, trainer, horse.”

Will it be reflected in riding “Gus,” as she calls Sir Donnerhall, in Omaha?

“I’m leaving on a confident note,” she said, “so when you ride with a confident feeling it has a positive effect. I know this horse really well, the pros and cons what I can ride well and what I have to ride correct fault-free.”

Morgan has felt pushed competing in Wellington that she said “gave me a real confidence boost. I’m super happy.”

Results:

CDI4* Grand Prix