Katherine Bateson Chandler Rides Haute Couture to Wellington CDI3* Grand Prix Victory on Personal Best Score
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Mar. 14, 2024–Katherine Bateson Chandler burst into tears of relief when she rode Haute Couture to a personal best score to win the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Thursday beginning the third year of the partnership between the American team rider and the 12-year-old Dutch mare.
Katherine, based in Wellington, and the 12-year-old former Dutch European Championships team horse when ridden by Dinja van Liere, were awarded 71.913% for the first win in three starts so far this winter circuit. Four scores were above 70%–a high of 74.891%–while Portugal judge Miguel Gonçalves gave the pair a score of 69.891%.
Katherine coached by Ashley Holzer on the ground in Wellington and by Carl Hester of Great Britain by online video as well as lots of tips from Dinja has competed extensively on both sides of the Atlantic, including on Nartan on the U.S. team at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and on Alcazar at several Nations Cups including the premier event at Aachen, Germany as well as Wellington. Carl Hester is coming to Wellington next week which Katherine described as “awesome.
Geñay Vaughn of Elk Grove, California, on Gino, 13-year-old KWPN gelding, was runner-up on a personal best 69.522%. Geñay recently began training with Debbie McDonald.
Canada’s Ariana Chia on the 14-year-old P.R.E. stallion Guateque IV placed third on 69.022%.
The Grand Prix result was the best so far for Katherine and Haute Couture in the rider’s attempt to earn one of about eight spots for an American squad to go to Europe to compete for one of three places on the team for the Paris Olympics. After this week’s schedule, CDIs before the May 5 deadline include the season ending Global event Mar. 27-31; two events at Terra Nova in Myakka City on Florida’s west coast, April 4-7 and May 2-5; and one at Ocala’s World Equestrian Center April 10-14.
“Relieved,” was Katherine’s description of her feeling after the ride.
“We’ve had our ups and downs for sure. It’s been a really challenging season for me and I really needed this. We really put in the time and work to get her to where she was today, and she felt amazing today.
“This is a tough sport, you know what I mean? It’s been emotionally a very difficult ride. She’s a horse that obviously, you know, is a well-known horse. And I’m still getting to know her. We had a bit of a scare in Europe where she got spooked, and so we’ve sort of been getting her confidence back again, and getting my confidence back again.”
Katherine took Haute Courture to lots of different places around Wellington and she also got into some on the ground horsemanship.
“I had somebody come in and help us with that and I think we’ve been really dedicated to that and I think that’s really helped with our relationship and I love on the ground stuff,” she said. “I spent two hours with her on Monday just like playing and then I think that just helped build trust in our relationship so that’s been a big part of it.”
Social media, she admitted, “really played a bad role in this for me when I was having a hard time. I take things very personally. We all love our horses, it’s always been top of my priorities, horsemanship. So I’ve had to stay away from some of that. And it’s been a big learning curve, not to take things too personally.
“I’m just super lucky to have this support system that I have, because that’s really kept me grounded. And my husband, who’s awesome, he wasn’t gonna come today because he didn’t think he could and then I looked over and he was standing over in the corner, so that was nice to see.”
Results:
| Rank | Competitor | Score | E | H | C | M | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Katherine Bateson Chandler (USA) Haute Couture | 71.913% | 70.978 | 72.500 | 71.304 | 69.891 | 74.891 |
| 2. | Geñay Vaughn (USA) Gino | 69.522% | 69.130 | 70.870 | 69.022 | 68.478 | 70.109 |
| 3. | Ariana Chia (CAN) Guateque IV | 69.022% | 69.565 | 69.348 | 68.261 | 67.826 | 70.109 |
| 4. | Jessica Howington (USA) Serenade MF | 68.805% | 69.348 | 67.826 | 69.457 | 70.435 | 66.957 |
| 5. | Susan Dutta (USA) Don Design DC | 68.326% | 67.065 | 69.565 | 68.043 | 67.065 | 69.891 |
| 6. | Katie Duerrhammer (USA) Paxton | 68.239% | 65.761 | 69.674 | 67.609 | 69.130 | 69.022 |
| 7. | Hope Cooper (USA) Flynn PCH | 68.022% | 68.696 | 68.478 | 67.935 | 68.696 | 66.304 |
| 8. | Camille Carier Bergeron (CAN) Sound of Silence 4 | 68.000% | 68.587 | 68.804 | 68.587 | 65.870 | 68.152 |
| 9. | Jemma Heran (AUS) Saphira Royal 2 | 67.413% | 67.174 | 68.043 | 65.978 | 67.065 | 68.804 |
| 10. | Jill Irving (CAN) Delacroix 11 | 67.283% | 67.935 | 67.283 | 68.587 | 66.196 | 66.413 |
| 11. | Laurence Vanommeslaghe (FRA) Havalon | 67.239% | 69.239 | 68.696 | 67.065 | 67.174 | 64.022 |
| 12. | Chase Shipka (USA) Gladstone Zee T | 67.065% | 66.413 | 67.717 | 67.609 | 65.978 | 67.609 |
| 13. | Rakeya Moussa (CAN) Davidoff V.H. Trichelhof | 66.500% | 66.413 | 68.043 | 67.500 | 66.304 | 64.239 |
| 14. | Aaron Janicki (USA) Jinicole M | 66.348% | 66.304 | 67.174 | 66.630 | 64.565 | 67.065 |
| 15. | Micaela Mabragaña (ARG) Bradley Cooper | 65.674% | 66.304 | 64.891 | 65.326 | 65.109 | 66.739 |
| 16. | Nora Batchelder (USA) Nova | 65.565% | 65.326 | 66.196 | 67.283 | 67.174 | 61.848 |
| 17. | Tina Irwin (CAN) Fancy That | 64.478% | 64.348 | 65.326 | 65.109 | 63.370 | 64.239 |
| 18. | Sarah Daehnert (USA) Showhit | 64.348% | 64.022 | 65.761 | 64.348 | 63.696 | 63.913 |
| 19. | Kiichi Harada (JPN) Impression | 63.978% | 63.478 | 65.978 | 62.826 | 63.587 | 64.022 |
| 20. | Tom Dvorak (CAN) Cyrus | 63.956% | 61.848 | 65.109 | 63.152 | 64.130 | 65.543 |
| 21. | Barbara Bertschinger (SUI) Sonnenbergs Solisco CH | 63.891% | 61.848 | 65.543 | 64.239 | 63.043 | 64.783 |
| 22. | Holger Bechtloff (USA) Ferrari | 63.848% | 63.913 | 65.326 | 63.804 | 63.804 | 62.391 |
| 23. | Nicholia Clarke (USA) Sir Amour | 63.522% | 63.587 | 65.761 | 63.261 | 61.739 | 63.261 |
| 24. | Micah Deligdish (ISR) Santos | 63.457% | 62.717 | 64.674 | 64.022 | 63.587 | 62.283 |
| 25. | Ellen McCarthy (GBR) Brave Heart | 62.892% | 63.587 | 64.457 | 61.957 | 64.674 | 59.783 |
| 26. | Delphine Mulliez (FRA) Gentelman | 61.456% | 58.043 | 63.043 | 61.739 | 62.717 | 61.739 |
| 27. | Tina Konyot (USA) J Everdale | 60.630% | 60.217 | 60.652 | 60.761 | 60.870 | 60.652 |
| 28. | Adriane Alvord (USA) Selfmade | 60.174% | 60.870 | 60.326 | 59.348 | 60.978 | 59.348 |
| 29. | Sahar Daniel Hirosh (ISR) Bialik | 60.109% | 62.065 | 60.217 | 58.804 | 60.761 | 58.696 |
| 30. | Joanne Vaughan (GEO) Hero V.D.T. | 57.609% | 59.022 | 56.848 | 56.739 | 58.804 | 56.630 |
| WD | Delphine Mulliez (FRA) Flintstone | withdrawn | |||||
| WD | James Irwin (CAN) Simsalabim | withdrawn | |||||
| WD | Gabriel Martin Armando (ARG) San Rio | withdrawn | |||||
 Find details on Equestrian Hub |
