All 8 Horses on USA Olympic Dressage Short List Cleared for First Head-to-Head Competition at Hagen, Germany CDI3*
6 months ago StraightArrow Comments Off on All 8 Horses on USA Olympic Dressage Short List Cleared for First Head-to-Head Competition at Hagen, Germany CDI3*
HAGEN, Germany, June 5, 2024–All eight horses on the United States Olympic dressage short list were cleared Wednesday for their first head-to-head competition at Hagen, Germany CDI3* leading to selection of the thee-member team for Paris just seven weeks away. Six of the horses are new to European CDIs with their American riders.
The veteran Steffen Peters is partnered with Suppenkasper which he rode on America’s silver medal teams at the Tokyo Games three years ago and the 2018 World Equestrian Games and Katherine Bateson Chandler competed Haute Couture in Europe last summer.
Because of the large number of entries at Hof Kasselmann, six of the eight American combinations compete Thursday but the two California riders, Anna Buffini and Steffen Peters are scheduled for Friday.
Marcus Orlob with the 10-year-old mare Jane that earned a place on the short list squad with outstanding performances in Florida qualifiers is the first of American short list contingent to go, at 11:03am local/5:03 US Eastern time.
The new U.S. combinations include the European debuts of Zen Elite Equestrian Center’s three horses acquired in late 2023–Bohemian, the Danish Olympic team horse, now ridden by Endel Ots, and Helix and Lars van de Hoenderheide ridden by Adrienne Lyle, a two-time Olympian who was a team mate at both Tokyo and the 2018 WEG on Salvino, now retired from top sport.
Anna Buffini will also be making her first European competition on Fiontini, the Danish Warmblood mare that was world champion at five, six and seven years of age when ridden by Severo Jurado Lopez of Spain for Helgstrand Dressage.
Anna Marek on Fire Fly, on the 2019 Pan American Games gold medal team at Santiago, Chile will also make their first appearance in a European CDI. Anna competed Fayvel in her first World Cup Final at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia two months ago.
The CDI3* Grand Prix is scheduled to start at 10am local/4am US Eastern time Thursday and 8 am local/2am US Eastern time Friday.
The event will be streamed live by clipmyhorse.tv.
