Victory by Marcus Orlob on Jane on Personal Best Score at Kronberg, Germany CDI4* 2nd Highest in Grand Prix for American This Year
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June 21, 2024
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
The victory by Marcus Orlob on Jane on a personal best score and the second highest Grand Prix result for an American behind only Steffen Peters on Suppenkasper this year puts him firmly in the top four riders and horses ahead of next Tuesday’s selection of the United States team for the Paris Olympics in five weeks.
The personal best result of 73.913% for Marcus and the American-trained 10-year old mare has created a media sensation in Germany, the birthplace of the rider who based in Loxahatchee, the community neighboring Wellington in Florida and where owner Alice Tarjan, coached for years by Marcus, is located in winters with the large herd of exceptional horses she has an unusual skill of finding on the Internet. Alice is grooming for him while in Europe.
The short listed squad of up to eight riders and nine horses has shrunk in the European stage of the selection trials at a time after the retirements of several horses that provided U.S. teams silver medals at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in 2018 and the Tokyo Olympics.
It has left Marcus in company with five-time Olympian Steffen Peters on his Tokyo Games silver medal mount Suppenkasper; two-time Olympian Adrienne Lyle on Helix over Lars van de Hoenderheide.that is competing for Heidi Humphries’ Zen Elite Equestrian Center, and Endel Ots on Zen Elite’s Bohemian. Anna Marek on her Pan American Games team gold medal mount Fire Fly that has remained consistent throughout the lengthy trials but with scores are slightly below the top group of four.
All but Steffen on Suppenkasper are partnerships newly created and making their Big Tour debuts within the past four months.
Marcus began riding under the Stars ‘n’ Stripes in 2019 and had scant Big Tour experience before Alice asked him to take over the ride on Jane.
Marcus recalled that he had told Alice when first offered the ride that dreams of a start in Paris “could never work out.”
He and Jane made their CDI debut at Wellington’s Global Dressage Festival at the end of March. The pair did well enough in four Florida CDIs to be picked to go to Europe as part of the Olympic team selection process.
With no previous international level competition experience in Europe, he got his feet wet at a national event to place second behind superstar Isabell Werth.
In the only head-to-head competition for the American short-listed combinations at Hagen, Germany in early June the 42-year-old rider and Jane were fourth ranked U.S. pair on a score of 71.936% in the Grand Prix Special.
“Today I thought: Come on, let’s step it up a notch, the competition never sleeps,” he said of the Schafhof CDI4*. “I thought it was great that the mare took it so well.”
Marcus told dressage-news.com that he thinks he can make the rides on Jane “prettier and with even more cadence” and smooth out other rough spots.
Piaffe-passage was more expressive as were the extensions, but “it takes time and the time is ticking.”
Even before the Olympic team is decided he and Jane were named to the squad to compete in the CDIO5* Nations Cup at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany the world’s premier dressage and jumping event scheduled for the first week of July.
“It was always my dream to ride in Aachen one day,” he said. “And now everything is suddenly happening very quickly.”
Marcus grew up in Düsseldorf, not far from Aachen. He completed an apprenticeship as a rider at Johan Zagers’ stables and often rode at Hubertus Schmidt’s stables during the school holidays. “Then I did my rider’s test in Warendorf and happened to talk to an American girl there.” he laughs. “We got married and I went to the USA 16 years ago.”
