Kasey Perry-Glass Rides Heartbeat W.P. to Another Personal Best Score to Win Wellington CDI3* Grand Prix Special for Pair’s First Double Victory

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Kasey Perry Glass on Heartbeat W.P. in the Global Dressage Festival Grand Prix Special. © 2025 Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 22, 2025–Kasey Perry-Glass rode Heartbeat W.P. to another personal best score to win the Global Dressage Festival CDI3* Grand Prix Special Saturday for the pair’s first double victory after the Grand Prix two days earlier.

The rider, 2016 Olympic and 2018 World Games medalist for USA on Dublet, said she was gaining more confidence on the 13-year-old KWPN gelding that Kasey began at Grand Prix a year ago.

The partnership scored 72.362% for win, one of the top Big Tour scores on this year’s Global circuit. She works with team mates Adrienne Lyle, Allison Brock and others as a group of American riders working together as a coaching successor to Debbie McDonald, the former U.S. team coach as well as personal coach of several of the riders, who is spending more time with her family in Idaho.

Susan Pape of Great Britain and a competitor for several years on Wellington’s winter circuit and Harmony’s Giulilanta were runners-up on 70.851%. The 14-year-old KWPN is jointly owned by Susan and Harmony Sporthorses of Colorado.

Kasey said that “for a long time I’ve kind of felt like just a pilot up there and I think I’m starting to be able to slow down the test in my mind and really start to train in there and produce more.”

The performance today, she said, confirmed that the Special with extensive tours of piaffe and passage will be best for Heartbeat, a horse that has special meaning for her.

Kasey became emotional explaining that the day she left her Wellington farm for Europe to try Hearbeat, her mother-in-law died.

“I feel like just to buy a horse that is so special like he is, and his name is Heartbeat, it’s like it kind of all was full circle and I feel like she was a big part of that,” she said. “It might sound really sentimental, but it was it was truly a trip that kept getting pushed back and so for me to leave and she was so adamant that I go. And then we ended up finding him. It was meant to be; it’s really special.”

Heartbeat she described as “a total toddler. He’s a people horse. So he doesn’t like other horses. So he kind of attaches himself to Megan (Laffin, his groom) and I. He’s used to being outside all day and just being kind of on his own. And so here he’s getting a bit spoiled. So he has his hay bag in front of his stall to keep him busy. And he likes to be out every hour, two hours. He comes out of the CDI barn ready to go. It’s nice to be able to have a horse with that energy.”

Results:
CDI3* Grand Prix Special
RankCompetitorScoreEHCMB
1.
Kasey Perry-Glass (USA)
Heartbeat W.P.
72.362%72.97970.74573.29871.59673.191
2.
Susan Pape (GBR)
Harmony’s Giulilanta
70.851%70.10669.78771.91572.02170.426
3.
Caroline Roffman (USA)
Libertee
68.617%68.40469.25569.36271.48964.574
4.
Katherine Bateson Chandler (USA)
Haute Couture
68.128%67.23467.12870.00067.76668.511
5.
Benjamin Ebeling (USA)
Bellena
66.744%64.57466.48967.97966.48968.191
6.
Meagan Davis (USA)
Toronto Lightfoot
66.425%65.00067.34065.00066.59668.191
7.
Holger Bechtloff (USA)
Ferrari
60.957%61.17059.25559.46860.74564.149
WD
Pablo Gómez Molina (ESP)
Ulises de Ymas
scratched
Find details on Equestrian Hub