For one person, covering everything that’s happening in Wellington on a show week is impossible, even though the distance between the dressage and hunter/jumper showgrounds is relatively short. But with nearly 20 rings going, it can be tough to keep track.
While I was watching dressage last week in the stadium at the Equestrian Village, a hunter derby was happening on the grass–all day. The announcing from two different positions offered an interesting juxtaposition of scores. And it was kind of fun to watch a piaffe and then swivel over to see a horse jumping on the grass.
The shows at the Winter Equestrian Festival and Adequan Global Dressage Festival were both 5-stars in dressage and jumping, but there was plenty to report that wasn’t one of the big classes. There are interesting stories everywhere. Here are a couple.
Alice Tarjan continued her winning streak yesterday as the Adequan Global Dressage Festival wrapped up its seventh week with a victory in the qualifier for the Lövsta Future Challenge/Young Horse Grand Prix aboard the elegant Jane, a daughter of Desperado NOP, who lost her tense expression once she focused on the test in the stadium at Equestrian Village.
“It took a little while to bring her along. She didn’t really show until I did two I-2’s (Intermediate II) with her this year,” said Alice, reporting on the mare’s background after earning a score of 71 to top a three-horse field. Earlier in the week, she won the national FEI Grand Prix on Donatella M. (See that story by clicking this link .)
Discussing the”lightly campaigned Jane,” she said, “the plan was to get some miles on her, because she’s obviously really spooky, and she’s never been anywhere. So I’m thrilled. I’m really happy.”
Alice, who is based in Oldwick, N.J., and Loxahatchee, Fla., trains with Marcus Orlob of Annandale, N.J., and former U.S. technical advisor Debbie McDonald.
Alice pointed out about Jane, “You saw she went around (in) the beginning, she was really spooky and impressed. But once she goes to work, man, the horse goes to work, and she’s so honest. It’s so nice to ride a horse like that that’s just easy and straightforward.”
Evaluating Jane’s performance, Alice said, “the horse basically knows all the tricks.” She conceded the one-tempi lead changes are still a bit green.
“The issue is trying to keep the self-carriage and the softness and the harmony throughout the test. I lose it for sure, but I’m happy because I can get it back. The two’s (two tempis) she was really honest in. And the piaffe- passage; that horse is just so honest. She’ll just do it all day long and never thinks twice about it.” commented Alice.
“It’s easy for her, she’s happy to do it. It’s nice to ride something that’s really straight forward,” added Alice, who brings up all her mounts from the young horse stage to Grand Prix.
She isn’t sure what comes next for Jane, since she wasn’t expecting to win.
“The goal this year was to try to qualify for Lövsta (finals), so I didn’t think it was going to happen so fast.”
“I think it’s fantastic for the horses to come and be able to get the experience in the stadium. And then especially to have that quality of judges and know that those scores actually count and that they mean something.”
Lövsta Future Challenge joined Brooke USA’s Paint Wellington Orange, an initiative created to build awareness and raise funds for the plight of working horses, donkeys and mules and the people who depend on them for survival worldwide. For each entry throughout the season, in jumping as well in dressage, Lövsta Future Challenge will donate $100 to Brooke USA.
The partnership with Lövsta Future Challenge provides Brooke USA with a platform to expand awareness of the donkey hide trade which is jeopardizing donkey populations all over the world. Half the world’s donkeys could be wiped out in the next five years, as millions are slaughtered to meet the rising demand for “ejiao,” a gelatin-like product used in traditional Chinese medicine and derived from boiling the hides of donkeys. Believed to improve blood circulation and treat conditions such as anemia, infertility, and impotence, ejiao is found in powders, tonics cosmetics and even food products.
Carrie Schopf was victorious Saturday in the 3-star Grand Prix Special, enjoying it in a big way. After knowing her ride on Saumur merited 70.979 percent, she did a little dance (arms only, of course, since was riding) as she went around the ring and exited the arena.
A native of California who lives in Germany most of the year, Carrie qualified at the show to represent Armenia in the world championships this summer.
She chose Armenian citizenship because that is her family’s heritage, and she has visited the country a number of times. Carrie has owned Saumur, a 14-year-old flashy white-stockinged Oldenburg, for seven years.
She showed off some exciting extensions in a performance that played to Saumur’s strengths.
“This is a very forward test in the trot work especially,” she pointed out. That means, “if you swing with them, you can really capture that energy. You can really let them sail, so I just stepped on the gas pedal and went.”
A half-mile down the road at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, Germany’s Daniel Deusser continued his own winning streak in Sunday’s $75,000 Captive One Advisors 1.50-meter Championship Classic competition that drew 54 starters, with 15 making it through to the jump-off.
Daniel produced a good effort in the tie-breaker with the famous Killer Queen VDM, but it would only be good enough for fifth place. Still, it enabled him to reconnoiter the shortened course and produce the fastest time on another mare, Kiana Van Het Herdershof. She was clocked in 33.36 seconds, more than a second better than another Stephex rider, Petronella Andersson with Halita O in 34.87 seconds.
Daniel, as charming as he is athletic, explained the mare is “naturally very fast. Mostly she wants to do it quicker than other ones and that definitely was my advantage in the jump-off.” Kiana earned herself some time off as Killer Queen goes in the grand prix next week. Although she has done some 1.60 meter grands prix, “It is much easier for her to win these kind of classes,” Daniel said.
“You need to have a proper grand prix horse, but you also need to have the second horses that are faster. The sport has changed in the last couple of years and gotten so much faster in general.”
In two weeks, he will go to the Dutch Masters and a show in Paris the week after, before coming back for the last two weeks of the Winter Equestrian Festival.
“These will be the first two indoor shows in Europe after a long break that are open again and allowed to organize,” he said, talking about the effect that Covid restrictions had on the sport abroad.
The former world number one was hoping to qualify for the World Cup Finals in Leipzig, Germany, but couldn’t find a way to get to the first Cup finals in three years.
“The last six qualifications I wanted to do were all cancelled in Europe,” he explained. They were casualties of Covid, just as was the case last year, when he came to Florida for the first time in three or four years as an alternative and loved it.
“The weather and circumstances here are very, very nice,” he told me then.
“It is a better feeling to come here in our winter and compete in the sun and outside. In the warm conditions, the horses move a little better than in cold conditions.”