Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, N.J., took her second FEI Dressage World Cup Finals qualifying freestyle in a month as she won the Freestyle competition at the Tryon, N.C., show today with Serenade MF.
She was marked at 75 percent over the show’s Grand Prix winner, Julio Mendoza Loor of Ecuador on Jewel’s Goldstrike (74.185). They were the only competitors in the four-horse class to break 70 percent.
Alice also won the freestyle during Dressage at Devon at the beginning of October. She and Serenade were the alternates for the FEI World Dressage Championships last summer.
Alice and Serenade at Devon. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
While Alice will have to continue competing her U.S.-bred mare through the winter in order to earn one of the three North American slots for the finals in Omaha April 4-8, those who want to attend the Cup as spectators will have an easier time of securing their place at the Chi Health Center.
The usual show jumping and dressage competitions will be joined this time by vaulting, gymnastics on horseback that is a real crowd pleaser, with its costumes and music in the final rounds.
Omaha put on a heck of a show the last time it hosted the finals in 2017. Next year’s finals will be the first in the U.S. since then, because the 2020 finals scheduled for Las Vegas were cancelled due to Covid.
Some of the biggest names can be expected to compete, such as the 2017 winner, Isabell Werth in dressage and McLain Ward in show jumping.
Seating is limited, so if you want to go, this is the time to buy a ticket and reserve a hotel.
Click on this link for more information.