The short collaboration of Marcus Orlob and Jane has been amazing. The Annandale, N.J., trainer on Monday was named to the Dutta Corp. U.S. dressage team for Aachen — arguably the world’s mot prestigious horse show– after a partnership of less than five months.
Also on the squad is Californian Anna Buffini with Fiontini, Floridian Anna Marek with her Pan American Games medal mount Fire Fly, and another Floridian, Endel Ots, with the most experienced horse of the group, Zen Elite’s Bohemian. In 2021, Bohemian was ridden to fourth place individually in the Olympics by Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour of Denmark.
Jane, who is only 10, was trained and ridden by her owner, Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, N.J. But since Jane was rather strong for slender Alice, she turned the KWPN mare over to Marcus, who is her trainer. They proceeded to make the top eight in the rankings for a spot on the Olympic team, and have been competing in Europe during the observation process. Earlier this month, Marcus scored a personal best in the Grand Prix at Hagen, Germany, with a mark of 71.936 percent.
Marcus Orlob and Jane. (Susan J. Stickle Photography)
Steffen Peters, who led the Olympic rankings all the way through with Suppenkasper, has been excused from the other observation events and will ride at Aachen as an individual. He seems to be a lock for the three-member team that will go to Paris for the Games in July.