After five years of losing to Germany at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, the USA claimed a very narrow victory over the Europeans in the Modon FEI Dressage Nations Cup on Thursday.
Led by Christine Traurig, the squad of Ashley Holzer on Hawtins San Floriana, Jordan LaPlaca (Gold Play), Meagan Davis (Toronto Lightfoot) and Anna Marek (Fayvel) earned 205.631 percent, just nipping its rivals, who scored 205.043. Canada was third on 204.196.
The winning U.S. team: Anna Marek, Meagan Davis, Jordan LaPlaca, Ashley Holzer, Christine Traurig (U.S. Equestrian Photo)
No one in the class broke 70 percent. The highest score belonged to Germany’s Frederic Wandres, who earned 69.913 percent on Verrenberg. Canadian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu was second on Jaccardo with 69.826 percent. The top American, Anna, was third with 69.435 percent on Fayvel. She was a replacement for a rider who had dropped out.
“Christine chose me to go last, which is always a big honor,” said Anna. “
“In a team competition, there’s even more added pressure because I want to have a good ride for my team. I didn’t know what score I needed for gold and, honestly, it wouldn’t have really mattered. I just went in there wanting to ride the best test I could.
“This gold medal is huge, though, because it was important to Cynthia (Davila, Fayvel’s owner) for Fayvel to be on a team, so it’s special to share this with her. He’s a very special horse. He was hers to ride, and then I started riding him, and (my coach) Anne Gribbons always loved him, so Cynthia let me carry on, and we’ve been enjoying every second of it.”
The victory in the 3-star earned the U.S. 10 points to take the early lead as the series got under way, two points ahead of Germany and three ahead of Canada.
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