Anna Buffini’s trip was worth it (so far)

In her quest to qualify for next month’s FEI World Cup Dressage Finals, Anna Buffini came east from California with FRH Davinia La Douce to compete in the final qualifier at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Fla.

The effort paid off today in the Grand Prix for Freestyle, which she won with a mark of 72.500 percent, as four of five judges gave her an 8 for the collective marks (general impression). Her mare, a 16-year-old Hanoverian by Don Frederico, looked bright and happy throughout her performance.

“It’s always hard to come over here and then acclimate them to a different coast. The first show, especially, to have a solid ride. She just nailed it,” said Anna.

But the real test comes in the freestyle Friday night, because that is the class that counts toward the World Cup (the Grand Prix is simply a required stop along the way.)

Speaking about the freestyle and the tight contest to qualify for the World Cup, she said, “It’s very difficult. It’s up and down. You don’t know if you’re in, you don’t know if you’re out We have to do our absolute best tomorrow (Friday) to make it. The freestyle is my favorite, that’s no secret, and the freestyle is her favorite. If we can go out there and do what we’ve done the last three shows in California, it could be very competitive.”

Anna trains with Guenter Seidel, who has been a longtime team member. “I wouldn’t be here without him. Everything you see in there is because of him,” Anna maintained.

The picture for the finals changed when Adrienne Lyle was unable to compete Salvino here after he popped a splint. She is the top-ranked U.S. rider, at number 10 in the world. Steffen Peters, like Adrienne a member of the 2021 Olympic silver medal team, qualified in California with Suppenkasper. Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, N.J., has qualified and did not need to compete this week.

That left Anna’s big competition as Sarah Tubman with First Apple. But the Dutchbred son of Vivaldi balked in his first piaffe, throwing his head in the air and failing to execute. Scores for that movement ranged from zero to 1.  He wound up eighth of 12 starters with a score of 66.413. First Apple will have a lot of ground to make up in the freestyle, but his test has been designed specifically for him, as opposed to the standardized Grand Prix in which he competed on Thursday.

There was a 13^th starter, but unluckily Julio Mendoza Loor of Ecuador, who had the score to win the class, was eliminated after a spur drew blood on Jewel’s Goldstrike.

Second place went to Canada’s Chris von Martels with Eclips (70.174), while Dong Seon Kim of South Korea on Galleria’s Bohemian (68.435) was third in the combination’s first FEI appearance. A mistake at the end of the two-tempis was costly, marked with 3s and 4s, but  piaffe and passage brought some 8s to the table.

Bohemian was previously ridden by Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour on the Danish Olympic team and to a victory in the freestyle at Aachen last year. Cathrine was on hand to offer support for the horse’s new rider, who is reported to have paid millions (how many millions is hard to nail down) for the 13-year-old Westfalian by Bordeaux.

The busiest rider of the day was Morgan Barbançon of France (who formerly rode for Spain), fourth and fifth on Bolero (68.326) and Deodoro (68.218). She is already qualified for the World Cup finals.

Earlier, Morgan won the Mission Control 3-star Grand Prix qualifier for the Grand Prix Special with Habana Libre A, a Dutchbred by ZZ Top. Her score was 71.630 percent.

There’s no question as to who is her favorite mount.

“He is the best horse I’ve ever ridden and has all the makings of a top horse; every time in the ring he gets better

and better,” she declared.