by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 25, 2024
Olympic team selections often are a surprise, but in the case of the U.S. dressage squad for Paris that was announced Tuesday, it seemed an easy choice. (At least even I could figure it out; you can read what I wrote here or here in my weekend stories after the final observation competition.)
Marcus Orlob, who started as a longshot, wound up as a star with Alice Tarjan’s Jane, winning both the Grand Prix and the Special at the last competition to make the team.
“I’m in shock, but not totally surprised, because it’s a really good horse,” was the reaction of the trainer from Annandale, N.J., who just began riding the 10-year-old mare in March. His Special score of 75.930 on Sunday was the highest mark in the discipline for any U.S. rider this year.
Also selected for the three-member team is two-time Olympian Adrienne Lyle and Helix, a horse she began riding this year for Heidi Humphries’ Zen Elite Equestrian. Although the two are a new combination, the horse had experience on Swedish teams with Marina Mattison. The U.S. traveling reserve rider is Endel Ots on another of Heidi’s horses, Zen Elite’s Bohemian, who was fourth in the Tokyo Olympics with Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour of Denmark.
Steffen Peters, a five-time Olympian, was always presumed to be on the team with Suppenkasper after ranking number one in the standings for Olympic candidates since last year, and that’s the way it worked out.
He did the first observation event in Hagen, Germany, but was able to skip the others and planned to ride as an individual at Aachen next month.
Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
Heidi Humphries said on social media, “From the moment we met Adrienne Lyle and Endel Ots, we knew that they were the perfect fit for Zen Elite. We are incredibly honored that Adrienne and Helix have been named to the USA Team for the 2024 Olympic Games, with Endel and Bohemian selected as the Reserve combination. Our horses and riders have put in immense effort, and we are proud to see their hard work and dedication rewarded with this momentous accomplishment!
“The partnerships that Adrienne and Endel have formed with these horses in such a short period of time is remarkable, and we are thrilled to support them on the path to achieving their goals. We want to extend our gratitude to US Equestrian and the selection committee for their decision.”
Adrienne commented on Facebook: “ I am eternally grateful for each and every person in our village who has helped make this possible! Thank you especially to Heidi for your incredible support, passion and never ending enthusiasm! What an amazing journey it has been so far. Thank you Debbie McDonald for your tireless years of coaching and guidance.
“Thank you Marina Lemay and all my amazing team of grooms at home. And to my wonderful husband, David who has been amazing at helping me navigate this road to the Olympics while raising a baby at the same time. What an awesome journey, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!”
Alice trained Jane, who had no schooling when she arrived as a three-year-old, up through Grand Prix, but handed the ride over to Marcus, her trainer, because she felt the horse was too strong for her.
“He’s stronger, basically. I was like, `Just have at it and see where you go.’ He got further than I could this year,” said Alice.
“I think we ride very differently. I think it’s a great thing he’s able to get on and show the horse off. She’s not the biggest mover of all the horses I’ve got,” Alice noted, “but her head is super and she’s very classical in how she does things, so it’s worth a lot of points. She’s got a beautiful outline.”
As she noted, “Seeing potential and actually realizing it are two completely different things.”
For his part, Marcus emphasized, “I always believed in this horse.
“My biggest concern was always that time was against me, and I wish I had more time. I believe in eight months, this will be a completely different picture.”
However, he added, “Obviously, it worked out in this time to do great things.”
Speaking about Alice, he pointed out, “To pick a baby, to do the training, I guess the most credit goes to her. She selects so many fantastic horses. This is just one of them. I got lucky enough that at this time it was a little bit too much horse for her and she allowed me to ride Jane. I guess I was at the right time at the right place.”
Alice groomed for Marcus in Germany and will be helping in Paris, where Allison Nemeth is the official groom.
If everything goes to current form in Paris, you could figure the team medals will go to the British and the Germans (I think it will be the British who get top billing), along with the Danes.
Form tends to be more reliable for predictions in dressage than in eventing and show jumping, where you can’t always count on the fences to stay up or making the time (among other things) on cross-country.
Marcus isn’t taking anything for granted, however.
He said of Helix and Suppenkasper, “those horses are totally capable in my opinion to do good things and score well, and nobody would have thought I would score 75 in the Special. I think honestly everything is possible. Other people maybe have a bad day, and maybe we have a good day and maybe there is something possible. For sure it won’t be easy, but I guess that’s what makes the sport interesting. Everybody has to get through the test.”
Marcus Orlob and Adrienne Lyle were named as two-thirds of the U.S. dressage team for Paris.
At the moment, Marcus also is on the team for Aachen; he was named for that squad before the Olympic observation events were finished. The question is whether he will be taken off that team because of his Olympic team status.
He knows it’s good for Jane to see new places (the showgrounds where she competed during the spring were all relatively quiet.)
“At the same time, I don’t want to run her into the ground,” he pointed out.
While Aachen would give Jane crowd experience, the fact that spectators are so close to the arena means it won’t be the same as Versailles, where equestrian events are being held for the Olympics and fans are further back from the field of play.
“They are completely different showgrounds,” Marcus pointed out.
“But I think I do it very smart, I’m always in contact with Alice” for suggestions.
Jane has taken it easy for a couple of days, Wednesday she will go on a hack, Thursday she will stretch, Friday and Saturday she will be worked a little bit and Sunday take it easy, then Monday go to Aachen.
“I try to be smart because in this short period of time, I can’t change anything in the training, I just have to keep her happy and sound,” said Marcus, a skillful horseman who has the professional qualification of bereiter from Warendorf, the German riding school that emphasizes a classical equestrian education. A native of Germany, he is a naturalized American citizen.
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 23, 2024
Following a personal best (by far) performance of Marcus Orlob and Jane to win the 4-star Grand Prix Special at the Schafhof dressage festival in Germany Saturday, Marcus Orlob was taking it easy with the mare on Sunday and reflecting on their performance that earned 75.930 percent,
The victory, with the top score of any U.S. rider this year in the Special, came on the heels of his first-place finish last week in the Grand Prix with 73.913 percent. The show was the final competition for Olympic hopefuls before the U.S. dressage team for Paris is named next week. It’s amazing in so many ways that Marcus and Jane, a combination which got together only in early March, has skyrocketed into contention for the Games.
“I truly believe in this horse and I think it’s just the beginning of everything,” said Marcus, as he led Jane on a walk with his dog, Emma, at the stables in Dusseldorf where he is based for this tour.
“Jane is only 10. If we build the right partnership and she gets stronger and more confident each show, it will get better and better,” he believes.
In the warm-up for the Special, he recounted, “The whole time, I had a good feeling.”
Marcus told himself, ” `I hope I can get the same feeling in the ring,’ and it worked. I was super-excited to get right away high scores in the Grand Prix (on Friday, which he also won) and to top it, the Special was even more amazing. The horse has so much potential.”
Jane’s Special was smooth and effortless, yet correct. The duo earned marks of more than 77 percent for several movements, including transitions and half-pass.
Second place on 73.319 percent went to Adrienne Lyle with Helix, a horse she started showing for Zen Elite Equestrian in March, at the same time Marcus made his competition debut with Jane.
Jane is owned by Alice Tarjan, who trained her up through the levels to grand prix, but acted as the groom during her KWPN mare’s European sojourn, after thinking Marcus would be a better fit for the mount and handing over the reins.
Marcus Orlob on Jane with the mare’s owner, Alice Tarjan, who doubles as a groom.
Marcus had felt that if Alice could get Jane a little better in self-carriage, that would be a key to her performance. But once he was in the saddle, he had little time to develop a partnership that could point toward the Olympics.
“I always believed in this horse,” he noted. “When Alice said, `You ride it,’ I know it might be possible but the chance was very slim at this point.”
He noted that “Jane is in a good way, super-sensitive.” When he started riding the mare, it was “A big change obviously for Jane and me” pointing out that he is “a completely different size and shape from Alice.
“Especially in the beginning, it was a big challenge. Slowly, I think she is starting to like my aids.”
Marcus called Alice, “a great groom. She does a really good job. She honestly helps so much at the show.”
If he says, ” `I want to be on at this time,’ the horse is ready, boom, spotless. What helps me is she really knows the horse inside-out. I always talk to her, and she tells me `do this, do this.’ It’s perfect to have Alice with me, to have her insight.”
So what about Paris team selection? Marcus, who is scheduled to ride on the U.S. squad at Aachen next month, said all is quiet about who the choices will be for the Olympic squad.
“Obviously, it would be a dream come true to come to Paris. I really believe in this horse and if it happens now, it’s fine. If not, it’s fine too, because I can’t do more than I am doing right now. I train her and I do my best.”
Marcus originally was just hoping to be among the eight riders on the list of prospective Olympians who made the trip to Europe for observation competitions.
Marcus puts his hand on his heart during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner after his win. (Schaufhof Connects photo)
Even to think that he likely has made the Olympic team would be beyond a dream come true for the native of Germany who is a naturalized American citizen. He has been helped during his weeks in Germany by his longtime coach, Johan Zagers.
Marcus and his wife, Shannon, run Elite Expression Dressage in Annandale, N.J.
Endel Ots, another U.S. team contender, would seem to have lost his chance for the team with a 69.872 percent Special performance on Zen Elite Equestrian’s Bohemian, who was behind the vertical at times and seemed to have less spark than in the Grand Prix, where he was fourth with 72.587 percent. Bohemian is also a new ride this year for Endel. The horse was fourth in the Tokyo Olympics with a former rider, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour.
US. Pan American Games team and individual medalist Anna Marek on Fire Fly was eighth in the Special with 70.404 percent. In the Grand Prix for the Freestyle, however, she was second aboard Fayvel on a very respectable 73.131. Adrienne’s second horse, Zen Elite’s Lars de Hoenderheide, finished sixth in that class with a score of 69.109 percent.
Both competed Sunday in the freestyle, where Anna and Fayvel were second on 78.995 percent to Norway’s Isabel Freese and Total Hope Old (80.950). Adrienne was fifth with Lars on 75.505 percent. At the Olympics, the freestyle is the test that decides the individual championship medals.
Adrienne notes that her two horses, Helix and Lars, “are very different rides. Lars is a big, powerful kind of pedal-to-the metal type ride and Helix is more like a ballerina, very light and dainty through the test. It’s fun to have two different types of horses.”
Adrienne Lyle and Helix.
Veteran Olympian Steffen Peters, who headed the U.S. Olympic ranking list with Suppenkasper, was excused from the observation events and will compete as an individual next month at Aachen. Steffen’s best score in the Special with Suppenkasper this year was 73.234 percent.
Without knowing what is going on behind the scenes, it could seem more than likely that he will be joined on the U.S. squad for Paris by Adrienne, his teammate on the 2021 Tokyo Olympic silver medal squad with the now-retired Salvino. And after Marcus’ performance at Schafhof, who could deny him a place on the team?
Ashley Holzer, a late addition to the Olympic short list with Hansel, put herself out of contention with a mark of 59.004 last week in Rotterdam, where the team finished last. The other Olympic hopeful on that squad, Katherine Bateson-Chandler, had a score of 67.848 percent on Haute Couture in the Rotterdam Grand Prix, and was twelfth Saturday in the Grand Prix Special on 70.021 percent.
Click here for results of the Special
Click here for results of the Freestyle
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 20, 2024
The Dutch dressage team was victorious at that nation’s 5-star home show in Rotterdam, enjoying a margin of more than two percentage points over Denmark. Led by Dinja van Liere with the best score of the class on Hermes N.O.P. (77.8910), the Dutch earned a total of 222.392. They had supporting performances rom Edward Gal on Glock’s Total U.S. (73.196) and Emmelie Scholtens aboard Indian Rock (71.305). Edward’s horse is a son of his most famous mount, the sensational Totilas.
Dinja van Liere on Hermes N.O.P. (FEI Photo)
The Danes’ score was 220.349 to 219.435 for Germany. Isabell Werth enjoyed the top finish for the latter, earning 76.935 on Wendy de Fontaine, back from a small injury. The horse previously was ridden by Andreas Helgstrand of Denmark, who handed her over after he was barred from his country’s Olympic team following a scandal involving undercover TV coverage of training techniques at his stables.
The U.S. total of 194.848 included a disappointing mark of 59.044 from Ashley Holzer and Hansel, who had big resistance in the first piaffe, and fell out of the canter in their second pirouette. The horse’s tense state was reflected in his busy mouth.
They were a last-minute addition to the list of horse/rider combinations being considered for the U.S. Olympic team. That squad will be named next week after other contenders ride at Schafhofs dressage festival in Germany. Steffen Peters, who has led the standings from the start, is skipping that observation event and riding as an individual at Aachen next month.
At Rotterdam, Katherine Bateson Chandler on Dinja’s former ride, Haute Couture, had a score of 67.848 percent. The best of the U.S. contingent was Kevin Kohmann, who made his World Cup Finals debut in April but was not named as a contender for the Olympic team. His mark was 67.956 on Duenensee. The U.S. could not take advantage of a drop score because the team had only three members.
There apparently is a real homeside advantage at the venue. The Dutch have won four out of five of the last Nations Cups in Rotterdam, and lost only three times in the last 11 years.
Dutch chef d’equipe Patrick van der Meer commented about his team’s performance, “It’s always nice to win, but to win here in Rotterdam is very special. It was really nice. We also had some tests with some unexpected results. There were some mistakes, there was some tension, but at the end, especially Dinja—she lifted us all up. We won, and that’s super.”
click here for results
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 23, 2024
In a cavalry charge of a 15-horse jump-off for the Grand Prix of Rotterdam, Laura Kraut and Baloutinue posted the best U.S. effort with a clear round in 38.10 seconds. It was good enough for fourth behind the Dutch winner, Marc Houtzager on Sterrehof’s Dante, more than two seconds faster in 36.07 seconds.
McLain Ward, the only other American in the tie-breaker, was tenth with a knockdown on Callas in 37.45 seconds.
The other U.S. competitors did not make the cut to ride against the clock. Callie Schott had a rail with Garant to wind up twenty-ninth, while Jessica Springsteen–who rode with Laura and McLain on the Tokyo Olympic silver medal team–logged 8 faults on Don Juan van de Donkhoeve, which put her fortieth. Callie and Jessica were the only two American riders to go fault-free last week in the Longines League of Nations, where the U.S. finished last.
Rotterdam was a disappointing show for the U.S., with the dressage team also finishing last in its Nations Cup.
But for some encouraging news, be sure to read our feature story about American dressage victories in Germany. And get the story about both U.S. dressage and show jumping in Europe last week at this link. That story is also the second feature on our main page.
Click here for results of the Rotterdam Grand Prix of show jumping
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 18, 2024
Phelps, the bargain thoroughbred who has sailed around cross-country at the Maryland and Kentucky 5-stars, will compete at England’s Burghley 5-star in September.
His rider, Mia Farley, is looking for financial help in connection with the trip.
Mia Farley and Phelps at the 2024 Kentucky 5-star. (Photo © 2024 by Nancy Jaffer)
“We will work hard this summer to fine tune our strengths and weaknesses and look forward to putting our best foot forward in September,” she stated.
“With Burghley in mind, we are excited to open Phelps’ life to more people. Phelps will have memberships available, which will help offset his expenses overseas, as well as provide you with a glimpse into 5-star event ownership!
“With all donations being tax deductible, Phelps’ memberships will include merch, weekly emails and updates, personal visits and more.”
Phelps was tied for thirteenth after dressage at Kentucky, then moved up to fifth with one of only two double-clears on cross-country. His weak point has been show jumping, however and after toppling a rail at the first fence in the Rolex stadium, he had three more knockdowns and 0.8 time penalties to finish thirteenth over all. But Mia is working on that phase with David O’Connor, the owner of the horse he bought for $1 (though he apparently never handed over that dollar).
Those who are interested in being part of the equine Cinderella story can contact the rider at Miafarley6@gmail.com for more information.
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 17, 2024
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.
