Sanceo is on the winning track–Updated March 20

As thoughts turn to this summer’s Olympics, the names most familiar to the general public for U.S. team candidates are Adrienne Lyle with Salvino, who earned 80.170 percent in the Grand Prix Special a year ago (we’re waiting to see her ride the stallion in competition again this spring) and Suppenkasper, guided to 19 straight victories by Steffen Peters, Adrienne’s 2018 World Championships silver medal teammate.

But Sanceo and Sabine Schut-Kery have a winning streak of their own, taking their fourth competition in a row today (March 20) at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival with a victory in the Grand Prix Special, marked at 75.660. It follows a personal best 75.022 for the Grand Prix for Special on Wednesday at the show in Wellington, Fla.

The Special is key for selection of a squad because it will determine the team medals at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, where the U.S. is going to face challenges not only from the Germans and British, but also the Dutch and the Danes.

Sanceo and Sabine, who were on the 2015 gold medal Pan American Games squad in Small Tour, could play a big role on the three-member team in Japan if they are chosen.

“I’ve watched Sabine for a long time, especially moving up the levels with this horse,” said Debbie McDonald, the U.S. dressage team technical advisor.

“She’s such an amazing rider and really has such beautiful harmony with the horse. It’s breathtaking to watch. Top quality. It just makes things look a little bit brighter for team USA. She’s just growing, I think she’s an easy 80 percent.”

The rankings before the Special compiled from Sept. 5, 2020, were led with a single score of 77.319 for Don John, ridden by Nick Wagman, who has never been on an international  championship team. That mark came from a show in Wellington March 6; today was his second score.

Don John, who was marked at 73.196 while finishing second in the Wednesday Grand Prix and 73.340 for being second in the Special this afternoon, originally was followed in the overall standings by Suppenkasper with 76.745 and Sanceo with 75.936.

That number will be officially updated in the wake of Sabine’s Special victory, but according to some informal math, the results of the class mean Steffen’s score for the average of two Specials has moved him up to first, Sabine is now second with 76.564 and Nick third with 75.329, as his score today lowered his average.

I was not a math major, so all that must be verified by the U.S. Equestrian Federation, of course..And don’t forget that Adrienne will doubtless figure into the equation when she starts showing Salvino again.

Asked about how she views her prospects for the Olympics, Sabine said, “I think it is possible, but with things like that, I go one day at a time and try not to worry or be concerned.

“I really would love for it to happen. It’s an amazing opportunity that you work towards not just a year or two years prior. It’s a long road where you strive to take the time to train your horse as correctly as possible and that results in maybe making it on a team or not.”

It’s difficult to count on a team berth in any year, and this time so much more than usual is uncertain because of Covid and now the EHV-1(Herpes) outbreak, which has cancelled shows across Europe until April 11. As a result, there has been a delay in announcing the details of what the observation events will be for American team candidates. Normally, eight riders would be doing a European tour as preparation for selection, and the U.S. Equestrian Federation does have hotel reservations abroad in place for them.

But these are not normal times. As Hallye Griffin, the USEF’s managing director of dressage noted, “The aim is still Europe, but we’ve got to have other plans in place to make sure we can easily and quickly shift to not going to Europe if we need to. We’re in touch with show organizers both in the U.S. and Europe with what’s happening with different events.”

While there is one more international show in Wellington, one in April  at the new World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla., and two others later that month at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina and in Sacramento, Calif.,the question is what to do after the qualifying period ends April 25 to keep the horses on target.

“There’s nothing on the FEI calendar (in the U.S.) between May and September, so if we were to stay here (in the U.S.), we’d have to create events,” said Hallye.

“That’s definitely on our radar and kind of behind the door working on what we can have ready to go if we do need to go that route. There are a lot of things up in the air, that’s for sure. Things change every single day.”

Whatever happens, Sabine has great confidence in Sanceo, noting “his biggest strength is his work ethic, and obviously his talent. He can really sit.”

In line with that, his highlights, she notes, are the piaffe and passage.

“That’s really nice.” she said, but it doesn’t mean much “if you don’t have the willingness and the partnership. That’s what still until to this day blows me away, is that he’s with me and we know each other. He’s a good soul.”

Sabine is very hands-on with the 15-year-old Hanoverian stallion, a son of San Remo who is owned by Alice Womble.

“I still to this day do a lot of the grooming myself,” she said.

Knowing him so well, she is very conscious of what he needs in his program.

“I’m always very careful of giving down time,” she said. Other elements of her plan with him are “cross-training and making sure the fundamentals of the training are always refreshed and up to date.”

The first time I remember seeing Sabine, it was under very different circumstances than the sedate scene at Global. She was in the spotlight in front of a packed house at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas during the opening ceremonies of the 2007 FEI World Cup Finals, carrying the American flag into the arena aboard a gray horse who glowed in the spotlight..

Talk about versatile! She has something of a show business background as does her husband, Kristian Kery, a stuntman who is also a movie director.and helped put together the music for her freestyle. A native of Germany, Sabine trained with Jan Bemelmens there. She came to the U.S. in 1998 to work with Friesians, often doing memorable exhibitions at shows and other events.She did exhibitions for so long, she said, that for awhile she didn’t even think about competing, but once she got involved with that, she did well, getting her U.S. Dressage Federation gold medal riding Friesians..

In 2017, she was awarded the Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Training Grant, enabling her to go to Europe with Sanceo for competition and training with Jan Nivelle of Belgium for two months.

Throughout her career, the priority has been doing things properly with her horses.

“Even when I did my demonstrations” she noted, “I always was very tough on myself and wanting to do it correctly. I want to learn and get better. That’s what I get pleasure out of.”