Flashes
Peters wins in Burbank, comeback Brentina
By Lita Dove for dressagedirect
Festival of the Horse CDI*** Burbank is always one of the biggest and best dressage shows of the U.S. season and this year’s lived up to the reputation. The CDI Grand Prix was held outside in the California sunshine, and the day really did have a special sparkle to it.
Steffen Peters and his Dutch partner Ravel won the Grand Prix with a test featuring straighter changes than ever, good pirouettes, and just a hiccup here and there due to loss of focus. But the pair’s now trademark suppleness and elasticity, combined with more power, still kept his score at 70+.
Peters elected to do the Freestyle at this show, but acknowledged that his new freestyle is still being put together—“but it will be ready by June!” in time for the U.S. Selection Trials. Nevertheless, qualification regulations demand a freestyle score, so he pulled out on of his old ones and changed the choreography a bit.
Steffen Peters and his Dutch partner Ravel won the Grand Prix and Freestyle Picture Akiko Yamazaki
Peters’ other young Grand Prix horse, Prince, looked a bit tense in the warm-up, and completely lost his focus and concentration in the show arena. The trademark piaffe was there, but the horse could not find a rhythm to get into or out of it. At passage to canter, Prince expressed his displeasure, and Steffen asked to be excused. Quietly, the pair went to the schooling arena and worked through the problem: posting trot, lots of transitions, pats and walk breaks, and finally, a compliant and focused horse. But that is the reality of horses: just as one truly thinks one has found the correct warm-up, the best daily plan—they remind us to be humble!
Comeback Brentina
Nevertheless, the excitement of the day was for the big red horse and the small rider as they made their way to the schooling ring, as they warmed-up, as they walked to the competition arena, and then, as they produced another of their trademark tests—accurate, steady, rhythmic, harmonious.
Yes, Brentina and Debbie McDonald were back! A safe, secure routine, 70.5 from the judges, and an enormous smile on McDonald’s face.
“It’s been a long time coming,” beamed Debbie afterwards. “She felt as good as always, as she has ever felt.” After WEG 2006, the mare was given time off, showed very lightly in 2007, was found to be healed from minor injury, and McDonald made plans for a European tour in October 2007. But the mare hurt herself in the plane.
”There was always the hope she would come back,” says Debbie. “ That it would just be a matter of time.” McDonald said that the mare’s fitness was not yet 100 percent, but she expected to be in top shape by the Trials in June.
Brentina and Debbie McDonald are back! Picture courtesy Tetleyphoto.com
Third in the Grand Prix went to Canadian Leslie Reid and her Jazz gelding, Orion. “O” judge Volker Moritz gave the pair a high 69 while S judge Janet Brown Foy awarded a 70, and Leslie could not stop smiling at her qualifying scores.
Reid has the distinction of being one of the few top sport riders to compete directly against a horse she herself trained and showed through international Grand Prix: her World Cup horse, the Dutch gelding Mark (by Edison), was sold to Olympic rider Sue Blinks.
Canadian Leslie Reid and her Jazz gelding Orion Picture archive Sheri Scott
Blinks, who is also in the hunt for a U.S. team spot, decided to skip this CDI, but the two riders have met at Dressage Affaire a few weeks ago, and will do so again next week in Sacramento.
In the small tour, once again Steffen Peters and Montango had everything their own way. The Prix St. Georges is starting to look easy for the talented Dutch gelding (by Contango) , and only one mistake in the zig-zag of the Intermediaire One kept the pair from scoring again above 70.
Peters said he will not go to Sacramento, but will bring all his stable to the last major California CDI in April, once again at Del Mar. McDonald and Brentina will also be there, as will Reid.
The Sacramento CDI will also see the return of Jan Ebeling and Rafalca. This pair electrified spectators as the ‘test ride’ for the 2007 Las Vegas World Cup’s Grand Prix test. Rafalca suffered a minor injury late last year, is now fully recovered, and Ebeling is hoping for the one more qualifying score he needs for the Selection Trials in June.
Show organizer-deluxe Glenda McElroy ( whose brainstorm helped produce the mega-successful Las Vegas World Cups) looked around with satisfaction at the vendors, the flowers, the VIP parking, the throngs of spectators smiling and laughing –all in open admiration of top sport dressage.
Pictures courtesy www.dressagedaily.com/
Find more at http://www.dressagedaily.com/2008/dd_200803/dd_200803330-fest-ca.html
