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2007 American Dressage Championships
Peters Hangs on in Grand Prix, Austin wins Brentina
Cup and Efird Best of the Juniors
June 16, 2007
 June 15th, the second day of
the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of
Champions, got underway with the Brentina Cup. Organized
for young adults and named for Debbie McDonald's World
Cup Champion mare, the Brentina Cup is open to riders
21-25 years of age.
Performing the Intermediaire II test, the horses in
the Brentina Cup are developing their skills for the
highest level of dressage competition.
The second horse of the day filled up the ring with
plenty of presence and caught the eye of the judges
taking the early lead. Manhattan, a 13-year-old KWPN
nearly white gelding showed lots of maturity with rider
Jodie Kelly to pick up a score of 63.122%
"My ride today was not what I hoped it would
be," said Kelly. "It was a pretty clean test
but he was a little up."
Their led held until the second rider after the break
when a very exuberant Nimbus bounded down the center
line with former event rider Nicholia Zamora and took
command of the ring.
From Irvine, CA Zamora, riding the 12-year-old KWPN
gelding for Diane Morley, made an impression in her
first trip to the Festival. Despite a few moments of
inattentiveness, Nimbus' lively composition and flashy
gaits made up for a little distraction early on. They
landed on a score of 66.00%
"It was an honor to even come down the center
line here," said Zamora. "Such a journey
to get to this spot. A lot of stars have to be aligned
to even get to this spot especially traveling all the
way from California. So just getting to go in the ring
was amazing and getting to have a good test was just
icing on the cake. He's so much fun to ride."
Two riders later Vermonter Elizabeth Austin, a winner
last year in the Brentina Cup returned to the Championship
and put in a beautiful effort with the lovely moving
Olivier. The 11-year-old KWPN tried very hard and his
ability and panache were well rewarded. Their score
of 67.317% pushed them ahead of Zamora.
"I schooled him in the morning just to see what
I had," said Austin. "He felt really quite
good to me. He can be a bit hot but he came out today
totally on the job so that was good. I was unbelievably
happy with him but not so happy with myself. He really
saved me in a couple of spots and I went off course.
I was here last year you think I would know better.
I was super, super proud of him in the piaffe and passage.
Compared to last year he has really matured in that.
Aside from my mistakes the work feels more secure."
Owned by Madeline Austin, the very flashy gelding
is by Idocus who is also competing at the Festival.
The 17-year-old stallion was second in the Grand Prix
Special with Courtney King.
"I got to ride my test (last week) for Courtney," said
Austin. "It was amazing she gave me a few real
good pointers and its fantastic, She said, 'Oh I know
where he gets that from.' I've looked up to her since
I was 15 years old. To be here with her is kind of
surreal."
Efird Best of the Juniors
The Juniors followed the
Brentina Cup riders onto the stage in Gladstone and
put forth consistent efforts
throughout the division with lots of quality performances.
Bonnie Efird, from Waxhaw, NC and Magie Noir ended
up best of the bunch. Barring a mistake in a pirouette
and a wobbly final centerline, the 13-year-old
KWPN mare showed lots of class, good engagement and
excellent
flying changes. They were rewarded with a score
of 65.4%.
"My goal was to just get here," said a smiling
Efird. "I just bought this mare in October and
I've been working on the Junior test with her. I plan
on keeping her for awhile. I didn't think that it was
my strongest ride I've ever had. Overall it was solid
and I'm proud of her no matter what. I had a little
trouble in the walk pirouettes and in the canter depart
which are not things I usually have problems with."
Two horses later another mare gave Magie Noir a run
for her money. Ghita carried Taryn Briones into the
ring and put in a valiant effort. The adorable 9-year-old
Hanoverian mare picked up a 10 in one of the half passes
and exemplified very solid flying changes. All the
way from Snohomish, WA ¬– Briones made the
trip worth it with her very polished performance slipping
in just behind Efird with a score of 63.1%.
"I was happy with it," said Briones. "All
the bobbles that happened were my fault. That always
happen. I got done and could think that it was a good
ride and I was happy with it and hope we just improve
on Sunday. She's a good mare. I'm happy where she is
right now."
Lora Kay Witterstaeter and Weltkaar, third in the
ring held on for third. The 16-year-old Hanoverian
gelding put in a very steady and consistent effort
to score 64.6%.
Witterstaeter has ridden at Jodie Kelly's barn since
she was 5 years old and Weltkaar is a hand-me down
horse from her coach.
"He's really big so it's hard to keep him pizzazy
throughout his test, but it was fun," said Witterstaeter.
The Junior competition concludes on Sunday and each
day accounts for 50% of the score.
Peters Still Leads Grand Prix
The hunt for the Grand Prix Special honors was fierce
late in the afternoon. Three very different horses
staked their claim to the honors and in the end, a
tie had to be broken between two of them.
Crowd-pleasing Rociero, the only Andalusian in the
competition, didn't disappoint his fans. In second
place coming into the competition the strengths of
his test lay in his passage and his changes with rider
Kristina Harrison-Naness. Lack of impulsion in the
pirouettes cost the pair a couple of points but they
marched happily through their test with plenty of charisma.
With a score of 70.16% he went to the lead – momentarily.
"I was thrilled with my ride," said Harrison-Naness. "I
felt like my horse gave me all he had. I could feel
the humidity today, I think the Californian horses
they breathe a lot harder. He was with me the whole
ride. My whole goal here was to be consistent and that
we've done."
Harrison-Naness was followed immediately in the ring
by Courtney King and the 17-year-old KWPN stallion
Idocus. An elegant effort, highlighted by straight
8s on the one-tempi changes and very polished canter
work made up for any disappointment from the first
day. On the strength of plenty of 8s in the collective
marks King slipped into the lead with a score of 71.76%.
Idocus had been feeling under the weather yesterday,
explaining his unusually score for the consistent campaigner.
"The vets felt he was a little dehydrated," said
King. "They did a lot of massage and body work
and chiropractic adjustment to relieve what was bothering
from breeding. They definitely did a stellar job. Yesterday,
try as he might, he just couldn't do it. It was hard,
he wasn't himself today but he could do it. I'm hoping
tomorrow he feels a little bit better. Yesterday I
came out of the ring in tears and I wanted to scratch
him out but everyone said let's look at the horse and
see if there is something we can relieve and warm him
up today and see how he is. It was hard, I was a little
apprehensive in the beginning. But I had to put it
out of my mind. It was hard and we were both having
to work hard but he could do it."
Overnight leader and Olympic medalist Steffen Peters
followed King into the ring on Lombardi and used all
of his skill to finesse a stellar performance out of
the exuberant 16-year-old Holsteiner. Uncharacteristically,
the test was marred by a few mistakes and Peters worked
hard for each point. The consummate professional, Peters
picked up eights and a nine for his riding. He too
ended on a score of 71.76%. Using the collective marks
to break the tie, Peters won the second portion of
the Grand Prix and King ended up second.
"My (collective) score was just one point ahead
of Courtney's, a little luck sometimes," said
Peters. "At the end of the day it was Brian (O'Connor)'s
fault because right when I came in he announced Courtney's
score and I like her a lot but when we go down the
center line it's competition. When they announced it
was a 71 I knew I had to step it up and that's what
we did."
After the first two portions of the Grand
Prix Peters leads from Harrison-Nanes and Jane Hannigan
(who
was fourth in the Special).
The Grand Prix concludes Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.
Photos copyrighted: Mary Phelps / Phelpsphotos.com
Full coverage of the 2007 Festival of Champions at Horsesdaily.com
Related Link
Peters Leads Grand Prix, Hickey Leads Pan Am
Selection Trial at 2007 Festival of Champions
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