Brand new American Grand Prix champion Laura Graves reigned supreme in the 5* Grand Prix class at the 2016 CDI Wellington in Florida on Thursday 11 February 2016. The Dressage in Florida show season is half way and the creme de la creme of North America has gathered for the biggest and most important CDI of the entire season, the CDI 5*. Graves bested a field of 30 riders and today it was her turn again to edge out her biggest home country rival, Steffen Peters.
The CDI 5* competition day started out extremely chilly with a cold wind blowing through the show grounds and freezing fingertips and toes of the large crowds that had gathered to watch the morning Prix St Georges. The sun shone all day and by the afternoon it was nice and comfortable out. As last starter to go Graves had all the advantages working for her.
Aboard her 14-year old Dutch warmblood Verdades (by Florett As) Graves made riding the Grand Prix look quite easy. Her aids were invisible and Verdades moves with such elegance and lightness through the ring that the judges' panel, consisting of Eisenhardt, Lang, Fore, Matthiesen, and Wust, had no difficulties putting her at the top of the ranking.
The bay gelding excelled in the trot half passes, tempi changes and pirouettes. The halt before rein back was not square, but the rein back itself outstanding. The first passage could improve in regularity but the first piaffe was nice, even though the horse tends to cross in front and still needs to slide the hing legs more under the body and take on weight behind to produce a more textbook piaffe. Overall Verdades could have been more up in the bridle with the poll as highest point, especially in trot and the pi-pa tour, but the ease with which he executed the movements was exemplary. The duo scored 76.440% for victory.
Steffen Peters and Akiko Yamazaki's 14-year old Westfalian gelding Legolas (by Laomedon x Florestan II) were the runners-up. The pair produced one of their better tests with high quality piaffe and passage work in which the bay gelding displayed excellent suspension and activity. The extended trots were laboured and towards the end of the test the horse stiffened in the top line and lost his elasticity, which resulted in mistakes in the one tempi changes, a lack of opening in the frame in the canter extension and a difficult final trot extension. The zig zag, however, covered much ground from one side to the other, the two tempi's were good, and the pirouettes well ridden. The final centerline was lovely. They scored 74.100%.
Danish Mikala Gundersen and Janne Rumbough's 16-year old Danish bred mare My Lady (by Michellino x Ritterstern) were very solid to earn third place. The huge one tempi changes were certainly a highlight in their test. The mare could be more quiet in the mouth, but she was very expressive in the passage and showed much lift in the piaffe, even though she sometimes has a tendency to back step. They scored a strong 71.760%.
American Shelly Francis and Pat Stempel's 13-year old Oldenburg gelding Doktor (by Diamond Hit) landed fourth place. The muscled bay gelding has textbook piaffes in which he sits properly on the hindlegs. The two tempi changes were dead straight, the ones were good but lacked ground cover. The weak point was the trot extension, in which the horse ran and became slightly uneven in the rushed tempo. They finished on 71.740%.
Arlene Page and her own 13-year old Dutch warmblood Woodstock (by Havel) completed today's top five. They began with choppy half passes in which the tempo and angle changed too much, but then they found their flow. The liver chestnut does not have the biggest lift in his forearm in piaffe, but maintains a very sweet rhythm. The horse is able to execute tiny pirouettes. They posted a score of 71.260%
Text and Photos © Astrid Appels/Eurodressage
Related Link
Scores 2016 CDI Wellington