Anna Christina Abbelen Wins 2023 Palm Beach Dressage Derby

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2023 CDI-W Palm Beach Dressage Derby

In the Palm Beach Derby 40th anniversary edition on Friday night 3 February 2023, it was youth to the fore. The exciting knock-out contest pits riders head-to-head to ride a Prix St. Georges on an unfamiliar horse whom they are given just five minutes to get to know before tackling the test in the main arena.

This year, the ever popular class culminated in a tussle between 26-year-old Anna-Christina Abbelen (GER) and 23-year-old Benjamin Ebeling (USA).

The Derby Format

The derby format consists of three rounds.

Round 1 is a Prix St Georges class with three combinations which showcase the three horses that will be ridden throughout the Deerby format. Amanda Perkowski piloted Atterupgaards Belafonte to a score of 70.882% to just narrowly edge out Denmark’s Alexander Yde Helgstrand on Zidan N with 70.538% aboard Zidan-DN. Americans bookended the podium as Mackenzie Peer put on the yellow sash after earning a 65.097% with Zwingfly.

In Round 2 four riders competed in a Prix St Georges semi-finals on allocated horses. The two highest scoring riders move on to the action third and final round. Anna Christina Abbelen and Morgan Barbançon rode Belafonte and Benjamin Ebeling and Jennifer Williams rode Zwingfy. Abbelen was the high scorer on Belafonte, while Ebeling got the highest score on Zwingfly so they moved on to the Finals.

Youth to the Fore

Abbelen and last year's winner Ebeling stepped forward to contest the final under lights during the freestyle night.

The four Derby riders (Abbelen, Ebeling, Barbançon
and Williams) with the officials for the prize
giving

They both rode Helgstrand Dressage USA’s nine-year-old Sezuan stallion Zidan-DN, and it was first-to-go Abbelen who claimed the Howald Pferdekaemper memorial trophy with 72.426%. Ebeling made a valiant attempt to better the score, but when he missed the final change in the line of three-times and finished on 71.359%, he handed glory to Abbelen in her first ever Derby competition.

“It was really fun,” she enthused. “This was a super nice horse and it’s awesome that Helgstrand gave us such nice horses. It felt good and it was a fun atmosphere between us riders. In the five minutes, I tried to feel how Zidan does all the exercises and then push him to my aids, have him in front of my aids, soft in the contact and know how much I needed to touch the snaffle or the curb. It’s quite cool to win in my first Derby experience and I hope I can be back here next year to defend my title.”

Who is Anna Christina Abbelen?

Anna Christina Abbelen is a young professional dressage rider from Germany, who currently works as an assistant rider at Hof Kasselmann in Hagen. She is spending her first winter in Florida, training, competing and assisting in the sale of talented sport horses at Kasselmann's boutique yard in Loxahatchee, Florida.

Anna made headlines when she became a triple gold medalist at the 2014 European Junior Riders Championships on Furst on Tour. This horse sold to Hong Kong and became 2018 Asian Games' champion. Anna went on to ride for Germany at the European Young Riders Championships and won double silver at the 2017 European Young Riders Championships on First Lady. In 2018 she moved into the Under 25 division on Henny Hennessy, competing on the German Piaff Forderpreis circuit.

Her current Grand Prix horse is Sam Donnerhall which she has been successfully competing at the 2023 Global Dressage Festival in Wellington.