David Marcus and Chrevi's Capital. © 2012 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, May 25–David Marcus and Chrevi’s Capital, fresh from double victories at home in Canada, moved south of the border to claim the pair’s first win in his former homeland of the United States by taking the Kentucky Dressage Associaton CDI3* Grand Prix Friday in his campaign to win a place on the Canadian team at the Olympics in London in two months.

The score of 69.021 per cent was a personal best for the pair, with Pierre St. Jacques of Anthony Florida, and Lucky Tiger in second place on 68.702 per cent, the former Canadian who has ridden for the U.S. for the past 10 years, the only non-Canadian in the top six places. Diane Creech and Devon L were in third place on 68.191 per cent.

The result by David and the Deborah Kinzinger-owned 12-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Chrevi’s Lavallo x Indira Gandhi x Weinberg) in the Grand Prix on Friday came after last week’s victories in both the Grand Prix and the Olympic Grand Prix Special at the Milton, Ontario, CDI3*, the first competition in his new homeland for the Omaha, Nebraska, native since becoming a Canadian citizen last Christmas.

Pierre and Lucky Tiger, whose first competition for the United States was on the gold medal team at the Pan American Games in 2003, is on the periphery of qualifying for the U.S. Grand Prix Championships that will also be the selection trials for the American Olympic team. The CDI3* competitions at Kentucky and in Allentown, New Jersey, this weekend are the last opportunities to qualify for the U.S. trials.

“Today’s ride was so exciting for me and I know there’s still more potential for much bigger scores,” David said of Friday’s win that came after a 12-hour drive from Ontario to Kentucky .

“We had a very nice clean test with the exception of two small uncharacteristic mistakes.

“He’s feeling so fresh still after an almost 12-hour trip and coming off a CDI last weekend.”

Robert Dover, the U.S. six-time Olympian who was his coach during the winter when David competed Chrevi’s Capital in Florida in his debut season at Grand Prix and who was on hand last weekend, was not in Kentucky.

Instead, Nicholas Fyffe, the Florida-based Australian rider, helped in Lexington.

David and Chrevi’s Capital are scheduled to compete in the Olympic Grand Prix Special and then a decision will be made on the next stage of his campaign to win a place on the Canadian team for London.

Canadian Olympic selection is based on results of CDI3* and above events anywhere in the world up until June 17.

Results:

Ravel ridden by Steffen Peters at the 2008 Olympic Games. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

Ravel, one of the world’s top horses who came within one-third of one percent of winning an individual medal at the Olympics four year ago, has been excused from America’s Olympic selection trials, the U.S. Equestrian Federation announced Friday.

Steffen Peters will get to take the KWPN gelding to London as one of up to six combinations from which the United States team will be chosen without putting the horse through two weekends of head-to-head competitions.

The bye from competition for the three places on the U.S. team and possibly one individual was approved by the U.S. Equestrian Federation after an examination by U.S. team veterinarian Dr. Rick Mitchell at Ravel’s stable in San Diego, California, May 21.

The request to excuse Ravel, owned by Akiko Yamazaki, from the stress of 2,400 miles (3,860km) of travel across the United States and intensive competition at the selection trials–the U.S. Grand Prix Championships–at Gladstone, New Jersey, over two weekends of June 8-10 and June 15-17 was made by Steffen in late March.

A combination can be appointed to the squad if they have qualified for the trials and have finishesd in the top six positions as an individual at a World Championship or Olympic Games within the past four years, Steffen and Ravel finished fourth at the 2008 Olympics and third at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky in 2010

Ravel (Contango x Hautain x Democraat), now 14 years old, was bought By Akiko in 2006 as an Olympic prospect for Steffen.

Steffen will compete Legalas, also owned by Akiko and bought as a successor to Ravel, in the championships. Since arriving at Steffen’s barn last Christmas, Legolas, a 10-year-old Westfalen gelding (Laomoden x Fürstin x Florestan II), has established himself as the second ranked horse in the United States behind Ravel after competing in just three CDIs in California this year.

Ravel and up to another five horses will leave for Britain shortly after the selection trials to prepare for the Olympic dressage competition beginning at London’s Greenwich Park on Aug. 2.

Steffen and Ravel were one of only six combinations in the world to score above 80 per cent at Grand Prix this year with 83.700 per cent in Florida that was second only to an award of 83.809 per cent to Matthias Alexander Rath and Totilas.

Ravel was required to undergo the veterinary examination after Steffen sought to be excused from the Olympic selection trials to minimize the strees of traveling 2,400 miles (3,860km) from Southern California to the trials, competing over two weekends and being shipped to Europe if successful. The examination was made in the presence of Kathy Connelly, one of the U.S. team selectors.

After claiming the U.S. Grand Prix championship in 2008, the pair went to the Beijing Olympics. Steffen and Ravel finished fourth in the Grand Prix Special and third on the Freestyle in which Ravel was the youngest horse to make it to the final 15 . The combined scores of the two competitions decided the individual medals, and the pair missed out by less than one-third of a percentage point America’s first individual Olympic dressage medal since Hiram Tuttle and Olympia at Los Angeles in 1932.

The combination of Steffen and Ravel won the World Cup Final at Las Vegas in 2009, only the second American combination to capture the annual global championship, then followed up the same year to become the first U.S. pair ever to sweep the CDIO of the Grand Prix, the Special and the Freestyle at the World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany.

The World Equestrian Festival in Kentucky in 2010 again saw them among the world’s elite with third place finishes behind Edward Gal and Totilas and Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris to collect two individual bronze medals.

Their competition schedule after WEG was been barebones–a total of five CDIs in 2011 and 2012–they won the Grand Prix Championship again in 2011 as well as collecting victories in the €100,000 World Dressage Masters in Palm Beach in both years.

Steffen Peters and Legolas. © 2012 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Legolas was bought from Ulrich Kasselman who with Paul Schockemöhle owns Performance Sales International. Ullrich trained the horse to Grand Prix.

The partnership of Steffen and Legolsas has been undefeated at the three California shows with the pair’s overall average of Grand Prix and Special scores at 75.495 per cent compared with an average of 79.398 per cent for Ravel.

Yvonne Losos de Muniz and Liebling II. © 2012 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

CAS, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the court of last resort, notified the Dominican federation (FDDE) that the process over the appeal against an FEI Tribunal rejection of protests over the Olympic qualifying procedures “is underway and will be expedited in order to meet the dates for the Olympic Games.”

“The FDDE is confident that CAS will provide a fair setting for the merits of the case to be weighed and looks forward to the date of the hearing, which should be in the next weeks,” the Dominican federation said in a statement.

The Dominican Republic filed the protest on behalf of its athlete, Yvonne Losos de Muñiz who rode Liebling II, the horse that Carl Hester rode to team silver medals for Great Britain at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and the 2009 European Championships, in pursuit of qualifying for the Olympics.

She was second in the Olympic individual rankings behind Brazil’s Luíza Tavares de Almeida and Samba who qualified at competitions only in Brazil, most with three Brazilian judges. The FEI granted “exceptions” to its rules requiring no more than two judges from the host nation.

Olympic dressage competition in London starts on Aug. 2 with two days of the Grand Prix.

The International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday that Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid have been placed on the short list of cities bidding to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Baku, Azerbaijan, and Doha, Qatar, were not accepted as candidate cities.

The three cities will prepare a Candidature File of an in-depth description of their Olympic project. They will also prepare for a visit by the IOC Evaluation Commission which will make a detailed technical assessment of each city for a report in advance of a briefing for IOC Members in July, 2013.

The following timetable was established for this phase:

–Olympic Games Observers’ Programme – London 2012 – July 27–Aug. 12;
–London 2012 debrief in Rio de Janeiro – November, 2012;
–Submission of Candidature Files to IOC – Jan. 7, 2013;
–Visits by IOC Evaluation Commission to candidate cities = February-April, 2013;
–Report by 2020 IOC Evaluation Commission – July, 2013;
–2020 Briefing for IOC Members – July, 2013, and
–Election of Host City of 2020 Olympic Games – 125th IOC Session, Buenos Aires, Sept. 7, 2013.

The 2016 Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

Palm Beach International Equestrian Center's Global Dressage Festival grounds and jumper derby field. © 2012 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

Florida’s new Global Dressage Festival grounds on which several million dollars have already been invested has had approvals revoked by a newly elected local government that the organizers said Wednesday “jeopardizes” the future of dressage in Wellington but hopes to salvage the project.

“What has happened jeopardizes dressage in Wellington,” said Mark Bellissimo who heads up the group that owns and operates the showgrounds that host the new Global Dressage Festival and the long established, world famous Winter Equestrian Festival of jumper and hunter competitions. Only the dressage complex is affected.

“We are disappointed by the action,” he said of the action he labeled “punitive.”

“We are hopeful all the council members will live up to their stated commitments to support dressage in Wellington.

“We expected a more collaborative approach to the process and are hopeful that we can resolve this issue for the good of the community and the sport.”

The vote by the newly elected majority of the Village of Wellington council Tuesday night sparked an outpouring of emails and text messages to newspapers and Internet sites expressing shock and disgust at the vote. Many were from opponents of proposed commercial development on the 96-acre (34Ha) grounds that previously contained two polo fields and a large permanent grandstand that was torn down after it was severaly damaged in a series of hurricanes.

The vote by the three members making up the majority of the five-member council reversed approval by a previous council months ago. It rejected an extension of a filing deadline for some paperwork required by that approval. The documents had sat in the office of the government attorney ahead of the deadline but he did not process them for several weeks while dealing with other issues including a botched election that ultimately resulted in the three members taking control of the council. A recommendation by the government officials to extend the deadline was rejected.

Bob Margolis, the new mayor, said: “The rules cannot be bent for just a few people. There’s only so much air a balloon can take before it explodes. They are rules made for everybody. We’re tired of looking the other way. There has to be a time when we say, ‘no more’.”

The vice mayor, Howard Coates. who originally voted for development and was in support of extending the filing deadline, described the vote as “politically motivated… scorched earth” action. “I don’t like it when I feel like this council is being used as a pawn for some ulterior motive,” he said.

Equestrian Sport Productions that stages the dressage, jumper and hunter competitions in the world’s largest winter circuit at the Palm Beach Center announced two weeks ago it was shelving plans for a new resort hotel at the complex but instead would concentrate on the dressage grounds.

Plans for the hotel had divided Wellington, a community of about 55,000 people, and led to formation of an opposition group primarily funded by the Jacobs family that owns a large farm near the show grounds and controls one of the largest privately-held corporations in the United States. It operates gambling casinos, dog and horse tracks, food and hospitality services to sports stadiums, airports and national parks and owns the Boston Bruins that won last season’s Stanley Cup.

The group funded the three candidates to replace council members who had approved the so-called Master Plan for the dressage grounds, the condominium hotel and a retail plaza and were up for re-election.

Since the election, occupany certificates for the facility have been withdrawn, meaning it cannot be used.

All three council members who voted against what is normally routine approval of an extension–research found that denials of such requests are extremely rare and are denied only after years of delays–insisted that they supported dressage and believed ways could be worked out with ESP to enable the facility to proceed. They were joined by the attorney for the opponents who said they supported the sport but were against extending the deadline.

The dressage facilty was built on fields where Prince Charles watched by his then-wife Princess Diana played polo and helped lead to the growth of Wellington as one of the world’s major horse sport centers. The fields had not been used for polo for several years and were bought five years ago to become part of the Palm Beach equestrian center.

ESP spent an estimated $8 million (€6.3 million) in the past year constructing hundreds of permanent stables, one of the largest covered arenas in the world, five outdoor arenas with state-of-the-art footing, paved access roads and a raised spectator deck in time for the 2012 winter circuit.

The circuit included five CDIs–the only CDI5* in the Americas in 2012 and the first non-championship Nations Cup in the Western Hemisphere–with almost $300,000 (€240,000) in prize money.

The 2013 calendar was shaping up to be even bigger with a growing number of top European riders stating that the big draw to South Florida’s warm winters was the quality of the new facility in Wellington and prize money among the highest in the world for dressage.

Problems for the Global Dressage Festival are the latest for dressage in South Florida.

John Goodman, whose International Polo Club provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to present the World Dressage Masters Palm Beach for the past two years, was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison as a result of an auto accident in Wellington. He is free on a multimillion bond but is restricted from some high profile celebrity activities awaiting an appeal.

VisionoftheHorse.com founder Kit Houghton working on latest edition. © 2012 Ken Braddck/dressage-news.com

Kit Houghton gets to display his love of story telling on VisionoftheHorse.com, possibly the most innovative equestrian digital magazines, the fifth and latest edition of the free Internet version that became available online Tuesday.

The latest edition offers dressage fans features on Britain’s “Dynamic Duo” of Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin and the second consecutive World Cup Final victory of Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival in a smörgåsbord of fine photography, video and audio accompanied by music.

The content captures the majesty (yes, a feature on preparations for the diamond jubilee of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth), excitement (Rich Fellers winning the jumping World Cup Final for the first American victory in a quarter century) and a good time (the world comes to Wellington’s Winter Equestrian Festival for fun in the sun while most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere freezes) of horses and whose who love them.

Kit started out 30 years ago with the goal of becoming a photojournalist of wars, but that changed after covering Northern Ireland. He worked in London for more than five years but gave up the “hedonistic lifestyle” to move back to Somerset and started shooting horse pictures, mostly for fun. A meeting with the father of Simon Brooks-Ward who organized London’s Olympia and other horse shows led to it becoming a business.

“Photojournalism is at the heart of what I like to do,” he said., “as it was in the heyday of Life and Picture Post. I just always loved the concept of the picture story.

“Looking at online magazines I came up with this concept that I could produce something along the lines of a picture story but using a certain amount of new technology. And it was a way of using many of the thousands of pictures I produce that never see the light of day.”

Rolex became the major underwriter of the project as an extension of its substantial sponsorship of horse sports.

“I’m completely free to do what I want,” he said of the venture that has published five magazines beginning with the first one a year ago and now has viewers logging on from 120 countries. The average time on the site is eight minutes and, he said, 65 per cent read from cover to cover, as it were.

The response has encouraged Kit to stay on a schedule of four issues a year despite the steep learning curve.

The design and application of technology he credits primarily to Harriet Hoard, a multimedia editor of “phenomenal talent” in her early 20s–”I needed to find someone young enough who could see what I was trying to produce and make it happen.”

Kit likes to use the work of a handful of others such as Dirk Caremans of Belgium who not only is one of the finest equestrian photographers in the world but can use images, video and audio to tell a story. Dirk produced reports on top jumper rider Kevin Staut of France and the training of horses for the movies.

“I want to keep it going for as long as I can. It fits in with what I do and I enjoy it.”

Valentina Truppa and Eremo del Castegno. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

MUNICH, Germany, May 20–Italy’s top dressage combination of Valentina Truppa and Eremo del Castegna captured the World Dressage Masters Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday, leading a parade of the top four placings all setting new personal high scores.

The result of 84.250 per cent by Valentina, aged 26, and the Italian-bred Eremo del Castegna was their third score above 80 per cent and easily beat their previous best of 81.232 per cent set just a month ago when they placed third at the World Cup Final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.

And it was enough to stay a sliver ahead of Isabell Werth and El Santo NRW on 84.050 per cent, a new personal best for Germany’s long time Olympic star and the 11-year-old Rhinelander gelding (Ehrentusch x Rhythme – Rhythmus) whose previous best was 81.625 exactly four months ago.

Not to be outdone, Austria’s Victoria Max-Theuer who has already been nominated at the age of 27 for her third Olympics, rode Augustin OLD to a new high of 81.085 per cent, eclipsing the previous best of 80.875 per cent with the 12-year-old Oldenburg stallion (August der Starke x Weinrubina x Rohdiamant) that was recorded at this show a year ago.

Germany’s Dorothee Schneider and Diva Royal added their score of 78.250 per cent to the new personal best category, surpassing the 77.025 per cent received at Frankfurt last December.

The personal best results for four of the combinations amounted to half of the starting lineup of eight combinations in the Freestyle of Munich’s €100,000 World Dressage Masters staged at this 1972 Olympic equestrian venue.

Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfvén won the €25,000 (US$31,9000 Nürnberger Rider Award for accumulating the most points on the WDM circuit of four competitions–Palm Beach, Munich, Falsterbo, Sweden, and Hickstead, England.

Valentina, a former Young Rider star, wore her familiar uniform of the Carabinieri, a 200-year-old police corps now a branch of Italy’s military, in riding the 11-year-old UNIRE gelding (Rohdiamant x Weltgirl x Weltmeyer) to victory. The pair have been partners since the horse was a youngster and began their CDI Grand Prix career together just over two years ago.

“I am so happy with my horse,” Valentina said after the ride. “At one point in the middle of the program, he felt explosive and the audience clapped even more and I was just trying to keep him concentrated, but he just kept going and I decided to give it a try to do the changes one-handed. At home we always ride like this.”

They competed at last year’s European Championships and this year’s World Cup Final, their first appearance at the annual global championship. She still competes Chablis, one of her partners in European Young Rider Championship success.

The pair will ride as individuals at the London Games, the sole Italian representative as the nation did not qualify a team and no other individual is on the qualifying reserve list.

Results: WDM Munich GPFS

David Marcus and Chrevi's Capital. © 2012 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

BURLINGTON, Ontario, May 19–Less than five months since becoming a Canadian citizen, David Marcus and Chrevi’s Capital took a giant leap Saturday to claim a place on his new nation’s Olympic team when the pair won the Canada Classic CDI3* Olympic Grand Prix Special with the highest score for the Special of any Canadian so far in qualifying for the Games in London this summer.

The pair scored 72.356 per cent to surpass the results for the Special of Canada’s three-time Olympian Ashley Holzer who leads the Canadian team rankings with her 2008 Beijing mount Pop Art and her new star, Breaking Dawn, as well as all the other combinations pursuing the goal of being one of the three members of the Canadian team. A squad of four combinations is likely to go to Europe, based on results, ahead of the Games.

Jacqueline Brooks and D Niro, who were ranked behind only Ashley on her two horses before this weekend, were second in the Special on 69.758 per cent and improved her average.

Cesar Parra, seeking an invitation to the U.S. selection trials aboard Van the Man, was third on 66.644 per cent. Coupled with his Grand Prix result and a score from a previous competition, that may leave him short of his goal. But there is one competition of qualifying to go–the pair are entered in a CDI3*  in New Jersey next weekend.

The Grand Prix and Olympic Grand Prix Special are critical for the Olympic team competition at Greenwich Park, with London’s skyline as a backdrop and an easy subway ride from the Olympic Village in the heart of the city.

The Grand Prix of about 50 combinations will be held Aug. 2-3 and the Special two days later that will decide the team medals.

This weekend’s Canada Classic belonged to David, 31, and the 12-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Chrevi’s Lavallo x Indira Gandhi x Weinberg) owned by Deborah Kinzinger, notching not only the first victory for the pair at Grand Prix, but two first places at the show. Their result in Saturday’s Special came a day after the partnership posted a personal best score of 68.681 per cent in winning the Grand Prix.

A calculation by dressage-news.com–unofficial and not confirmed by Equine Canada–boosted their average of the top four scores to 68.772 per cent from an average of 67.251 per cent of their three scores before this CDI.

Of the other combinations with the required four scores, Jacqueline Brooks and D Niro will have an average of about 69.17 per cent, keeping them ahead of all contenders except for Ashley and her two mounts.

After David and Chrevi’s Capital average of 68.772 per cent, Diane Creech and Devon L, who withdrew this weekend, average 68.499 per cent and Pia Fortmuller and Orion are on 68.066 per cent.

Both classes were judged by three Canadians and two foreign judges, an “exception” permitted by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) for competitions outside Europe where three foreign judges are required.

With the Grand Prix and Special results they now have five qualifying scores–the best four will count–and plan to compete next week at the Kentucky Dressage CDI3* in Lexington, and raise the bar for other combinations seeking to qualify before the Canadian team qualifying cutoff date of June 18.

Before this show, they were on the fringes of qualifying for a place on Canada’s Olympic squad along with a half-dozen other combinations seeking a ticket to London.

Although David moved from Omaha, Nebraska, to attend McMaster University when he was 18 years old, the Grand Prix career with Chrevi’s Capital is  only as old as the Canadian citizenship he was awarded last Christmas.

Before this weekend’s first CDI in David’s new homeland, the pair’s international resumé was made up of seven events on the Florida winter circuit that showed steady progression of improving scores and reliability–starting with scores in the low to mid 60s and placings in double digits to second place in the Wellington CDI5* Special at the end of March.

They took a detour last month to officially display Canada’s maple leaf on saddle pad and jacket for the first time when they were on the team in the CDIO3* Nations Cup, but they had to drop back to small tour for the event.

Results:

Caledon Equestrian Park named as first official Toronto 2015 Pan American Games venue. © 2012 ShootPhoto.ca

PALGRAVE, Ontario, May 19–Caledon Equestrian Park was the first sport venue to be named for the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games in a groundbreaking ceremony as the official venue for the three equestrian sports of dressage, eventing and jumping.

Major improvements including a new main stadium building, permanent spectator seating areas, stabling, a new grand prix arena and warmup arenas and a new indoor arena were pledged by governments to be built for the Pan Ams held once every four years as the world’s second largest sporting event after the Olympics.

For dressage, the 2015 Games could be a watershed event as they are intended to be the qualifying event for the Olympics as they have in the past, but for the first time at Grand Prix instead of small tour as has been the case to date. The 2016 Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

The announcement of the equestrian venue was held during the Caledon National show jumping tournament.

“After years of preparation and planning, we are honored not only to have Caledon Equestrian Park named as the official host of equestrian sport for the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games, but to also be selected as the very first sport venue announced by the TO2015 Organizing Committee,” said Craig Collins of Equestrian Management Group, a funding partner and the operating group of Caledon Equestrian Park.

“To make the announcement in front of hundreds of our competitors, whether they are children on ponies or junior riders with international aspirations, really underlines the legacy that hosting the Pan Am events will create for the future of our sport.”

Mike Gallagher, Equine Canada president, said that the investment in Caledon Equestrian Park ensures “an accessible public legacy for the region to develop and train elite athletes and recreational riders for decades to come.”

Caledon Equestrian Park is a municipally-owned facility that will host dressage and show jumping competitions during the Games, as well as the dressage and show jumping portions of the three-day eventing competition.  A nearby venue in Orangeville is currently under review for the cross-country portion of the eventing competition.

The facility attracts more equestrian athletes annually than any other competition venue in Ontario. It has hosted four Pan Am selection trials, two Olympic selection trials, 15 World Cup qualifying events, and more than 150 Grand Prix.

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