It looks like the east just slightly edged out the west on scores today as both Thermal, CA. and Wellington,FL. both held CDI’s with Grand Prix qualifiers for the World Equestrian Games this fall in Kentucky. Out in Thermal they had good weather but a very difficult ring under a tent to compete in and we had a very windy day but were lucky that the rain held off until after the class had ended.
Tina Konyot and her beautiful stallion, Collecto, won the Grand Prix for the Freestyle with 70.5%, followed by Pierre St. Jacques with 69+ and Sue Jacoma with over 68%. 4th was Shana Harding with 67 followed by Canadian, Shannon Dueck in her 1st CDI with Ayisha, her wonderful 9 year old mare, with 66.16. This mare will be fantastic when she has a little more experience.

Out west, Adrienne Lyle won the Grand Prix aboard Felix with just over 69.617 followed closely by Sue Blinks and Robin Hood, also with a 69.149 Leslie Morse and Tip Top received a 67.745% and Adrienne also got 4th place with 67.489on her other horse owned by the Thomas family, Wizard. Canadian, Wendy Christoff, placed 6th with just over 63.46%.

Tomorrow in Wellington will be the other Grand Prix for the Special and I have a strong feeling that we will see higher scores coming from Canadian, Ashley Holzer and, I hope very much, others wearing the maple leaf. I will report on that as well as the results of the Freestyle tomorrow night.

Cheers!

RD

OK, so it was very late when I posted my thoughts about the CDI’s this week on both coasts. And I forgot to mention that there might be a surprise “dark horse” (pun intended) in Thermal this weekend. My friend and long-time student and teammate, Marie Meyers, will be trying out on the very talented Fandengo, her lovely gelding. He is just starting out but Marie has many years of experience and this duo could make a big splash in his first CDI.
Also, We can’t forget that Leslie Morse has flown home from the Masters in Wellington to ride as well in Thermal. I hear the tent in which everyone will be competing is no easy arena and bound to make for some interesting rides.
I wish all the riders the very best of luck - but maybe just a tiny bit more for my Canadians, eh?

Cheers!

RD

It’s the duel of the CDI’s this week as the west coast finally sees their first one take place in Thermal, CA while Wellington holds its 3rd back at the Jim Brandon show facility where the 1st one was held last month.

For Canada, we will see some new combinations which will be showing Grand Prix for their first time this year and I am looking forward to seeing them as well as the progress made by others since their last competition. On the west coast I will definitely be very interested to see how the few WEG declared riders out there score as I will be flying out to see them on the 20th and 21st at Dove Hollow in San Diego. They will then be going to Burbank the following weekend for their 2nd CDI. This group will be up against pretty much everyone other than Steffen Peters who just returned from a fantastic showing here in Wellington at the World Masters where he won the Grand Prix and was 2nd in the Freestyle. I will be very interested to see how Americans, Guenter Seidel with U2, Adrienne Lyle with Felix and Wizard, and Sue Blinks with Robin Hood, and Jan Ebeling and Raffalca do in their 1st CDI of the season.
And here at home I will be watching Americans as well, as Lauren Sammis, Todd Flettrich and Tina Konyot work to bring up their percentages in hopes of becoming contenders for Kentucky. But is Ashley Holzer shows this week I predict another easy win for Canada this weekend and will be working very hard to ensure that her countrymen are right there alongside her in the prize-giving ceremonies!

Cheers!

RD

WHAR GAME, iINVENTD BY CANADIAN DR.JAMESNASMITHIN 1891, WAS PLAYED WITH A FOOTBALL UNTIL THE LATE 1950?

2-HOW MANY POCKETS DOES A CHAMPION SNOOKER TABLE HAVE?

3-WHAT IS THE HIGHEST SNOOKER BREAK IN NORMAL PLAY WITHOUT THE
ADVANTAGE OF A FOUL?

4-WHAT WAS THE ONLY GRAND SLAM EVENT PLAYED ON GRASS AT THE START OF THE 21 CENTURY?

5-WHO, IN 2001, BECAME THE ONLY WILD CARD ENTRY TO THE WIMBLEDON MENS SINGLES TITLE?

6-WHAT FAMED SPRINTER WON LONG JUMP GOLD AT THE 1984 AND 1988 OLYMPICS?

So Here’s the thing.  When Anky has been on her best form throughout her career, it has been the stuff which created probably the strongest memories of watching top class Dressage sport in my life.  It goes along with Reiner Klimke’s victory round in Los Angeles in 1984 and Brentina’s final center-line in the world cup in 2005, when I was lucky to have had Kennedy give me a personal best over 80% as well. And, of course, the thrill of watching Steffen Peters win the World Cup last year ranks right up there with things I will never forget.

Tonight in the Freestyle, Anky proved once again why I keep saying we should never count her (or for that matter Isabel) out.  Both Anky and Isabel have had some hard times in the recent past and many have said they have simply fallen out of favor. Even Sjef remarked to me the other day that he felt that she was no longer able to get the scores she once received, even when she performed some movements just as well as before. But I disagreed with him and said that I felt that she just needed to  change her presentation of the passage and keep her changes straight and I believed her marks would go right back up. And that’s exactly what happened tonight, along with the fact that she rode both a technically close to perfect ride which also showed her artistry in expressing the story of her music.

Steffen also produced a beautiful ride with great impulsion and wonderful transitions, just as he has now done consistently. I think that he and Ravel still have room for growth in the pirouettes to be up to Salinero’s standard in this movement. When he can take more and smaller steps around and keep them in place, Steffen’s score will go up drastically, just as it will also rise with a more elevated extended trot. We must remember that this pair is still relatively new compared to the others in the top group.

Isabel again showed why I love her as a rider. She is fearless and can create energy like almost no other and float over the ground with her horses.  She reminds me of Leslie Howard, the great AmericanJumping rider, who I have watched many times take the greatest possible risk to go fast and clean in a jump-off, but sadly misscalculate a distance around such a sharp turn that there was just no way to make the next jump work. Like Leslie, Isabel is a winner and went for it with such huge canter half-passes that she lost her collection and Satchmo fell into the trot at a very inopportune moment right in front of the judges. And like Leslie, fearlessness can sometimes backfire on you, but I still respect the effort!

Ashley Holzer showed again why she is the star for Canada at present with a lovely ride tonight. If it were not for slight stalling in 3 transitions to piaffe, though each time Pop Art did a beautiful piaffe less than a second later, I can imagine they would have had at least as many if not more points than Isabel. The rest of their test was effortless and great fun to watch. The best news is that I am positive we still have not seen the best from this pair and there is a long time until the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this fall.

So there you have it from my perspective at the Masters. It was a fantastic show at one of the finest show grounds anywhere in the world and I want to compliment everyone who organized and ran this competition on making it one I will never forget.

Cheers!

RD

Other than watching Ashley and Belinda do short, easy rides this morning to prepare for their tests tomorrow, I spent the rest of the day at Stillpoint Farm having a normal day. Of course, by normal that now means betwen 14 and 16 combinations coming at 30 minute intervals all day long.  It’s really like the old days when I had one warming up, one working, and one cooling down - kind of like a conveyor belt.
But here’s the thing. I promised the Canadian riders I would give 150% if they gave 100% to every day and so far they’ve done just that and more! Tomorrow, while the 3 riders are competing at the Masters, with Belinda and Diane in the Grand Prix Special and Ashley in the Freestyle, most of the rest of my Canadian riders will be doing a schooling show at the Jim Brandon arena with top O Judge, Linda Zang, officiating. This will be a tremendously educational experience for my up and coming Grand Prix combinations as well as the small tour riders and horses who are attending.  Between the schooling show and having my riders watch both the warm-ups and the competitions at the Masters, I feel that they will have made huge strides in understanding exactly what it takes to become truly world-class competitors.  We will keep on raising our personal bars on a day by day, week by week, and month by month basis until I see a squad of riders and horses which all have the ability to achieve 70% or over. That is our goal and we will not stop until we have realized it.
I will report the results of both shows tomorrow evening and know we will see fantastic rides in all classes tomorrow!

Cheers!

RD

Steffen Peters and Ravel were absolutely superb today to easily win the World Dressage Masters Grand Prix in Wellington with over 76%. And here is why- Ravel had all of the expression and volume over the ground that Isabel and Anky show with there horses, but at the same time exhibits the harmony we always saw in Brentina with Debbie McDonald at their best.
A couple of days ago, if you had asked me, I would have said that Isabel and Satchmo looked like the victors. She rode through the Grand Prix with all the brilliance she is know for plus a very relaxed attitude, but yesterday the horse appeared more resistant, especially on the center-lines going to the pirouettes. And that was the story of today, where Satchmo fell out of passage into canter, missed the 2’s and had less than stellar pirouettes, the second one almost being more of a turn on the center. Still, what I love about Isabel is that she shows the fantastic impulsion she is able to manufacture with every horse she rides and fearlessly produces highlights no one can ever deny, and these earn her very high scores which are well deserved. 

Anky did the same thing with Salinero, showing again why these riders are at the top of the world. The volume within their trot half-passes and extensions is unmistakably top class, and Salinero performed all halts perfectly still. Where they lost points was in the passage tours which Anky holds back to the point that they become to piaffe-like. Other than this and some swinging in her two-tempis, I thought that Salinero actually looked very lovely  and that he could easily find himself up in the high 70’s once again with a more flowing  and ground-covering passage.

Fourth in this great competition was Ashley Holzer riding Pop Art for Canada. I have to say that, other than a tiny glitch in her first piaffe where he slightly lost his cadence, and six instead of five steps in the rein-back, this pair did a wonderful test! As a matter of fact, they were only .085% behind Isabel and Satchmo, showing that Ashley is truly in that very elite group of riders who are consistently able to achieve top results.

The scores dropped quite a bit after Ashley’s fourth place marks, with Ulla Salzgeber getting only a bit more than 68% for her ride. Along with her, the other Dutch and German riders rounded out the top eight places with Americans and Canadians not coming up to the standard of the leaders.

But even with this, I have to say that I was very proud of both Belinda Trussell on Anton and Diane Creech on Devon L. You see, these two riders and their ten year old horses are both in a very evolutionary phase in their training. They were used to going, perhaps clean through the Grand Prix, but without enough expression or high level frame to earn the big points I know they are capable of. I remember back to 1987 when Jessica Ransehousen came to Europe with Orpheus and rode in Stuttgart. The pair went through the Grand Prix without one mistake, but in a frame far to much like a lower level horse. After placing toward the bottom of the class, I met up with Jess and said we had to get to work, and by the next big show two weeks later, Orphy was in a magnificent frame. The only problem was that Jess now had created tension which caused her to make many mistakes in the class. I mean A LOT OF MISTAKES!  And so we went back home and 3 weeks later arrived at the next CDI where, with a brilliant and mistake free ride, the amazing  Jessica Ransehousen proved again why she was a great Olympic rider, placing third in a very large class. She went on to easily make the Olympic team in 88  in Seoule.

This is the same evolution that both Belinda and Diane are going through with their horses, and is the exact same thing I am working to improve all of our other WEG declared combinations in as we speak. As a matter of fact, this show could not have come at a more opportune moment, as it allowed my Canadian riders to come and see exactly what I have been trying to impress upon them. A picture truly is worth a thousand words as well as  a hundred video’s!  So, my Canadian friends, I am looking forward to our lessons tomorrow on the day off from the show, to see exactly what you all learned from watching. We should  all see some more great rides in the Special and the Freestyle on Saturday and I will report them as I see them.

Cheers!

RD

           OK Friends, here is how it works. I will post 6 questions.  Those who  want to play along will post their answers in the comment box. The person who gets the most right answers, no cheating please, will receive a shirt from Robert. If there are multiple winners they will win a shirt too. If there are more then 3 winners I will try to find another harder question to stump you. Goodness, I could keep taking this further & further afield so I will just say “Let the game begin” and take it from there.                                                 

11-3-09

1)What world record did Jesse Owens hold for twenty five years and Bob Beamon for twenty-three?

2)What modeling material is most commonly used to show a mark if a long jumper takes off from in front of the board?

3)What famed sprinter won long jump gold at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics?

4)What is the modern name for what was known as the hop, step, and jump?

5)What modern event is equivalent to a sport in the ancieint Olympics requiring particiants to carry hand weights that they swung to increase momentum?

6)Who was the first long jumper to leap more then twenty-seven feet?

Well I did my work coppying all these questions to tease your brain. Now it is your turn to show Dover’s World  how smart you are.                                         

Good Luck!    Roberts Mom

The World Dressage Masters begins with the Grand Prix tomorrow when 16 top combinations from around the world will ride for the largest purse on the continent. Such greats as Isabel Werth, Anky Van Grunsven, Steffen Peters, and Ashley Holzer along with many other wonderful riders and horses are sure to thrill the audience. And the stadium as well as the entire show grounds have never looked better.
Besides all this, my un-rain dance seems to have done the trick because today was cool and clear and I am hoping for the same throughout the week.
The warm-ups as well as the jog went very well today and Ulla Salzgeber will be starting off tomorrow as fisrt to go at 1:00pm. I’ll give the full rundown of everything from the arena and behind the scenes tomorrow during and after the class.

Cheers!

RD

The International Ring at the Wellington show grounds looks fantastic and the footing could not be better. If you are a Dressage enthusiast living in this hemisphere and you are not attending the World Dressage Masters this week, I feel sorry for you as it is going to be an amazing competition. Riders such as Anky, Isabel, Ashley, Ulla, and Steffen are going to ensure a very high caliber of competition, and there are others including top American and Canadian up and coming stars to watch as well.
Just sitting and watching the warm-ups today were inspirational and worth the price of admission! I hope you all will make every effort to come watch the richest Dressage class in North America and aee why it is called ” The Masters”.

Cheers!

RD