(USEF) – Wellington, FL – Canada’s Christilot Boylen rode Dio Mio to another victory Sunday in the FEI Intermediaire-1 Freestyle CDIO 3* and ended up as the top individual rider of the week. American Heather Blitz collected yet another top prize for the United States during the last day of competition for the Wellington Nations Cup CDIO/CDI 3*, presented by Stillpoint Farm. The FEI Grand Prix Special CDIO 3* was also the final class of the 2013 Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF), hosted at The Stadium at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC). The Adequan Global Dressage Festival hosted five national and five international shows this season with rave reviews, record entries, and fantastic competition.

Canadian Christilot Boylen had a picture perfect end to the Wellington Nations Cup CDIO/CDI 3*, presented by Stillpoint Farm. Boylen wrapped up a banner season at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF), which concluded Sunday afternoon at The Stadium at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC). Boylen and Dio Mio scored a 73.789% for victory in Sunday’s FEI Intermediare-I CDIO 3*, presented by Wellington Equestrian Realty. Americans Kimberly Herslow and Caroline Roffman once again rounded out the top three. Herslow and Rosmarin were second with a 72.632%. Roffman finished close behind with a 72.263% with Her Highness O.

The judges for the class were: Mirabel Alonso at E, Anne Gribbons at H, Evi Eisenhardt at C, Joan Macartney at M, and Linda Zang at B.

Boylen’s top scores over the last two days of competition, which included a 75.500% in Saturday’s FEI Intermediare-I Freestyle CDIO 3*, put her in first place for the weekend’s individual standings for Nations Cup competition. Boylen finished with a grand total of 148.289, besting American rider Cesar Parra and Van the Man, who picked up the silver medal with 146.583 points. Fellow American Caroline Roffman and Her Highness O finished in third place with a cumulative score of 146.313.

Custom Saddlery selected the FEI Intermediare-I CDIO 3* as the Most Valuable Rider class, another honor that Boylen took home. Boylen received a Custom Saddlery year-long sponsorship as well as a Custom Saddlery Steffen’s Advantage saddle for her performance in Sunday’s class.

Dio Mio’s ability to put out highly correct tests makes him incredibly hard to beat in competition. “He’s a very accurate horse and he was again Sunday. That’s where it gets difficult for the others until they stop making mistakes. That’s about it,” Boylen stated matter-of-factly.

Temperatures soared on the third day of a demanding weekend of competition, but Boylen remained confident in her horse rising to the occasion. “In the heat, there were a lot of horses I think fighting Sunday after last night. He’s very wirey and athletic. He just came out the same as ever,” Boylen described.

“He’s a trooper,” Boylen continued. “His Thoroughbred side comes through quite strongly. He’s never been tired in the ring.”

While his Thoroughred blood gives him the endurance to outlast his competitors, Boylen acknowledged she deals with a certain amount of tension with the ten-year-old Hanoverian gelding. Naturally, this was of no concern to her either; Boylen knows she can trust Dio Mio to always pull through for her.

“Last night [during the freestyle], he walked in there and he was actually quite terrified of the [Jumbotron] screen. But there was never a question of whether he was going to go down [to that end of the arena]. He’s a very honest horse, which I appreciate a lot. You need an honest horse, just like you need honest people,” Boylen smiled.

Boylen also felt her European base gave her an edge in competition due to the level of competition in classes with massive entries there. However, she did not count the AGDF out as a future hotbed of dressage competition and plans to return next winter.

“I think it’s going to build. This is definitely a fantastic base for those available in Florida. I think you’re going to see more and more people [compete next year],” Boylen commented.

The Champion Equine Insurance Dressage Style Award was awarded Saturday to Christilot Boylen, who won the FEI Intermediare-I with a score of 69.737%.

Final Results: FEI Intermediare-I CDIO 3* sponsored by Wellington Equestrian Realty
Rider, Country, Horse: Judge E%, Judge H%, Judge C%, Judge M%, Judge B%, Total%

1 Christilot Boylen, CAN, Dio Mio: 73.684%, 73.947%, 74.737%, 72.895%, 73.684%, 73.789%
2 Kimberly Herslow, USA, Rosmarin: 73.158%, 72.632%, 73.947%, 70.658%, 72.763%, 72.632%
3 Caroline Roffman, USA, Her Highness O: 72.500%, 70.395%, 73.289%, 73.158%, 71.974%, 72.263%
4 Lars Petersen, DEN, Chicco Roslev: 70.526%, 69.605%, 72.105%, 69.737%, 72.237%, 70.842%
5 Carlos Munoz, ESP, Klousau: 69.474%, 70.132%, 72.500%, 70.921%, 70.132%, 70.632%
6 Christopher Hickey, USA, Witness Hilltop: 70.132%, 70.132%, 68.553%, 69.211%, 70.132%, 69.632%

Photo Courtesy of USEF by Sue Stickle – The top three individual riders from the CDIO were Christilot Boylen with gold, Cesar Parra with silver, and Caroline Roffman with bronze.

(USEF) – Blitz and Paragon finished first in the FEI Grand Prix Special CDIO 3* with a 72.313%, narrowly beating fellow American Cesar Parra and Van the Man who finished second with a 72.208%. Shelly Francis (USA) and Doktor rounded out the top three with a final score of 70.646%.

Judges for the class were: Linda Zang at E, Anne Gribbons at H, Mirabel Alonso at C, Joan Macartney at M, and Evi Eisenhardt at B.

The three-day, three-test format of the Wellington Nations Cup competition provided a championship-type schedule in which riders could prepare their horses. Despite Paragon’s relative inexperience, Blitz was pleasantly surprised with how the ten-year-old Danish Warmblood handled the long weekend.

“He surprised me that he was plenty energetic today. I had definitely tailored my warm-ups all three days with that in mind; that he had to last for three tests. It’s only (in) a CDIO that you would have the three (tests) and we’re not practiced at it. We had it at the Pan Ams, but that was only small tour, so for him to have three days with piaffe and passage is big for him. He surprised me with enough energy and strength all the way up to the final salut, which is good to know,” Blitz described.

As a rule of thumb, Blitz focuses Paragon’s warm-ups on asking more of him mentally rather than physically, working mostly at the walk to fine tune the his level of rideability. “He’s not really the kind of horse that has to blow off steam. He’s much more just a mental horse and if I can organize him at the walk, then it’s all pretty much there. I don’t spend a whole lot of time doing movements and practicing the tests. I just work on getting the right connection and then we’re ready to go,” Blitz explained.

Blitz was thrilled to have a blue ribbon finish to an already successful weekend at the Wellington Nations Cup CDIO/CDI 3*. She competed with Paragon as part of Team USA 1, which finished first in Nations Cup team standings on Friday afternoon. Blitz and Paragon were major contributors to the team’s victory with their first place finish in the FEI Grand Prix CDIO 3* with a 70.979%.

“I feel this [test Sunday] was his best Grand Prix so far. I liked the Grand Prix on Friday, but I really liked this one better. I didn’t know if it would be possible to top that within just two days, but in this test today, he really only had two steps in the whole thing that weren’t perfect for where is. It’s a really good feeling that he started off with a bang and he ended with a bigger bang,” Blitz beamed.

After a banner season at the AGDF, Blitz will pack up and head to her new home base at Cutler Farm in Boston, MA. She’s working on putting together a European tour, which may include plans to prepare Paragon to qualify for the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy. Regardless, Blitz looks forward to returning to Florida next winter for the 2014 AGDF.

Final Results: FEI Grand Prix Special CDIO 3* sponsored by Stillpoint Farm
Rider, Country, Horse: Judge E%, Judge H%, Judge C%, Judge M%, Judge B%, Total%

1 Heather Blitz, USA, Paragon: 68.721%, 76.354%, 73.542%, 71.042%, 71.354%, 72.313%
2 Cesar Parra, USA, Van the Man: 72.708%, 72.813%, 71.771%, 71.250%, 72.500%, 72.208%
3 Shelly Francis, USA, Doktor: 68.646%, 71.458%, 71.458%, 69.375%, 72.292%, 70.646%
4 Susan Dutta, USA, Currency DC: 68.229%, 70.313%, 68.438%, 68.646%, 70.208%, 69.167%
5 Mikala Munter Gundersen, DEN, My Lady: 67.292%, 67.708%, 67.083%, 68.333%, 66.146%, 67.313%
6 David Marcus, CAN, Don Kontes: 65.729%, 65.938%, 66.146%, 67.083%, 65.625%, 66.104%

Photo Courtesy of USEF by Sue Stickle

(USEF) – Ten teams of international dressage riders met on Friday for a chance to win the Wellington Nations Cup CDIO3* prese nted by Stillpoint Farm, America’s only CDIO3*. And though there was plenty of good competition, Team U.S.A I (the U.S. was represented by two teams) was clearly the day’s best.

Total, seven horse/rider combinations earned scores of 70% or more. Three of them were on Team U.S.A. I. Leading the way were Kimberly Herslow and Kiroli Enterprises LLC’s Rosmarin. Their score of 72.079% was more than enough to win in the Prix St. Georges competition, and was the highest individual score of the day.

“It’s such a privilege to have a horse like Rosmarin,” said Herslow, “he gives me one-hundred and ten percent every time he goes into the ring and today was no exception. It was an honor to ride on this team and I’m so happy to have contributed.”

Team U.S.A. I also had contributions from Prix St. George pair Caroline Roffman and her own Her Highness O, and Grand Prix level riders Heather Blitz and Shelly Francis. Francis rode Patricia Stempel’s Doktor to a 70.213%, good for second place in the Grand Prix division, and Blitz rode her 2011 Pan American Games individual silver medalist Paragon to a 71.021%, good enough to win the Grand Prix competition.

“I’m very happy with how [Paragon] went today,” Blitz said after the competition was over, “it was one of my favorite tests, especially in the connection. He gets better in every test. He’s come a long way, but there’s still a lot left. [Today] was a great confidence builder and I’m excited to continue his training.”

Teams for the Wellington Dressage Nations Cup CDIO3* presented by Stillpoint Farm were made up of three or four horses and riders, not more than two of which could be Grand Prix combinations. The top three scores from each team were counted toward the final total. For each Grand Prix score in that top three, an extra 3 percentage points were added to the final team score (this format is the proposed format for the Pan American Games, and Friday’s Nations Cup was used as a test of that format). With the two highest Grand Prix scores counting toward their final score, Team U.S.A. I finished with a total combined score of 219.313, far and away the best team score of the competition.

Not to be too overshadowed though was second place finisher Team U.S.A II. The team of Prix St. George riders Christopher Hickey and Justin Hardin, and Grand Prix riders Susan Dutta and Cesar Parra earned a total score of 208.675. For a minute, it looked like third place team Canada I (Canada was also represented by two teams) might take the runner up position, but a clutch 69.043% from Parra and Van the Man secured a second place finish for Team U.S.A II.

“It’s always a privilege to ride on a team,” said Parra, after securing the second place finish. “My horse had a fantastic day and I was very pleased with our test.”

Rounding out the top five were teams Europe (Lars Petersen, Mikala Munter Gundersen, Katarin Stumpf, and Kevin Kohmann) in fourth palce, and Spain (Carlos Munoz, Juan Matute, Juan Matute Jr., and Paula Matute) in fifth place.

Competitors return to the ring Saturday for a chance at individual honors. The top finisher will be crowned by combining his/her scores from the Freestyle, performed Saturday, and Sunday’s test of either the FEI Intermediaire I or the FEI Grand Prix Special.

On demand video of every ride from the Wellington Dressage Nations Cup CDIO3*is now available at USEFNetwork.com.

Links to individual scores can be found at http://www.usefnetwork.com/overlays/517.aspx.

Follow the U.S. Dressage Team here.

Final Wellington Dressage Nations Cup presented by Stillpoint Farm Team Standings

1. U.S.A. I – 216.313
2. U.S.A. II – 208.675
3. Canada I – 205.346
4. Europe – 203.026
5. Spain – 200.974
6. Canada II – 200.395
7. Australia – 194.509
8. Colombia – 192.789
9. Argentina – 192.438
10. Venezuela – 190.263

Photo Courtesy of USEF by Sue Stickle – Kimberly Herslow and Rosmarin

(USEF) – The Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) will see its most intense weeks of competition of the season beginning April 4-7, 2013, with the Wellington 5*, presented by Diamante Farms. Following the high-stakes week of 5* competition is the Wellington Nations Cup, CDIO 3*/CDI 3* presented by Stillpoint Farm, which will run April 11-14, 2013. Both competitions will be hosted at The Stadium of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, FL.

The Wellington 5* will host some of the world’s top dressage riders as they battle for honors in the FEI Grand Prix on Friday at 1 pm. The FEI Grand Prix Freestyle will be showcased under the lights on Saturday at 7:30 pm. The FEI Grand Prix Special will be held Sunday at 9 am.

Spectators can anticipate watching the best international dressage competition of the season, including Olympians Steffen Peters (USA) and Legolas 92, Ashley Holzer (CAN) and Breaking Dawn, David Marcus (CAN) and Don Kontes, Tina Konyot (USA) and Calecto V, Lars Petersen (DEN) and Mariett, and more.

Saturday night’s exciting schedule includes a special “Dressage vs. Reining” exhibition with Susie Dutta on her grand prix horse, Currency DC, and Megan Davis, a top reining rider from Ingram Stables. The two talented equestrians will each have the opportunity to show off their skills in their respective disciplines.

Photo Courtesy of USEF by Elena Lusenti – Tina Konyot and Calecto V will defend their AGDF FEI Grand Prix Freestyle victories

(USEF) – The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) will continue the process of filling the role of Technical Advisor/Chef d’Equipe for the U.S. Dressage Team with two applicants.

The applicants listed in alphabetical order along with nationality are:

Robert Dover (U.S.A.)
Rien van der Schaft (The Netherlands)

These applicants have completed the interview process with the six member Search Committee. The next step in the process will be for the applicants to be interviewed by the High Performance Eligible Athletes Dressage Committee and the members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Dressage Team. The High Performance Eligible Athletes Dressage Committee will then make their recommendation to the High Performance Dressage Committee. The High Performance Dressage Committee will then provide their decision to the Executive Committee.

The Search Committee is composed of:

Eric Straus, Chairman
Janet Foy
Catherine Haddad-Staller
Susan Dutta
Anne Kursinski
David O’Connor

To see a full list of USEF Committees visit; http://usef.org/_IFrames/AboutUs/Committee/Default.aspx

For more information regarding the process of hiring the next Technical Advisor/Chef d’Equipe for the U.S. Dressage Team contact Jenny Van Wieren-Page at (859) 225-6949 or by email JVanWieren@usef.org

(FEI by Louise Parkes) – With three weeks left to go, the line-up for the Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final 2012/2013 is taking shape. The full complement of 18 horse-and-rider combinations from eight nations has been confirmed following the FEI Central European League final staged in Zhashkiv, Ukraine last weekend.

Wild-cards have been issued and accepted, and competitors from the host nation of Sweden are expected to be joined by representatives from Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Canada and Norway when the action gets underway at the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden on 24 April.

Up for Grabs

The two qualifying spots up for grabs at Zhashkiv were claimed by Ukraine’s Inna Logutenkova and Russia’s Tatiana Dorofeeva. Logutenkova finished seventh, and Dorofeeva fourth at the end of the eight-leg Central European League qualifying series which saw Katsiaryna Varchenia and Sviatlana Loika from Belarus jointly topping the leaderboard.

Loika did not line out in Zhashkiv over the weekend, but Varchenia joined four others in the Grand Prix Kur won by Logutenkova and Stallone who scored 71.750. And when Dorofeeva posted 70.6000 with Khorovod, then Varchenia had to settle for the reserve qualifying spot with Redford whose mark of 69.675 was only good enough for third place.

This was no fluke result as 26 year old Logutenkova finished second with Stallone and third with Don Gregorius at Zhashkiv CDI-W last May while 48 year old Dorofeeva was victorious with Khorovod at CDI-W Moscow in September.

North America

It was Canadian Olympian, David Marcus from Campbellville, Ontario, who won the FEI North American FEI World Cup™ Dressage league, but he has declined the opportunity to compete, and the regional qualifying places will now be taken up by fellow-Canadians Jacqueline Brooks and Jaimey Irwin.

The North American places are decided on an average score system rather than on points, and, riding Chevri’s Capital, Marcus accumulated the highest average score ahead of Brooks and her 14 year old Swedish warmblood gelding D Niro.

Brooks got an early grounding in equestrianism while grooming for Canada’s Ashley Holzer at the Pan Am Games in Havana, Cuba in 1990 and is now a double-Olympian. She followed the London 2012 Olympic Games with training in Florida, USA under Holzer’s eagle eye and achieved good results over the winter months at Devon in Pennsylvania, USA, the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, Canada and the Global showgrounds in Wellington, Florida.

Irwin also achieved good scores at Devon, Wellington and CDI-W Loxahatchee and will compete with the 16 year old Lindor’s Finest, a Canadian-bred Dutch warmblood which he first got to ride last summer. The 35 year old athlete has trained with German coach, Holger Munstermann, throughout his career.

Withdrawal

Meanwhile the withdrawal of Australia’s Lyndal Oatley sees no representative from the Pacific League. Oatley has pulled out on veterinary advice following a minor injury to her horse, Sandro Boy.

Her disappointment however opened up an extra starting place which has been awarded to Marlies van Baalen who will join Edward Gal and double defending champion Adelinde Cornelissen in flying the Dutch flag.

A total of 12 riders are now confirmed from the Western European League including Germany’s Helen Langehanenberg, Kristine Sprehe and Isabell Werth, Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven, Patrik Kittel and Minna Telde – the latter getting in on a wild-card – Denmark’s Anna Kasprzak and Danish counterpart and wild-card recipient, Sidsel Johansen, whose performances with Schianto have been a big hit with the crowds this season.

Italy will be represented by Valentina Truppa and Switzerland by Marcela Krinke Susmelj, while 2012 Norwegian Dressage Champion, Lillann Jebsen, yesterday accepted a wild-card invitation. And the Canadian Federation has applied for a wild-card entry for Pia Fortmuller who will be next on the list should one become available.