Omaha To Stage CDI4* With Olympic, World Games Competitors As Prelude to 2017 World Cup Final

Jacqueline Brooks competing D Niro at the 2012 London Olympic Games. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

OMAHA, Nebraska, April 12, 2016–International Omaha will feature a CDI4* with Olympic and World Games competitors together with CSI3* jumping next month as a prelude to the 2017 dual World Cups.

The CDI4* is being produced by Omaha Equestrian Foundation for May 5-7 at the CenturyLink Center that will host the 2017 World Cup Finals that will be the 32nd year for the annual global championship centered on the Grand Prix Freestyle musical performances. The 2017 Final will be the sixth dressage World Cup in the United States–four in Las Vegas and one in Los Angeles.

Jacqueline Brooks will compete D Niro that she rode for Canada at the 2012 Olympics in London–one of two Olympics she has competed in–and the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2013.

Evi Strasser, who rode for Canada at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta,  the 2006 World Games, and World Cup Finals in 1997, 2005 and 2007 is also scheduled to compete in the CDI4* that will be the highest level dressage competition staged in North America outside of Florida's top tier winter circuit and carries $30,000 in total prize money.

Other competitors include Karen Pavicic who rode her Don Daiquiri on the Canadian team at the 2014 World Games in Normandy and Gabriel Armando, an international judge and ride for Argentina at the 2003 and 2007 Pan American Games.

Among American riders are Anna Marek of Williston, Florida and Unico G that recorded the top Grand Prix placings for the pair at this year's Global Dressage Festival in Wellington and Emily Miles of Overland Park, Kansas whose Wakeup she competed at the World Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany and was reserve champion at the U.S. Dressage Finals in 2014.

Lauren Sprieser of Marshall, Virginia earned four top-10 placings on the Global circuit this year as did Adrienne Pot of Barrington Hills, Illinois and is also a dressage judge.

Other U.S. riders include Jami Kment of Palmyra, Nebraska and Suzie Halle of Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, an Adult Amateur.