USA Dressage Finals of Mostly Amateurs Starts With Int. II Championships

Karen Lipp on Whitney, US Dressage Final Int. II reserve champion pair. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Nov. 10, 2016–The United States Dressage Finals with a growing number of professionals among mostly adult amateurs began its fourth annual event Thursday with the Intermediate II championships decided from a slate of 30 national titles up for grabs over four days.

Heather Mason of Lebanon, New Jersey won the open championship on 69.737 per cent on Warsteiner, on whom she was named U.S. Dressage Federation Horse of the Year at 4th Level in 2010, at Prix St. Georges in 2012 and at Intermediate in 2013.

She competed the horse at Grand Prix at a couple of CDIs in 2013 and 2014 but dropped the horse back.

Now, with Warsteiner 13 years old and competed here in a snaffle bridle for the first time since third level in 2009, Heather plans to compete the KWPN gelding at Big Tour next year.

Karen Lipp of Ball Ground, Georgia on Whitney was reserve champion on a score of 68.202 per cent, in a new lease on competition life for the partnership after owner Kathleen Oldford decided not to sell the 11-year-old Hanoverian when she gave up riding her.

The owner said she liked the partnership of Karen and Whitney.

She described Whitney that she found when the horse was four as “very goey, electric.”

Karen, who trained with Klaus Balkenhol and competed in Germany in 2005, competed Whitney at U.S. four, five and six-year-old championships.

 

Whitney doesn't like to be touched which is why Karen thinks she might be a good Grand Prix horse. She will find out next year when she intends to compete at Big Tour at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida.

She has been working with Tina Konyot who rode Calecto V for the United States at the 2012 Olympics and the 2010 and 2014 World Games.

Amy Leach and Radcliffe that won the US Finals Int. II Adult Amateur Championship. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

These finals were launched four years ago as head-to-head competition between top qualifiers at all levels from the nine regional championships across the country.

This year, there are 380 entries, 202 adult amateurs and 178 in open classes. In the first year 2013, there were 304 entries.

Riders from 39 states and the District of Columbia are competing this week, with the top states being Florida (40), Illinois (34), Texas, 33, Virginia (27), Kentucky (26), New Jersey (23), Ohio (19), North Carolina and Minnesota (16), Georgia (15), Indiana (14), Michigan (13), Wisconsin (12) and California and Pennsylvania (9).

To put the event into context, the combination ranked highest on the U.S. Equestrian Federation Grand Prix standings competing here is Sharon McCusker on Wrigley at No. 27.

 

 

Results:

Intermediate II Open Championship

Judges: E-Sarah Geikie C-Liselotte Fore M-Carter Bass

		Horse		Rider		E	C	M	Total		Pl.
		Warsteiner		Heather Mason		69.079% (1)	71.447% (1)	68.684% (1)			1
		Whitney		Karen Lipp		68.553% (2)	67.632% (2)	68.421% (2)			2
		Elfenperfekt		Abraham Pugh		67.105% (3)	67.105% (3)	68.158% (3)			3
		Bon De Niro		Pamela Aide		66.316% (4)	66.974% (4)	66.316% (4)			4
		Ive Been Ripped+		Jessica Fussner		64.474% (6)	65.000% (7)	65.789% (5)			5
		Uniqa		George Williams		64.605% (5)	65.263% (6)	64.737% (6)			6
		San Nero		Debbie Hill		62.895% (8)	65.921% (5)	62.895% (7)			7
		Don Derrick		Dawn Weniger		62.895% (8)	63.947% (8)	62.895% (7)			8
		Freedom		Patricia Becker		63.816% (7)	63.684% (9)	61.579% (9)			9
		Schroeder		Elizabeth Caron		62.763% (10)	59.211% (10)	59.868% (10)			10
		Pasquino		Kate Phillips	Ret.

Intermediate II AA Championship

Judges: E-Sarah Geikie C-Liselotte Fore M-Carter Bass

		Horse		Rider		E	C	M	Total		Pl.
		Radcliffe		Amy Leach		70.789% (1)	67.105% (1)	66.053% (1)			1
		Zabaco		Amy Grahn		65.132% (2)	62.500% (3)	65.132% (2)			2
		Zafiro dos Cedros		Amy Bresky		62.763% (4)	63.026% (2)	61.184% (4)			3
		Dominic LHF		Rhonda Dretel		62.237% (5)	61.579% (5)	60.263% (6)			4
		Collingwood		Michelle Baker		63.158% (3)	62.368% (4)	57.500% (8)			5
		Willow Bae		Susan Harrington		61.842% (6)	60.658% (6)	58.026% (7)			6
		Akvavit		Kristy Truebenbach Lund		59.079% (7)	58.684% (7)	61.711% (3)			7
		Enebro XIV		Lee Burton		58.026% (8)	58.289% (8)	60.658% (5)			8

Vicki Lowell, TV Marketing & Creative Executive & Consumer Branding Expert, Appointed USEF Chief of Marketing & Content

Vicki Lowell

Nov. 10, 2016

Vicki Lowell, a highly regarded television marketing executive and president of the Washington International Horse Show, on Thursday was appointed U.S. Equestrian Federation Chief Marketing and Content Officer.

The appointment of Vicki was part of an overhaul of the USEF into what chief executive officer Bill Moroney described as a “consumer-centric organization” aimed at developing horse sports while making it responsive to consumers.

Lowell specializes in brand re-stages that transform businesses and is known for developing collaborative and passionate teams delivering “memorable creative and measurable results,” the federation said.

“She brings nearly 25 years of brand marketing and senior leadership experience to the USEF including 15 years at Discovery Communications where she led brand strategy, creative development, media planning, and digital/social marketing for Animal Planet and TLC.”

Discovery has become one of the world's major producers and distributors of sports, information and entertainment programming including the Olympic Games.

She helped produce the Animal Planet series “Horse Power Road to the Maclay,” the Animal Planet Sport Horse Series, “Jockeys,” and the World Cup Finals in Las Vegas in 2007 and 2009. She also spent nine years with Procter & Gamble leading the Cover Girl Cosmetics brand and was responsible for launching the “Easy, Breezy, Beautiful” campaign.

Vicki has been on the USEF board of directors for the past 3 1/2 years and resigned her seat earlier this month. She will continue as a volunteer to be president of the Washington International Horse Show, which she has helped build into one of the most popular and entertaining horse shows in America with more than 26,000 spectators. She also competes successfully as an adult amateur jumper rider.

“Vicki is the perfect leader to transform the USEF into a consumer-centric organization,” Bill Moroney said. “Over the past few months, she has been volunteering as a board member, working closely with the marketing team and has already had an impact. As part of the new strategic plan, Vicki is championing a new brand logo, look and feel, brand campaign, website, member benefits, video-based learning center and a new approach to USEF Network.”

The plans will be presented at the USEF annual meeting Jan. 11-14. She is relocating to Lexington, Kentucky where the USEF is headquartered.

Her business experience was described as: “A passionate and purpose-driven marketing executive who balances bold creative vision with consumer insight and business analytics to drive transformative growth.

“Profit & loss management experience with start up and category leading brands. Reputation for building highly motivated, successful teams across media/entertainment, consumer package goods and non-profit organizations. Strengths include 'big picture' strategic and creative leadership but also a desire to listen, collaborate, 'roll up my sleeves' and do what it takes to get the job done.”

2017 North American Junior & Young Dressage Rider Championships to Go to Saugerties, New York

HITS on the Hudson in Saugerties, New York

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Nov. 8, 2016–The 2017 North American Junior & Young Rider Championships for dressage, jumping and para-dressage have been awarded by the U.S. Equestrian Federation to HITS-on-the-Hudson in Saugerties, New York July 18-23.

The proposed location, the USEF announced Tuesday, needs to be approved by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) at its General Assembly later this month.

Sites for the eventing and endurance championships have not yet been selected.

 

Tryon Budgets Up to $60 Million To Stage World Games at $125 Million Show Grounds–Part 1 of 3

Artist's rendition of hotel and spa as well as housing to be built at the Tryon International Equestrian Center that will house riders and grooms at the World Equestrian Games in 2018.

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

MILL SPRING, North Carolina, Nov. 7, 2016–As much as $60 million has been budgeted to stage the 2018 World Equestrian Games at Tryon International Equestrian Center on which about $125 million has been spent in the past two years creating perhaps the most ambitious, complete and efficient show grounds in the world.

Mark Bellissimo, who heads up the group that has personally financed construction of the facility, promised in an interview with dressage-news.com to seek to “re-define how these Games are presented” by engaging spectators in ways to inspire and develop horse sports

Few doubt he will succeed, after turning the first sod just two years ago on what he likened to “an Iowa cornfield” from the movie Field of Dreams but in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a scenic region in western North Carolina with little infrastructure and not much more of a future for many of the 1.4 million people living here.

The can-do approach to these Games–the second to be held in the Western Hemisphere since the combined championships of international equestrian sports was created in 1990–is typified by Mark Bellissimo's attitude to funding:

“This is all private capital. No one would ever invest in this kind of project so we needed people who were crazy enough to build something in an Iowa cornfield. So I picked up the phone and called our partners.”

“I'm in,” was the response.

The governments of North and South Carolina–TIEC is on the state line–jumped on board immediately and the U.S. Equestrian Federation that formally made the bid has backed the project unreservedly. William Moroney, the USEF chief executive, was at the news conference in Charlotte, North Carolina announcing the WEG.

But government involvement is relatively minor, mostly providing tourist promotion and making highway access to the show grounds easier

And, Mark laughed that he prefers the deadline of about 20 months to the five years typically provided past hosts of the WEG. As he has shown in Wellington, Florida he completely overhauled the Winter Equestrian Festival grounds in nine months and built the Global Dressage Festival facility from scratch in one year.

Stables at Tryon. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

What has been built on the 1,600 acres/650Ha of TIEC at Tryon already and what is to come by the fall of 2018:

–1,200 permanent stables–sold out during some of the 39 weeks of international and national dressage, jumping and eventing competitions, and a promise to build more if needed;

–12 arenas with the same Olympic quality footing as the Wellington show grounds;

–Centerpiece and floodlit George Morris stadium with spectator seating up to 12,000 and VIP seating for up to 1,500. More seating will be available if demand warrants;

–A covered arena already constructed and to be enclosed that will have 5,000 seats for reining and vaulting at the WEG, and

–A major extension of the cross country course for eventing that will turn the course created for the American Eventing Championships from one that earned rave reviews into what will likely be one of the best in the world. As with the first course, the entire cross country will be designed by Mark Phillips on land that had been used originally as a golf course but retaining much of the spectacular natural environment with the rare if ever addition of footing in parts for the sake of the horses.

Part of the eventing cross-country course that was built for the American Eventing Championships. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Work has already begun extending the eventing cross-country course through this area that was part of a psrtially developed golf course. The course will also be used for driving marathon. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

Other aspects critical to the success of WEG at Tryon:

–Housing for at least another 1,000 people will be built on the show grounds to add to the accommodations for 200 that already exist. Mark founded a factory with state-of-the-art equipment from Sweden to produce pre-fabricated housing that will accommodate grooms and athletes during WEG and then sold afterward;

–Both Mark and Sharon Decker, the dynamic chief operating officer for Tryon, have been meeting with tourist development groups as well as hotel/motel operators in North and South Carolina seeking their commitment to hold prices at no more than 20 per cent above rates of the past two years. The effort was sparked by what were described around the world as “extortionate” rates demanded in Kentucky in 2010;

–Tickets will go on sale in January but pricing has not yet been decided. Kentucky introduced the widely unpopular system of breaking daily sessions into separate parts–morning and afternoon dressage Grand Prix , for example–with separate tickets required. Normandy adopted the same system four years later that produced ugly scenes of elderly and infirm spectators being forced by French security guards to vacate seats after the morning session to make their way down steeply inclined soccer stadium stairs then to make their way back to the same seats for the afternoon session;

–Feeding thousands of spectators, riders, officials, volunteers and media. Nine restaurants are already within the Tryon show grounds, but not enough to handle thousands of participants and spectators expected to attend the World Games in 2018. Aachen, that hosts dressage, jumping, eventing, driving and vaulting at its CHIO each year as well as the 2006 WEG and the 2015 European Championships, has been the most successful. It is another part of its well oiled machine that produces what is regarded as the best horse show in the world. Lexington was great for high paying VIPs, mediocre for spectators and others while at Normandy pretty much everybody in the main stadium outside of VIPs had to hunt for food outside as there wasn't any on the grounds.

A 13-acre field for jumper and hunter derbies that is undoubtedly the most advanced technologically in the world with specially developed durable grass is also in use but likely won't have a use for WEG.

The covered arena at Tryon that will be enclosed and seating installed for 5,000 spectators. © 2016 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

The thinking behind the creation of Tryon, Mark Bellissimo explained, was with the World Games in mind–but for 2026 not 2018.

“I believe we're going to run one of the most interesting World Games,” he said, “I think our facility was built to support it. The footprint we have here lends itself to that. The best run WEG was Aachen. Everyone else was focused on assembling a venue, putting together a one-trick pony.

“Tryon is a venue built for commercial integration with the sport.

“We're spending a lot of money building the gold standard.”

Part 2: WEG by the numbers

Monica Theodorescu Stays for Another Four Years as German Dressage Coach

Monica Theodorescu, Germany team coach. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

WARENDORF, Germany, Nov. 6, 2016–Monica Theodorescu is staying for another four years as chief coach of the German dressage team after this summer's Olympics where Germany returned to the top of the team medals podium as well as taking individual silver and bronze.

Monica, 53 years old and winner of three Olympic team gold medals, became the first woman to hold the post when she was appointed in late 2012.

The German Olympic Equestrian Committee (DOKR) also named Jonny Hilberath to remain as a team coach.

Hans-Heinrich Meyer zu Strohen will also continue as coach of Junior and Young Riders and lead development of the Children class.

Sebastian Heinze will take over training of the Under-25 division, succeeding Jürgen Koschel who celebrated his 70th birthday this summer where Germany won team, individual and freestyle golds.

Cornelia “Conny” Endres will be responsible for the pony riders.

Germany's Juliane Brunkhorst Rides Fürstano to 1st Victory, Winning Zakrzów World Cup Grand Prix

Juliane Brunkhors of Germany and Fürstano.

ZAKRZÓW, Poland, Nov. 5, 2016–Germany's Juliane Brunkhorst rode Fürstano to the stallion's first victory to win the Grand Prix Saturday in the second last Central European World Cup event to qualify for the final in Omaha next March.

Juliane and the 11-year-old Hanoverian scored a personal best 71.400 per cent exactly six months since the pair started Big Tour.

Australia's Kristy Oatley on Du Soleil placed second on 70.560 per cent. She competed the 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding at this summer's Olympic Games.

Austria's Belinda Weinbauer and Söhnlein Brilliant MJ were third on 70.420 per cent.

The Grand Prix Freestyle to earn points to qualify for the World Cup Final is scheduled for Sunday.

Kristy Oatley on Swagman won the CDI3*Grand Prix Special with a score of 70.079 per cent following a win in the Grand Prix Friday that was the first victory for the 12-year-old Oldenburg stallion.

Poland's Rishat Sabitov on Azzaro placed second on 69.646 per cent with fellow Pole Aleksandra Szulc on Rumba Hit third on 67.530 per cent.

Results:

cdi-w-grand-prix

cdi3-grand-prix-special

Aussie Kristy Oatley Posts 1st Victory On Swagman to Capture Zakrzów CDI3* Grand Prix

Kristy Oatley and Swagman

ZAKRZÓW, Poland, Nov. 4, 2016–Australian Olympian Kristy Oatley rode Swagman to victory in the CDI3* Grand Prix Friday, the first win for the 12-year-old Oldenburg stallion.

Kristy, who rode Du Soleil for Australia at the Rio de Janeiro Games for her fourth Olympic appearance, piloted Swagman to a score of 69.200 per cent in only their sixth Big Tour since starting Grand Prix 18 months ago.

Poland's Aleksandra Szulc on Rumba Hit placed second on 66.040 per cent with compatriot Rishat Sabitov on Azzaro third on 64.580 per cent.

Results:

zakrzow-cdi3-grand-prix