WELLINGTON, Fla.--After a year out of the CDI ring, and a career of almost 100 international tests, Katherine Bateson-Chandler’s Alcazar showed he has lost none of his sparkle, winning the Grand Prix CDI3, the qualifier for the freestyle, with 68.826 percent on Thursday, Feb. 24 at Global Dressage.

Katherine Bateson-Chandler on Alcazar (Photo by Susan Stickle)Bateson-Chandler led an American clean sweep of the podium, with Hope Cooper second with 68.500 percent on Hot Chocolate W and Susan Dutta third, riding Don Design DC to 67.174 percent.

“I’ve had him since he was six,” said Bateson-Chandler, who also nursed him back to health following colic surgery in the summer of 2016. “I hate to say he feels like my old shoe, but he does. He had a big break, so I changed up my warm-up this time and it was one of the best, most honest feelings I’ve had in the ring with him.

“It’s really fun to have one that you know that well and you’ve trained yourself,” she said. “He’s really my friend, and we’ve spent so much time together and been through so many different travels. It’s a nice feeling, when they want to keep going in there and doing it at his age with the amount of showing he’s done.”

Bateson-Chandler is normally based with Carl Hester in the U.K. during the summer but has been in Wellington year-round during the pandemic.

 

SHE ATTRIBUTES Alcazar’s freshness in the ring to minimal schooling and a varied routine.

“I’m very blessed that we have a farm with a big track around it,” she said. “We’ve got jumpers and a big jumping field, so he does a lot of out-of-the-arena stuff. He does water treadmill to try and keep him fit. He goes in the ring a couple days a week, mostly in a snaffle, and we just touch on the things we need to.”

With the resumption of international travel, Bateson-Chandler plans to spend the summer with Hester once again, but in the immediate term she is considering showing again at Global and then heading to Ocala or Tryon.

“In May we’ll go to Carl’s,” said Bateson-Chandler, who also hopes that Hester will visit Wellington this winter season, “and I’ve got a whole bunch of students and horses. We’re going to take a whole crew and have a really fun and educational summer. I talk to him all the time, and I’m looking forward to getting back over there and getting back in the program again.”

Carrie Schopf of Armenia recorded her first ever international Grand Prix win on Saumur with 69.087 percent, and qualified for the World Championships in the process.

The American-born 64-year-old posted a personal best of 69.087% to top the field of 14.

Americans ruled the day with Codi Harrison second on 67.652 percent on Bossco and Jessica Howington and Cavalia third with 67.261percent, despite an error of course.

Saumur, a 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding whom Schopf competed at the European Championships in Rotterdam in 2019, was fresh and full of energy, even after his test.

“You can see how much energy he has, and sometimes he makes himself tense because he wants to do more than I want him to do,” said Schopf, who is based in Germany and has ridden Saumur since he was 8. “My goal was to have a test that flowed, and where he felt comfortable and wanted to do his job and to be a team with him.”

“I had been having some trouble with my one-tempis in the last couple of days, so I really made an effort to make him shorter in the corner,"said Schopf, whose score qualified her for the FEI World Championships in Denmark, in August, but she is unsure whether she will go. "I really took him back. He was a little shorter and I rode them a little smaller, and he was perfect. For me that was a shining moment because he said, ‘Yes, mom. I can do this,’”

“You never know if you’re going to a championship until you’re there," said Schopf, whose husband Bernd Schopf is helping her in Wellington while she is between trainers. "This is the horse world; anything can happen. I would go if I felt that it justified the trip. I’m an individual rider, so if I go to the world championships, I have to be sure I can ride a 73 percent, or I’m not going to go beyond the grand prix.”

“In Rotterdam, Saumur was still having his electric phase,” said Schopf, who also rode Saumur’s sire, Sancisco OLD, in international competition. “That was before I changed my attitude and decided I was going to work as a team with this horse. So it was okay, and we got experience. When I got this horse, he had a single clean flying change and half passes, and then the rest I did. I could only produce him because he said, ‘Yes, I want to do this. I enjoy doing this.’ I’m just so grateful to this horse.” 

Bianca Berktold on Imperial won the Prix St. Georges CDI3*.

First to go in the all-American field, Berktold scored 73.000percent, almost 2 percent higher than their previous best in this test.

Berktold and Imperial have finished on the podium in all four of their 2022 AGDF starts, and this week marks their first three-star show.