WELLINGTON, Fla.--Christoph Koschel of Germany on Dünensee won the Grand Prix Special CDI4* on a score of 69.957% to just beat Susan Dutta on Don Design, who scored 69.255 on March 26 at the Global Dressage Festival.
Christoph Koschel on Dunensee (Photo by Susan Stickle)Naïma Moreira Laliberté of Canada was third on a score of 68.915% on Statesman,
“I had a super nice feeling today, and he was really light in my hand,” said Koschel of Dünensee. “There was one mistake on the centerline in the ones that was maybe a little bit my fault; I was a little too forward, and it’s always a little bit of a risk if you want to do it too nice. We’re at the end of the season and maybe you don’t have the same energy like the first CDI, but I was super happy because he was really fighting for me in there still.”
Koschel has been riding Dünensee for less than four months and he is for sale, so his competitive future remains undecided.
“He was pretty consistent today, maybe a little lighter in everything compared to the Grand Prix,” said Koschel. “He really lets me ride now, and then we grow more and more together. It’s now our second special and maybe fifth or sixth test together.”
ASHLEY HOLZER made it two wins from two starts this week with Valentine, taking the Grand Prix Special CDI3* just a day after winning the qualifying Grand Prix.
These were the pair’s first international grand prix wins.
Last to go of the 13 starters, Holzer scored 72.17%.
Katie Duerrhammer on Paxton, 70.255%, was second, and Laurence Vanommeslaghe of Belgium finished third on Havalon, 70.106%.
“I was honestly really thrilled with Valentine, because all of the hard stuff she did really well," said Holzer. "The mistakes were little glitches of miscommunication, but that’s a long test and when she passages as high as she passages, it takes a lot out of her. On that last centerline she really was so honest for me. She’s green; she hasn’t done this test a lot and I’ve had issues with her being very spooky and getting nervous.”
Holzer and Valentine stepped up to grand prix level less than a year ago after an extremely successful small tour campaign, which included 11 wins from 14 CDI starts in 2019, while they did not compete internationally in 2020.
“I don’t care how much experience you’ve had, especially with a mare, you have to learn to ride the horse you have and really be in the moment,” said Holzer, who rode for Canada four times at the Olympics before switching nationality to represent the USA. “It’s always a learning curve in the ring, with every new horse, and sometimes you overdo it and sometimes you underdo it. Robert Dover has been such a great coach for me, telling me to bring her in gently to the movement, let her settle, and ride her nicely out. I think that’s really helped me a lot.”
Holzer’s next competition is the FEI Dressage World Cup Final next month in Leipzig, Germany, on her other grand prix mare, Havanna, where she will represent the USA at a major championships for the first time since her nationality switch five years ago.
Luuk Mourits of The Netherlands won two three-star events on two different horses.
In the Intermediate I CDI3*, the Dutch rider rode Harmony’s Sarotti OLD to 69.412%, having also won the previous day’s Prix St. Georges class, marking the first international wins for the pair who began competing together at AGDF in 2020.
This was their first three-star CDI show.
Katrina Sadis on Belloona was second on 67.255%, with Susan Jaccoma on Dinozzo Nexen third with 65.196%.
Mourits’ second win was on Harmony’s Don’t Stop The Feeling, with 68.382% in the Intermediate A CDI3*.
Portugal’s Tiago Ernesto scored 67.97% on Hobbit Interagro for second, and Ecuador’s Julio Cesar Mendoza Loor was third with a new high score for Baylen Dream TWF at the level of 67.471%.
