WELLINGTON, Fla.--Canada’s Belinda Trussell on Quincy scored 71.412%. to win the Future Challenge Prix St. Georges qualifier on Sunday, Feb. 9 at the Global Dressage Festival.
Belinda Trussell on Quincy (Photo by Susan Stickle)Canadian riders won two of the top three places in the qualifier, and mares took four of the top five places in the field of 13.
Hope Beerling of Australia finished second on Top Gem with 69.823%, and Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu of Canada on Leeghwater, the lone gelding in the top five, scored 69.794% for third place.
The class was held in the main stadium arena, allowing developing horses aged 7 to 8 years old to compete in a ring usually reserved for international classes but without the pressure of a CDI and the obligation to stable at the showgrounds.
The top two combinations in each qualifier advance to the series final in week 12.
Quincy, who is only 15.3h, was bought from the Klosterhof Medingen auction when she was 4.
“My farm manager Carl spotted her in the catalogue and said she looked like a mini version of Susie’s heart horse mare, Willow,” said Trussell, a two-time Olympian. “It was during Covid, so I had a friend go and try her and she said she had great basics. It was flukey because we weren’t really looking."
“SHE'S AMAZING, she’s all business, and my purpose is just to ride her well,” she said. “One thing that makes a top horse is that when they’re tired or it’s a new environment, she’s never been in an environment like this, they dig deep, and that’s what she does. She gives an incredible feeling because she’s so with you.”
"She's a sports car,” said Trussell. “She’s so compact yet supple and handy. She reacts quickly, turns on a dime, you can ask her to sit, you can ask her to go forward, and she has amazing natural balance. It all feels easy for her and I’m grateful to have a horse like that under me. I really feel that she loves the work. This morning she ran into the trailer.”
Trussell is eyeing some small tour CDIs in Canada over the summer, but the bigger goal with the talented little mare is the Olympics.
“That’s what I want for her, you never know, but hopefully it will go to plan,” she said. “My plan here was to qualify for the Future Challenge finals. It’s such a great class and I’m so grateful to the organizers and sponsors because to get the young horses in this ring without the CDI pressure at this stage is such a gift.”
Chantal van Lanen of Netherlands on King Ve got one step closer to her 2025 goals when she won the CDI2* Intermediate II, scoring 67.735% in the horse’s debut CDI, and adding to her victory in the previous day’s Intermediate A class.
Van Lanen has been a regular vacationer in Wellington for the past decade, but this is her first year competing at the Festival.
She hopes to move King Ve up to grand prix soon, and plans to unveil her new freestyle during ‘Friday Night Stars’ before the season is out.
