WELLINGTON, Fla.--Rebecca Cohen on the 9-year-old Prince Of Hope, by Total Hope, scored 70.559% to win the Future Challenge FEI Prix St. Georges on Sunday, Feb. 23 at the Global Dressage Festival.
Rebecca Cohen on Prince of Hope (Photo by Susan Stickle)There were 15 small tour horses in the Prix St. Georges, with the top three finishing within half a percentage point of each other, and the top two horses, who both qualified for the final in Festival 12, were sired by sons of Totilas.
Ashley Holzer on the 9-year-old gelding Toto Jr., son of Liberty L was second, just 0.05 percentage points behind with a 70%, and she also qualified for the Final.
Andrea Woodard on the 8-year-old Roxette was just 0.05 percentage points behind in third with 70%.
Cohen now has a horse qualified for the final of both the Future Challenge and the big tour Future Challenge, which had been one of her main goals this year.
“This season I wanted to have my young grand prix horse Jameson and Prince in the final, so now I’ve accomplished that and I’m really excited,” she said.
COHEN is a native of Wellington and trains out of her mother Carol’s 3 Graces Dressage, and she has owned Prince Of Hope since he was 6.
As well as having a barn full of dressage horses, Cohen is also an avid polo player.
“It’s been a really fun journey to develop him to a small tour horse, especially considering that when I first got Prince he got injured and had a year off,” she said. “I’m really happy about today. He gets better and better every time I go in there. Even if the scores don’t always show an upward trend, I feel that he’s more with me and knows his job."
“His highlights are always the trot work and the canter pirouettes. The changes I still need to work on; he’s not as strong in them and goes a bit from side to side, but with more strength and time they’ll get better,” she said. “He’s the funniest horse ever. He’ll never bite or kick though he pulls faces and has an attitude, but he’s sweet.”
Cohen has been competing at the Festival since its inception, rising through the ranks from juniors.
“I’ve been living here my whole life, and I’m turning 30 this year,” she said. “It’s been great to have a place to go back to all the time and the horses really enjoy competing here. Having this many shows so close to home has also helped develop me as a rider. The developing classes are a super opportunity to get the horses in the big arena without the pressure of doing a full CDI.”
Canada’s Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu on Jaccardo scored 71.3553% to win the Future Challenge FEI Intermediate II, a developing class for emerging grand prix horses.
Fraser-Beaulieu was more than 2.5 percentage points the best, and she qualified for the final in week 12.
Erin Nichols also qualified by finishing second on Kind Pleasure.
Hope Beerling of Australia scored 67.353% on Evaslunds Daydream for third place.
In the CDIU25 FEI Grand Prix Freestyle, 20-year-old Ella Fruchterman scored a new personal best of 69% to win the all-U.S. class on Hannah Montana W.
Fruchterman has already earned her bronze, silver and gold USDF medals and, with Hannah Montana, is the current USDF Finals Open Intermediate II titleholder.
Josh Albrecht on Goldenboy Vinckenburgh was second with 68.72%, and Sophia Schults was third with 67.525% on Pura Raza Española (PRE) Conocido HGF.
