For Tinne Vilhelmson the annual trip to Florida for the winter has become a joyride to victory. With no competition able to near her 75+% scoring average on Don Auriello, Tinne sweeps the board time and again. It was no different at the 2014 Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI-W in Wellington on Friday 28 February 2014, when she topped the Grand Prix with 77.400%.
Atop Antonia Ax:son Johnson's Don Auriello, a 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Don Davidoff x White Star, Vilhelmson stood out with her fine riding. Her bay gelding is nicely up in the bridle and extremely soft and steady in the contact throughout the test. The balanced trot half passes and impressive extensions are absolute highlights, whereas the passage remains a weakpoint. Despite its regularity, Don Auriello continues to drag his legs behind. The piaffe was not always as settled and the horse got slightly tense in the body, especially in the first piaffe and the last one in which he came behind the vertical, but the extended walk had textbook relaxation and overtrack. The two tempi's were nicely uphill but need to be straighter in the body, the horse also wags a bit in the ones and could generate more ground cover in them. The pirouettes were nice.
Vilhelmson-Silfven was quite happy with Don Auriello's performance after a few weeks away from the showgrounds. She had planned from the beginning to give the gelding plenty of time off. Vilhelmson-Silfven felt Don Auriello didn't need to go in the arena for the sake of experience and has focused more on tweaking aspects of the test at home.
"He's not impressed at all by competing. Every horse is different that way, and he just loves it. I had a good feeling, and I think it was a clear round. A little bit [of error] in the passage maybe, but those things that I've been trying to get working at home, trying to get him to react more quickly," Vilhelmson-Silfven commented. "It's always a process to try and get him even better and better. For him, it's to get more strong and more mature and really show off and use his hind legs and be in power when he goes into the arena. He's always an on-going horse. He's so nice to ride in there, but of course we try to make it even better."
Already qualified for the World Cup Finals Tinne will take the opportunity to compete in the Grand Prix Special on Sunday morning instead of Saturday night's freestyle.
Lyle On Form
American duo Adrienne Lyle and Perry Thomas' Oldenburg gelding Wizard (by Weltmeyer x Classiker) reproduced a back-to-back strong performance in the Wellington arena. After dominating the CDIO Nations' Cup last weekend, Lyle was also powerful in the Derby with a 71.980% earning ride.
After giving Wizard four days off before trail riding for a day and returning to the showgrounds to school, Lyle presented a fresh and willing horse that stood out with very powerful trot extensions and outstanding canter work. The dark bay gelding got a bit deep in the half pass left. The first piaffe was sweet, but the passage needed more engagement. The extended walk has one to two hooves overstep but the clarity of the rhythm is visible compromised, in the collected walk the bay gets very uneven behind but the judges still reward it with scores between 5.5 and 7. The transitions from piaffe to passage can be more flowing. Wizard cranks up his points with super canter work. The two tempi's are uphill and expressive, but the horse made un unscripted one tempi on the diagonal. The extended canter is uphill and ground covering, the zig zag was well ridden and the one tempi changes were very straight. The pirouettes were well jumped and small and Lyle finished her test with a strong final centreline.
Lyle admitted she may not have planned on doing two weeks of CDI competition back-to-back, but after Wizard's performances in the Nations Cup, she couldn't pass up the chance to potentially qualify for the World Cup Dressage Finals herself.
"I kind of was planning on doing one or the other originally, and then we ended up getting selected for the Nations Cup team and I thought that was a wonderful opportunity. And then he did so well in the freestyle, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be stupid if I'm sitting here in Wellington and could have qualified for the World Cup but didn't give it a shot?' Lyle explained.
Gundersen and My Lady Complete Top Three
Danish Mikala Munter Gundersen seems to have a subscription for third place as she has finished third seven times out of seven on the 2014 Dressage in Florida circuit. Aboard Janne Rumbough's Danish warmblood mare My Lady (by Michellino x Itterstern) she was only a fraction of a point behind Lyle with her 71.660% earning Grand Prix ride.
Gundersen and the dark bay mare rode a good test in which the mare's power and eagerness to work stood out. The trot half pass left was the better one as Mikala lost the hind quarters a bit in the one to the left. The extensions had much overstep. In the first piaffe the mare was active and picking up her legs well but she could have moved them a bit more under the body instead of up. The passage was bouncy and well collected. The extended walk had good overtrack but in the collected she becomes slightly prancy and needs more natural flow through the body. The second piaffe was much better. The tempi changes were the highlight of the test! The mare needs the full diagonal to complete all the huge, uphill changes. In the zig zag the quality of the canter was slightly lost, but the pirouettes showed good collection and sit behind. Overall, the mare could be a bit more steady in the bridle as the constant gets shaky a bit, but the combination is definitely one to watch for the future.
Gundersen had given her horse some time off before returning for Friday's test. Munter Gundersen was happy with My Lady, especially after having a bit of a tense warm-up session.
"When I was in the warm-up today, Lady got really nervous and didn't really like to take the bit so much and just was sucking back a little bit. Something was making her really tense, and that made me a little bit nervous. So when I went in, I was hesitating a bit, so even though she did a pretty nice test, I wasn't really riding. I could have pushed her much more, but I was more like 'Whoa,' but I didn't need to because she was totally relaxed!" Gundersen described. "I still don't know her so well. She was really good. I was very pleased with her. She's so good in the ring now, I have to trust it a little bit more and go for it. I will tomorrow!"
Of her seventh time finishing third in as many weeks, Gundersen joked, "This was my seventh yellow ribbon out of seven rides. They call me the 'Yellow Lady.' We're practicing for Germany, because then it means first place!"
U.S. Riders Back on Track
The 2014 Palm Beach Derby Grand Prix was the most interesting class to watch the past two weeks in Wellington. With many new combinations making a show appearance or more confirmed ones a come back, the class remained captivating to the end. Three U.S. riders have visibly been struggling in the show ring in January - Cesar Parra, Caroline Roffman and Heather Blitz -- but this trio came back with a vengeance in the Derby and showed that they went back to the drawing board and returned with a new and better show strategy.
Cesar Parra and Michael Davis' Dutch warmblood gelding Van The Man (by Obelisk) dealt with some major resistance in the show ring a couple of weeks ago and the trust between rider and horse seemed lost at the time. In the Derby, Parra rode much more cleverly by not antagonizing his opinonated black gelding but compromising for a truce in the show ring. Parra rode big trot extensions and clean, steady piaffes. He lost the hind quarters in the half pass left and in the passage there needs to be more engagement from behind The extended walk had good overtrack. The two tempi changes were uphill and the pirouettes were nice. The final centreline was sweet but the end halt not square. He posted a score of 70.160%.
Caroline Roffman and her own Hanoverian mare Her Highness O (by Hohenstein x Weltmeyer) had to work on some confidence issues as well. At the beginning of the show circuit the mare got eliminated twice in a row because she bit her tongue and bled from the mouth twice. Roffman disappeared from the scene to regroup at home and came back for the Derby Grand Prix. Her mare was very tense throughout the test and there was much leg flash going on because of this tension, but the elegant rider was able to finish the test and she did give a taste of what could be in store if she's able to relax her mare more. Her Highness O produced a much more mature and powerful trot than shown half a year ago in Europe. The mare was carrying herself better and had more bounce and push from behind. That being said, she was too fresh in the passage, going deep in the bridle and swaying on most of the lines. In the piaffe she shows good potential to sit and is active and can be quick enough behind. The rein back only had four steps, the zig zag needed more ground cover but was well ridden. The one tempi changes were big and the pirouettes small. Roffman was unable to keep the lid on the cooker and the final centreline was just too much. She lost control of the piaffe steps and the mare got crooked. Nevertheless the ride proved that much can be expected of the future. Their score of 70.140% was very generous considering all the inaccuracies and tension.
Heather Blitz had to deal with a figurative public beating when the 2012 Olympic team reserve left the arena with a score of 60.745% in her first show in Florida at the beginning of January 2014 after a 9-month break from competition. Harsh publicity from a U.S. website hacked into the rider's confidence and Blitz practised behind closed doors for almost two months to re-appear at the Derby and post a score of 68.300% She finished eighth in a class of 23 riders. Blitz' gentle giant Paragon (by Don Schufro) has so much power and buoyancy which not always is easy to bolster. The trot extensions were not overpushed as the horse gave plenty himself. He lost some elasticity in the half pass left. In piaffe and passage, the sideview on Paragon is nicer than a frontal view in which you can see the horse sway more with the legs to find his balance. In the first piaffe he went off a bit in the contact. The extended walk was very good, the second piaffe slightly too forward. The zig zag appeared laboured, but the canter extension was superb. The two tempi changes were big but strained and ridden with unsteady hands. The ones were nice. In the pirouette right the horse struggled behind in the exit and at the onset of the final passage he swung a bit too much with the hind quarters. Blitz keeps her hands really low so the horse can't push the head too high and lose the back.
Text and Photos by Astrid Appels - quotes provided by Laura Cardon
Photos of the 2014 CDIO Wellington can be ordered by emailing us at info@eurodressage.com
Related Links
Scores 2014 CDI-W Palm Beach Derby
Photo Report: Horse Inspection at 2014 Palm Beach Dressage Derby Brings Back Memories