The 5-year old Frasier and the 6-year old Fiderhit OLD took out the Young Horse division at the 2014 CDI-W Devon on 25 - 28 September 2014. Devon is one of the biggest American dressage shows, starting the week with an action packed breed show that turns into an international dressage competition.
National young horse classes were held on Thursday and Friday and they were dominated by German bred youngsters on "foreign" riders well established in the U.S.A. Australian Kim Gentry and the Westfalian Frasier ruled the 5-year old division while Colombian born American Cesar Parra led the 6-year old division aboard the Oldenburg bred Fiderhit OLD.
Australian Kim Gentry and her Westfalian gelding Frasier (by Furst Piccolo x Florestan) were delighted to do so well. With scores of 78.6% and 83%, Kim says it truly made the 20 hour drive down from Memphis worth while!
“I love the atmosphere in Devon and I really looked forward to coming,” said 51-year old Kim, who moved to the USA with her family 33 years ago, after they lived for a short time in Singapore. Kim is proud of how far she has come in her career. “We were living in Singapore during the late 70's and at that time I was eventing on thoroughbred’s off the race track.”
Kim is very proud of her youngster, a horse owned by an amateur friend of Kim’s who lives in Germany. “Frasier has a really wonderful personality I think partly because he had a "mom" before we purchased him," she told Eurodressage. "Our plan is to hold onto him and develop him through the levels, hopefully all the way up to Grand Prix.”
Lucky to have a dual citizenship with Australia and the US, Kim is keeping her options open when it comes to which nation she will represent if it comes to the big time, but is for sure very settled into the American way of life. “I recently started a sales business with a partner, Catie Filios, and a private investor, and Catie and I went to Germany in the late spring to buy our first group of horses. Frasier was the first horse that we looked at. We purchased him and 3 others and brought them back to the US. I've lived here a long time now, and my life and business are really integrated into the US. My husband and I are actively involved in the Memphis social and business community."
Trained by Roel Theunissen in Atlanta, Kim must travel 7 hours for lessons, but says it is something that she needs to do for the training. She also does clinics with Alfredo Hernandez.
While Gentry has focused much on competing her youngsters on the national scene, Olympian Cesar Parra has been taking his future stars to the big events down in Florida to give them ring experience and mileage. The 6-year old Oldenburg Fiderhit (by Fidertanz x Sandro Hit) is owned by Michael and Sarah Davis and was hand-picked in Germany by Parra. As a 3-year old she qualified for the Brilliant Ring of the Oldenburg Elite Mare Show in Rastede.
Fiderhit was third at the 2013 and 2014 U.S. Young Horse Championships in Wayne, earning double bronze. At the 2014 Devon Dressage Show, Cesar and the talented mare won both 6-year old Finals tests with top scores of 78.200% and 80.600%.
"Fiderhit was fantastic at Devon, where in addition to the already electric atmosphere, she had a helicopter circling above during her test," said Parra. "I could not have been happier with her."
Parra is very enthusiastic about the future of "Fantasy", which is Fiderhits nickname in the barn. "She is such an amazing horse with a brillant future as top FEI horse. I absolutely love her. I am very grateful to her owners Michael and Sarah Davis for their trust with her. She really has talent for everything."
Parra is not yet sure whether he'll take her straight into the Developing Prix St Georges horse classes. " She has matured so much physically and mentally in the last year, that perhaps she would be ready for the Developing PSG classes, but I will not push her if she isn't," he explained. "More important is her future as a top Grand Prix horse," he added.
Text by Sarah Warne - Photos © Hoof Print Images
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Scores 2014 CDI-W Devon
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