2002 Dressage at Devon transformed from a Woodstock mud slide into a Lolapalooza crowd surfing place. The crowds were packed like sardines to view Devon's highlight class of the weekend, the Grand Prix freestyle. The sun finally appeared after four days of overcast weather and dried up the footing for a perfect night of dressage.
Crowned Devon's favorite after yesterday's Grand Prix, George Williams was destined to claim victory again in the freestyle. Emphasizing "mare power" with his Westfalian dame Rocher by riding on Madonna and Britney Spears' music, Williams put 75.375% on the score board and were simply a league of their own at Devon. The piaffe-passage tour was strong, rhythmical and elegant, the extended trot engaged and impressive, the canter well jumped and large.
Following in a distance were Pamela Goodrich and Melville. Her music for the piaffe and passage was very suggestive and grew into a climax for the extensions. With 72.000%, Goodrich finally got acclaim and the score for her years of training.
Following Devon tradition, the crowds went ape during the freestyle with regular moaning, clapping, whistling and cheering in the middle of a test, praising the rider and horse's performance at the moment. After the award ceremony, announcer Brian O'Connor invited the audience to dance in the arena and about one hundred people felt the vibe to dance and trotted into the sand to shake that booty.
by Astrid Appels for Dressagedaily.com