The first day of competition at the 2021 CDI-W Thermal - Desert Dressage I CDI-W and the Spooktacular National Dressage Show kicked off in winning style Friday. Boasting impressive improvements across the showgrounds, athletes were eager to be a part of the first of three recognized dressage competitions to be held at the recently renovated facility this season.
Emerging at the top of the leaderboard in the Hof Kasselmann CDI3* Grand Prix was Carly Taylor-Smith and Nikki Taylor-Smith’s Rosalut NHF after receiving a personal best score, while Jan Ebeling and Status Royal Old, owned by Ann Romney, concluded Friday’s competition with a win in the Four Winds Farm CDI-W Short Grand Prix.
Taylor-Smith Wins Grand Prix for Special
Taking center stage first in the International Arena, Guenter Seidel slipped into a commanding lead at the halfway mark of the Hof Kasselmann CDI3* Grand Prix aboard Leatherdale Farms’ Equirelle, a 12-year-old Danish Warmblood mare (by Florett As x Donnerhall). Earlier this year, the three-time Olympian posted a personal best score of 73.319% aboard Equirelle to win the Rancho Murieta CDI3* Grand Prix Special. Friday afternoon, the duo rode to a score of 70.913%, shining in their canter pirouettes and extended trot.
Rising to the occasion to overtake top Seidel’s lead, Taylor-Smith and the 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding Rosalut NHF (by Rosenthal x Salut) proved they were the ones to watch. Putting forth a personal best effort, the pair received a 71.391% to take over the top spot. Judges awarded the duo high marks for their impressive display of one-tempi changes as well as their piaffe and piaffe-passage transitions.
Taylor-Smith has brought along the American-bred gelding since he was a foal, with their strong partnership already garnering them plenty of success, including earning two national young horses championship titles and two USDF Horse of the Year awards in Rosalut NHF’s short career. Taylor-Smith will compete with Rosalut NHF under the lights for the first time Saturday evening in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special.
"He is such a special horse for me," said Carly. "I’ve had him his whole life since he was a foal. To come to this is very special for me and to be able to have done that whole journey with him. He is only 11 years old so it’s pretty good already for his age. I can’t believe how fresh he was in that weather! I was red in the face and he could have done another test. Huge thank you to all of my sponsors and my team because it takes a village to be able to do something like this. I couldn’t do this by myself. My mother [Nikki Taylor-Smith] is my biggest supporter and owns [Rosalut NHF] so thank you to her as well.”
At the conclusion of the class, Taylor-Smith’s score aboard Rosalut NHF would ultimately be good enough to secure the win. Seidel and Equirelle would finish out the class in second place, with Ebeling and Vantage Equestrian Group II LLC’s Indeed (by Hofrat x De Niro) rounding out the top three for their score of 68.587%.
“I am so happy and so proud of [Rosalut NHF]," Carly explained. 'It felt great. I was actually worried with it being 90-degree weather that we were going to run out of steam and it was the complete opposite case. He was one hot tamale! He was very fresh so I actually played it a little safe and was holding him back quite a bit throughout the test. He gave me everything. He was ready to go which was an amazing feeling. My piaffe-passage is so much more solid and regular now, my changes were all there, it’s just detail things now. We are slowly getting better each test which is great, and I’m able to start thinking about the movements rather than just riding through it, so that is a big improvement for myself as a rider. It’s more experience in the arena now. He knows his job now which is really fun.”
Ebeling Tops CDI-W Short Grand Prix
Second place in the Short Grand Prix was awarded to Missy Gilliland riding her own 14-year-old Andalusian gelding Toledano XXXI (by Ambicioso XV x Osado XIV) to a score of 65.448%. Gilliland made her international debut with Toledano XXXI in the fall of 2020 at the DIHP.
On riding the short grand prix for the first time, Ebeling said, "Riding it is nice, it rides really well. I have a very hard time wrapping my head around a short grand prix because to me the classical grand prix that we have is already shortened from what it used to be and a grand prix that only has two piaffes, but it rides well. It’s definitely shorter, of course it’s easier, but I think there are some good challenges. I think the last line in the canter with the pirouettes and the one-tempis, I think that’s a good challenge.
Ebeling is looking forward to the next few days. "We will see how the [Grand Prix Freestyle] goes tomorrow and then my other horse Indeed unfortunately had a mistake today, but we’ll see how the [Grand Prix Special] goes for him," he said. "I think overall it’s been a good weekend. We haven’t shown since April in Florida, so we are here for another six weeks and then we will go back to Florida. This is a really good season opener for us.”
Text by Annan Hepner, edited by Eurodressage. Photos © Phelps Media Group
Related Link
Scores: 2021 CDI-W Thermal