Region 3 and Canada Win Team Gold at 2023 North American Young Riders and U25 Championships

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2023 North American Youth Championships

Dressage competition started with a bang at the 2023 North American Youth Dressage Championships with the Young Riders and U25 divisions completing their team tests for team medals on Wednesday 9 August 2023. The next day the junior riders battled it out for team glory.

Shrinking Field of Young Riders

In the Young Rider division, another small field of 22 combinations representing six teams entered the arena for their first tests of this year’s NAYC.

While dressage sport continues to grow in Europe, in the U.S.A the young riders division has been shrinking. In 2022 there were 20 young riders at the NAYRC, but in the years 2021, 2019, 2017 and 2016 there were 29 (!!), while there were 28 in 2018, 29 in 2017. The best year in the past decade was 2015 with no less than 35 young riders. In 2014 there were 33.

Young Riders: Region 3 Wins Gold

The Region 3 team proved dominant, earning a team total of 212.353 to take the gold medal after claiming the first three places in the ranking.

Mary Claire Piller and Caterina, Emily Brollier’s 2011 Hanoverian mare by Carabas x Weltmeyer, had the highest individual score of the day, posting a 71.706% for the Region 3 team. Piller was the last to go for her team and handled the pressure to turn in a clean test.

“I try not to think too much about the pressure or the medal, just going and putting down a clean test and doing as well with my horse as I can,” said Piller. “If you think too much about the pressure and the medal, it’ll all fall apart. But if you think about the overall and just being good to your horse, it all comes together.”

Piller was on the gold-medal-winning team at NAYC in 2022 and said the second consecutive victory felt vindicating.

“This is a very difficult sport, and you never know,” she said. “Some days you come out and it’s amazing, and some days you come out and you think, ‘Maybe I should not ride again.’ It’s nice to come in and see the work that you put in paying off. It feels very good.”

Piller’s Region 3 teammate, Kat Fuqua, had the day’s second-best score of 70.882% with her own 2008 KWPN mare, Dreamgirl (by Spielberg x Goodtimes). Fuqua and Dreamgirl earned junior bronze medals at their last NAYC outing in 2021, and their debut at the Young Rider level was a huge success.

“Today I was really focusing on everything being accurate,” said Fuqua. “I wasn’t going for too much power; I just really wanted everything to be clean and organized and to be really, really focused. My goal was to get a 70% today and it all worked out. My horse was really on my side, working with me really well today, so I was very happy.”

Region 3's third score was 69.765% achieved by Celsiana William on her 10-year old Oldenburg bred Prima Ballerina (by Bon Bravour x Donnerhall). The drop score was 64.088%, ridden by Acacia Tsamoutales aboard the 15-year old Westfalian Santos (by Stedinger x Donnerruf).

The combined team from Regions 4 and 7 won the silver medal with a team total of 203.118. The Regions 1/2/9 combined team finished in a close third-place position to take home bronze with a total score of 197.824.

Under 25: Canada Wins Gold

For the inaugural Under 25 team competition teams of two riders sufficed. A total of eight athletes from Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. came to compete, performing the FEI Intermediate II test for the team competition on Wednesday.

Team Canada took home the inaugural team gold medal for the U25 division, while the U.S. Star-Spangled team won silver and the U.S. Stars & Stripes team took the bronze.

Canada’s Brooke Mancusi had the top individual score of the day on her way to winning team gold. She rode Arthur, a 2005 KWPN gelding by Jazz x Contango and owned by Windhaven, to a 67.853%.

“My horse was very, very good today. I’m really happy with him,” said Mancusi. “I really wanted to nail my piaffe and passage…he was really on my aids and really listening to me, so I think it was pretty good. I couldn’t have asked for more from him today. I’ve been riding him since January, so we’re a fairly new partnership. I’m really grateful to his owner, Jill Irving, for allowing me to ride him. We get along super well.”

Fellow Canadian Claire Robinson posted the second-best score of the day with Carol Robinson’s Glamour Boy, a 2011 KWPN gelding by Bojengel x Jazz. The pair earned a 67.794% to help secure Canada’s win.

“I’ve had my horse for about four years now, and we’ve stepped up to this level together for the first time,” said Robinson. “He’s a big character. He’s hilarious in the stable and such a fighter in the ring, and is just a wonderful partner.”

Dennesy Rogers was the top-scoring U.S. athlete and ranked third overall with Chanel, Dorriah Rogers’s 2005 Danish Warmblood mare by Romanov x Gribaldi. The pair had previously competed at NAYC in the Junior division and had a successful debut in the U25.

“My horse was very amped up, which was really fun because the passage and the piaffe work felt great,” said Rogers. “I felt like I could really get her forward into those movements. We had a couple of mistakes, but overall, the highlight was able to create the trot and the passage.”