Photo Report: Florida Fun at the 2024 Palm Beach Derby

My time at the 2024 Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, is coming to a close now that the Palm Beach Dressage Derby wrapped up last Sunday. I took a few days to unwind by spending it at the gorgeous Palm Beach coast overlooking the turquoise blue ocean, before hopping back on a plane to Europe.

It was the first time that I spent a whole month in Florida. The last two years I was here for three weeks. I want to use the biggest cliché of all: time has flown by. I covered three back-to-back CDI's and one national show at the midway point of the winter season and it still felt as there had to be more to come. Riders seems to be saving their horses for March, so maybe I should consider staying longer, although I think my house-sitter in Belgium will disagree.

I had a great time. The hospitality and kindness of Americans are unparalleled and a friend recently told me, "we are like Golden Retrievers." It is true. The Wellingtonians have been so welcoming, fun and friendly, or is it the horse community in general, people united by the love for animals?  We went to the German Nations' Cup celebration party at Hof Kasselmann, met up with friends for dinner, visited farms, and I re-connected with my mentor of two decades ago, Mary Phelps, who dropped by for the Derby.

Everybody is wondering who will make the U.S. Olympic team and one of the hopefuls - Endel Ots and Heidi Humphries' Bohemian (by Bordeaux x Samarant) - had their national premier at the Derby, posting 72.5% in the Grand Prix and a 74.256% in the Special. Adrienne Lyle is scheduled to make her debut on Lars van de Hoenderheide next weekend, when I'm back home, but my friends Petra Kerschbaum and Lily Forado will be around to witness and report on that moment.

I'm dreading the home-coming as my host and circle of Florida friends have been so welcoming, but I know I will quickly get back into the usual swing of things and of course relish seeing my family and friends at home again, picking up the thread of "normal" life. A busy schedule awaits me with competitions in Aachen, Sint-Truiden, Hagen and Compiegne heralding the start of the European outdoor season, so staying on in Florida for TerraNova or Ocala is out of the question. The mill keeps churning. 

I promise to be back to my factory-style production level as soon as I get home, producing five articles a day, sacrificing precious time that could also be spent on having a social life. I love working though and continue setting a high bar for Eurodressage. No regrets. 

Ots' Debut on Bohemian

Ah, for those who want to know what I witness when Endel presented the super famous Bohemian.. here are my notes from his two tests: For his Friday Grand Prix ride I noted: very quiet contact, very consistent picture. At times drops in the poll and a tiny but behind vertical, but horse looks not stressed. Nice half passes, trot extensions need more swing in the back, horse dropped too much in the hindquarters in the first passage, extended walk only developed good overtrack after 20 m, but there was good relaxation and rhythm. The second piaffe-passage was very nice. Good two tempi changes, zig zig bit difficult going to the left, small spook in corner which landed the one tempi changes on a very crooked diagonal. The left pirouette was the best one. Nice final passage, slightly tense moment in the piaffe at X.

On Sunday Endel rode a Grand Prix Special at noon and you see he was riding the horse a bit more there. The scores were higher, but I think I preferred the Grand Prix test in the end. In the Special Ots rode a crooked entry with the hindquarters to the left and overall the horse lacked bending to the right, especially in the corners. The passage was nice, but the nose stayed too tucked behind the vertical. I'd like to see the horse a bit more open in the throatlatch. The extended walk had 1 to 2 hooves overstep. In the first piaffe he was swinging out with the hindlegs a bit, the second was better. The canter half pass to right was laboured  and the two's could have been straighter, but the ones were lovely. There was a good  rhythm on the final centerline, slightly crooked to the left but minimal. Both rides were very promising for a future in the CDI ring.

Text © Eurodressage - Photos © Astrid Appels - NO REPRODUCTION ALLOWED / NO SCREEN SHOTS for social media

If interested in photos, please send me an email. Florida rates apply for this horse show as our colleague Sue Stickle is the official photographer

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