
CDI 3* competition at the 2014 CDIO Wellington wrapped up on Sunday afternoon 23 February 2014 with Susan Dutta and her Oldenburg bred Currency DC (by Clintino x Classiker) winning the Grand Prix Kur to Music. The Grand Prix Freestyle was a truly international class, seeing riders from Canada, the United States, Germany, Georgia, Brazil, and Italy.
American Susan Dutta and her own 14-year old Currency DC emerged victorious from the class with a score of 71.950%. Canadian Jacqueline Brooks rode to second place with D Niro on a score of 71.275%. Maria Kaldewei (GER) rounded out the top three with a score of 68.625% aboard Die Susse.
Dutta was very pleased with the improvements she saw in her test after making some adjustments to her choreography. "I've done this choreography a few times this year, and I kept having mistakes in the changes. We were finally like, 'Let's change the lines to make it so that we can have some success of a clean trip.' And it was good. It worked. So that was a nice feeling," Dutta explained. "I'm just right now trying to get clean, technical tricks. That's a huge success for me. I've never been a fancy choreography rider. I always have great music, but I like to be a safe rider."

Currency DC shows great improvement and much development in his piaffe-passage work compared to his performances in Europe half a year ago. The trot half passes were ground covering. In walk he needs more overtrack in the extensions and in the collected the bay gelding gets quite stiff in the top line, which also shows in the quite cramped one tempi changes. The two tempi's were much better. The right pirouette right was the best of the ones show in the freestyle.
Of her choreography, Dutta commented, "I love the pirouettes on the short end [of the ring] because you can really ride into them. For me, it fixes the habit that I love to over prepare, and I just don't have the time, so they're always good. I love the ending, that fan in the piaffe. I could do those all day long. "I don't do anything too crazy tricky because the horse is pretty flamboyant in those movements, so you want [the judges and audience] to just be able to watch and enjoy him and not be too radical in the movements."

A unique challenge for Brooks is tweaking the timing of her choreography to make up for the fact her horse moves differently on the footing of the stadium. "On this amazing footing, it's different timing than in a normal sand ring. They stay on the surface a bit more here, they gain a bit more ground. You see people will usually finish a bit ahead of their music on this footing," Brooks described.
Brooks actually sees the difference in timing as an advantage with her new choreography, not a hindrance. "I'm really happy with where I'm using up that music. I can make it a bit more difficult. I can take my half passes really to the walls and back, which increased the degree of difficulty," Brooks expressed.

German Maria Kaldewei and her Oldenburg mare Die Süsse (by Diamond Hit x World Cup II) improved considerably in the freestyle with the mare less hard in the contact with the bit and more expressive and energetic and on the aids. The regularity in the piaffe-passage still needs improvement, but the dark bay had good flexion in the joints and good suspension. Kaldewei's freestyle is highly operatic and the high amount of piaffe-passage at the start of the ride is overbearing. The extended walk had two hooves overstep but the mare could swing more through the back so the rhythm gets purer. The two tempi changes were nice but both the double pirouettes to the left and right were far too big. Kaldewei finished third with 68.625%.


Text by Laura Cardon and Astrid Appels
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