-- Text by Alice Collins for USDF, edited by Eurodressage - Photos © Susan Stickle
Lauren Chumley, Taylor Lindsten, Meghan Richards, Lyndsey Bailey, Rebecca Lord, Jennifer Truett, Heather Mason, and Anartz Chanca became the winners of the FEI level titles on the first three days of competition at the 2023 US Dressage Finals from 9 - 12 November 2023.
What are the US Dressage Finals?
Competitors flocked to the Kentucky Horse Park for the 10th anniversary edition of the US Dressage Finals where newly minted champions were made from the more than 330 horses participating.
The marquee national show — which competitors qualify for via the USDF Regional Championships in nine USDF regions — offers a wealth of championship titles and more than $120,000 in prize money.
Open Prix St Georges: Lauren Chumley and Leeloo Dallas
The Prix St. Georges Championship ran for almost five hours in the Walnut Arena. It was the final competitor in the class, Lauren Chumley, who swept in and produced the only plus-70% score riding Leeloo Dallas to capture the winner’s blanket and sash. At seven years old, the mare was the equal youngest in the class of 21 starters.
“I had a super lucky draw spot, and my horse is awesome. She’s just a baby but she’s absolutely amazing,” enthused Chumley, who also rides in Eventing and was at a 1* just three days previously. “I rode her a little bit this morning then just warmed up for 15 minutes before the test and she felt super. I thought ‘Let’s go!’ and she went. She rocked on.”
Chumley bought Leeloo Dallas, who is by the Ravel son Gaspard De La Nuit DG and out of a Negro dam from a video when she was a foal. She was bred by Racheal Redman. The horse is named after Mila Jovovich's character in the movie The Fifth Element.
“I bought her because she was little and black with four white socks, and I could afford her,” said Chumley, who trains with Michael Bragdell. “She is born, bred, and trained in America. All the horses out of her dam are so rideable. They’re easy, smart, and sensitive but not stupid.”
Has Chumley ever considered eventing Leeloo?
“I tried to jump her, and my coach was absolutely horrified,” she laughed. “She’s also not very good at it. But in dressage she’s had the best year ever. We went to Lamplight and did the FEI 7-year-olds, then won the Prix St. Georges at Regionals, and here we are.”
The pair also won the Fourth Level Open Freestyle at Regionals, so will be top contenders in that class on Sunday. Looking further into the future, this pair are another planning to campaign on the Florida circuit and will contest the Intermediate 1 class, with developing grand prix the year after.
“She 100% has the ability for grand prix; most importantly she’s got the brain,” said Chumley. “She’s done Challenge of the Americas and the dance off at Dressage at Devon all covered in glitter — she’s just fantastic.”
Open Intermediaire I: Taylor Lindsten on Wallace G
“This is only our second time breaking 70% in the FEI levels,” enthused the 30-year-old, who recorded her first ever Finals win. “He showed up because he knew it was important. I was watching the first three-quarters of my class, but once I’m on my horse that all goes out of my head. I’m just thinking about his strengths and how to showcase them and to enjoy the feeling he gives me out there because he’s a showman.”
Lindsten did not know anything about the breed until Wallace G’s breeder George Geter placed the son of Sas Van Thorrehof with her.
“His breeder sent him to me as a five-year-old, and I developed him from Training Level,” she said. “He’s about to make his Grand Prix debut in the spring of 2024, so we are very excited about him.”
Lindsten runs Taylor Made Sport Horses, her own dressage, jumping, and eventing operation out of Flying Fox Farm in Scottsdale, AZ. But it has been thinking outside her already broad box that has reaped rewards with Wallace G, and working equitation has been key to his success.
“At the lower levels he wasn’t very successful because he’s so naturally high and tight in the neck,” she explained. “It wasn’t until we got to Fourth Level that he really started to show some great scores and what helped is that we started doing working equitation. He debuted at masters level this year, and we are hoping to go to the 2026 World Cup in Spain. He’s multitalented; if I could clone that horse I would — he’s got the best temperament of any horse I’ve ever trained.”
Adult Amateur Intermediaire I: Meghan Richards on Kingstown
On their fourth visit to US Dressage Finals, Meghan Richards and Kingstown (by El Capone x United) finally bagged a championship sash, logging 68.284% to top the Intermediate I AA. Richards has owned the eight-year-old KWPN gelding since buying him from a video when he was three and has produced him herself.
Richards was a hunter/jumper rider for 25 years, then made the switch to dressage after she “accidentally imported a dressage horse.”
“He was supposed to be a hunter, but when he arrived, I realized he really wasn’t,” she related. “He wasn’t the horse for me, but I really enjoyed the six months of dressage I did with him and decided to switch.
Kingstown has tested Richards’ fortitude though as he is very spooky at home.
“My trainer Lauren Chumley asked around, and someone had King sitting in a field,” she explained. “It was a lucky purchase for me, and I’ve shown him since he was four; we came to Finals at Training Level. He’s done 15 Regional Championships and was champion or reserve in all but one. There’s a lot of quality there, and I’m a very lucky girl to have him.”
“He’s not a normal amateur horse, and he’s very spooky sometimes,” added Richards, who trailered the horse the 11-hour journey from New Jersey herself. “He’s trainable, but I have to manage his spookiness. Sometimes he likes to teleport, and sometimes spinning is involved. We competed at Dressage at Devon a couple of months ago and the first day we couldn’t get round the ring, but the second day we won. He just needs a moment sometimes.”
Richards is hoping Kingstown can be the horse to carry her to her USDF Gold Medal next year.
Adult Amateur Intermediaire I Kur to Music: Lyndsey Bailey and Kasparov Toja
The Intermediate I Freestyle AA was nail-bitingly close, with the top three all finishing within 0.1% of each other. Lyndsey Bailey eventually came out on top, riding her own 18.1-hand, 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding Kasparov Toja (by Vivaldi x Concreto) to 69.858%. The reserve champion Phyllis Sumner scored 69.842% on her own nine-year-old Soprano 9 (by Scuderia x Hotline), while third place went to Tonna Faxon on the Lusitano bred Flash (by Satelite x Cisne) with 69.75%.
Bailey had spotted Kasparov Toja before she bought him, but he was out of her budget. She put the horse out of her mind, until one day he popped up on YouTube again, with a reduced price tag.
“I called immediately, and we went up to Vermont the next weekend,” she recalled. “I rode him, and I fell in love with him. The feeling you get when you’re on him is that you can reach the stars. He’s one in a million, and he put his full heart into this test today.”
Bailey credits much of her success to trainer Wendi Schnittjer, adding: “She’s been with me every step of this journey. At 5 a.m. we’re out there riding, and I’m on eastern Long Island so this time of year it’s cold and it’s brutal. She’s always there encouraging me and providing the path to enable me to do this.”
Open Intermediaire II: Jennifer Truett on Absolute Dream
Jennifer Truett’s 2022 Intermediate I champion Absolute Dream seamlessly stepped up to claim the Intermediate II Open crown this year, topping the class with 68.235%, with reserve champion Michael Bragdell and the Danish warmblood bred Vallos Dreaming Marong (by Dream Boy x Baccarat xx) just 0.2% behind.
“I was super proud and thrilled for him to win again. He’s a breakthrough horse in my career. He came into the arena and puffed up but stayed with me,” said Truett, who is based just two hours from Lexington, near Cincinnati, OH. “He’s so powerful and electric that he might just start throwing one tempis in here and there because he really likes them.”
Truett, who trains with Olivia LaGoy-Weltz, noted that the step up from Intermediate I to Intermediate II is massive, and Absolute Dream has developed physically as a result.
“He was much more up in his chest — not just in his hindlegs — and also he was sitting powerfully with his loin and croup, and that’s really new for him,” she explained. “He’s always had crazy legs, but the stability through his whole length, so he can really rock back and take the weight, is brand new for him. I admit that I lost count in the ones — that was on me. I thought, ‘Is this 11 or 13? I don’t know! I should stop.’ Sadly, it was 13.”
Truett bought Absolute Dream as a 2-year-old from Reesink Horses in The Netherlands and has trained him herself.
“He’s always been a bouncy ball,” she added. “We still have a lot of strength to build, but he’s only nine. He really enjoys this work and keeping the horses wanting to do it and to please you is so important because the work is hard. All the Grand Prix work is right there — I can taste it — so I am super excited.”
The pair will spend the summer in Florida and contest the Lövsta Future Challenge for developing Grand Prix horses before heading back to Cincinnati to prepare for a potential Grand Prix debut next summer.
Adult Amateur Intermediaire II: Rebecca Lord on Demetrius
Adult Amateur (AA) Rebecca Lord and the 14-year-old Hanoverian Demetrius (previously named Donatus 121, by Dancier x Don Bosco), were the penultimate combination down the center line in the Intermediate II AA Championship, and their 67.304% proved unbeatable.
“I’m elated,” said Lord, who also finished fourth on Don Amigo (by Don Schufro x Aleksander). “I work so hard to bring all the learning and knowledge and awareness together and help horses do fantastic job because they’re all capable of being fantastic. Today was a reflection of the road of progress that ‘Demi’ and I are on.”
The only blip in the test came from a miscommunication in the trot work, when the horse popped into canter.
“I didn’t support him enough in the passage, and I came in a little hot. It is exciting in there, and I was nervous,” admitted Lord, who takes Rescue Remedy to help keep her nerves in check.
On purchasing Demetrius in 2020, Lord said, “I meditate, and I had finished one day and I asked the universe to help me find my completion horse — one that would bring together all this work I’d done with my trainers Franziska [Seidl] and Alex [Robertson] with the five or six horses I already had. I looked on Facebook at horses for sale, which I never do, and a dear friend had posted this amazing looking horse.
“If I hadn’t had all the other horses, I could never have had Demi as they have prepared me for him,” she continued. “His unique quality is the availability of his talent. There are plenty of beautiful horses, but it can be hard to get to the talent, and Demi gives it to you on a silver platter.”
Lord’s farm in Ocala, FL, is named Soul Passion Farm as that is how she feels horses have impacted her.
“I’m a quintuple A-type person and you have to be patient [with horses], so the learning curve has been Mount Everest,” added Lord, who gets up at 5 a.m. daily. “I’m not an Olympic rider, but now to reach some level of excellence, you have to be all in.”
She has four horses at the 2023 Finals.
Open Grand Prix: Heather Mason and RTF Lincoln
Just as in 2022, Heather Mason and RTF Lincoln (by L’Andiamo) led the charge in Friday evening’s showcase class, the Grand Prix Open Championship. This year they topped the field with a harmonious and very well-presented test in which Mason made full use of the corners to balance and prepare the 18-year-old for each movement. As in previous years, Mason rode him in a snaffle with a simple cavesson noseband.
This is the third consecutive year that Lincoln has won this class at Finals, and Mason has decided that he will bow out of top-level competition on a high. This is their final show together.
“He was a little bit tricky to ride but very good and did what he needed to do,” said Mason, who is from Lebanon, NJ. “It was a nice last Grand Prix for him. He was getting a bit hot at times and a little bit normal at times, switching back and forth, so when he does that I have to be really tuned into him.
“He can be many different ways in a test,” she explained. “I’ve been riding this horse for a very long time, and I have no idea what makes him one way or the other. He can start dead quiet and then rev up, or start hot and then calm down — there’s no telling. I just have to be ready to ride eight variations at all times; it’s like having eight grand prix horses in one.”
Mason bought Lincoln as a foal, then sold him on. She kept in touch with the owners and ended up buying him back for $1 when the new owner had to have a hip replacement. She has built an incredible rapport with the quirky son of L’Andiamo, carefully managing his foibles with lungeing, patience, and custom-built thigh blocks to help withstand his lightning-fast spins. Nobody else has ridden the horse in the past half decade.
Despite her myriad success, Mason does not currently have a coach, though she has “trained with pretty much everyone at some point.”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve regularly trained with anyone,” she said. “It would be good, but I do so much teaching and have six horses to ride a day, so it’s hard to find the time. Maybe I’ll seek out some help with the two young horses next year.”
Mason may have a little more time if Lincoln is no longer on her riding list. The pair’s final test together will be on Saturday night when they contest the Grand Prix Open Freestyle in the atmospheric indoor Arena.
“Hopefully he’ll have a nice freestyle, and we’ll have fun — and hopefully the judges will like it too,” grinned the 54-year-old. “Finals is a great show, and the atmosphere was good tonight.”
Adult Amateur Grand Prix: Anartz Chanca and Dazzle
It was by the slimmest of margins — just 0.036% — but last year’s Grand Prix AA champion Anartz Chanca successfully defended his title on his loyal partner Dazzle, an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding by Danone I x Londonderry. The pair edged out the previous day’s Intermediate II AA champions Rebecca Lord and Demetrius.
Dazzle was originally bought for Chanca’s wife to ride but was then sold to a junior rider. Chanca always missed him, and when the opportunity arose to buy him back a few years later, he didn’t hesitate.
Chanca is the president of the American subsidiary of an Italian company that manufactures truck parts, and he juggles his job with three children and three horses that he exclusively rides. 2023 marks a decade since Chanca took up dressage, having previously ridden endurance horses in his native Spain, and dabbled in jumping before honing his focus.
“It’s a long trip from Texas but we did everything possible to make it happen,” said Chanca. “It was challenging with the logistics, but we love this show. The horses love it too, especially with the cooler weather. They seem to know that it’s Finals, and they really go for it.”
Chanca and Dazzle will contest Saturday’s AA Grand Prix Freestyle before “going back in the lab” over the winter to develop and strengthen the horse further. He has also completed a Championship ride with Dante Rubin MR, a horse he will compete again on Saturday.
Adult Amateur Grand Prix Kur to Music: Anartz Chanca and Dazzle
Chanca and Dazzle did just what his horse’s name promises in the Grand Prix Freestyle Adult Amateur (AA) class, logging 70.925% and taking the title in their debut in this class at Finals.
Chanca and Dazzle’s Grand Prix test featured a three-loop serpentine of two-time changes early in the program, setting a high standard from the get-go. They picked up an eight for choreography and another for their music. Chanca had to think on his feet when a mistake crept into their routine.
“I was a little tired after being with Dante for an hour, plus his test, and I wasn’t feeling so fresh in the warm-up on Dazzle. There were a lot of positives in his test but the piaffe wasn’t there as much today,” he said.
Chanca added, “We had a mistake in the one-tempis but I had a reserve line. I don’t typically do this, but I knew I had to risk it, so I went one-handed. I wanted to take the risk to compensate for the mistake to bring up the score for the one-tempis.”
His strategy paid off, with one judge commenting “courageous riding.” It was enough to squeak past the reserve champion, Amy Swerdlin, who rode her home-bred Quileute CCW to 70.775%. She was also third on her other horse, Tokayer (67.733%).
Related Links
Heather Mason and 1$ Horse RTF Lincoln Win Inter II Open Championship at 2022 US Dressage Finals
Ashley Maul, Heather Mason, Greta Vowell, Cecilia Stewart Win on Day Three of 2022 US Dressage Finals
Truett, Stewart, Chanca and Mason Win FEI Titles on Day Two of 2022 US Dressage Finals
Chanca and Renilla, Husband an Wife, Claim Titles on Day One of 2022 US Dressage Finals