California dressage rider Jan Ebeling and the 11-year-old Oldenburg mare Rafalca won the dressage World Cup qualifier at Saugerties CDI-W show in upstate New York this past weekend with a score of 71.700%. This result came after their victory in the grand prix on Saturday.

Ebeling was delighted with the mare who, "didn't really have any mistakes," in the grand prix freestyle. "She was really, really super, and it was definitely a confidence builder." The test, which is ridden to music from the movie, The Mission, begins with one-tempi changes into a 1-and-five-eighths pirouette followed by two-tempi changes; it was recognized for its difficulty by the judges, who responded with some very positive comments.

Rafalca, who is jointly owned by Ann Romney, Beth Meyer, Pat Crow and Amy Ebeling, has been consistently improving in her preparation for the show despite Ebeling's concerns about the humidity, which is not a factor in California. "It was very muggy but, fortunately, it didn't seem to affect her too much. She was really on," added Ebeling.

While the aim is to make it to the 2009 World Cup Finals, Ebeling added, "There is still a long road to go with many other top riders competing for a ticket to Las Vegas."

Ebeling will be heading to Dressage at Devon, September 24-28, to compete with Rafalca, where he'll be joined by his coach, Wolfram Wittig, before returning to the West Coast to continue their winter campaign, which may include a tour to Europe.

North America, including Canada, qualifies two riders plus a wild card based on Freestyle scores for the FEI World Cup Finals to be held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas from April 15-19, 2009.

Ebeling's goal is to make it to the Finals and then secure a place on the U.S. squad to Europe for the Aachen CHIO in June 2009.

To view Ebeling's Grand Prix Freestyle video, visit www.dressageclinic.com.