Wayne, Ill. – The first national championship of the 2022 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions was awarded on Wednesday. The day began with the Adequan®/USEF Young Adult Brentina Cup Dressage National Championship and USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship competitors riding the first of three tests this week. Mia Rodier-Dawallo and Jayden concluded the day by winning top honors in the USEF Para Dressage National Championship.
Adequan®/USEF Young Adult Brentina Cup Dressage National Championship
(SusanJStickle.com)
The small but mighty field of five combinations rode the FEI Intermediate II Test of the Adequan®/USEF Young Adult Brentina Cup Dressage National Championship. Quinn Iverson and Beckham 19 had a solid test to take top honors in the class. Iverson (Wellington, Fla.) and Bille Davidson’s 2009 Hanoverian gelding earned a score of 67.676% in the first of three tests for the division.
“I was very happy with him,” said Iverson. “We came in, started a little bit shaky, but he settled and actually let me ride him. He was very honest in there, which I was very happy with. A few bobbles we’ll clean up, but overall, I’m so happy with him.”
Callie Jones (Henderson, Ky.) and Don Philippo, her 2008 Hanoverian gelding, finished second on a score of 67.529%. Callie Rose O’Connell (Wilmington, Mass.) and Eaton Unitechno, Ruling Cortes, LLC’s 2009 KWPN gelding, were third with a score of 66.705%.
The FEI Intermediate II Test counts for 40 percent of the overall score, while the FEI Grand Prix 16-25 Test on Thursday counts for 45 percent. The division will conclude on Saturday with the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle Test, which counts for 15 percent.
From the Mixed Zone:
What were some of the highlights in your test?
Iverson: “I think his piaffe-passage tour was one of his highlights, and the half-passes too.”
Anything you want to improve upon in the next test?
Iverson: “That canter-trot transition. But overall, I’m very pleased with him.”
How long have you been riding Beckham 19?
Iverson: “I have had him since December of last year. We are kind of a new partnership, but I’m very happy with him.”
Have you been to Festival of Champions before?
Iverson: “I have been here. Actually a horse with the same owner, Bille Davidson. She has supported me for many years now. We had [the other horse] two years ago, and we have ‘Beckham’ this year.
USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship
(SusanJStickle.com)
Twelve combinations rode down centerline for the Grand Prix Test in the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship. Alice Tarjan and Serenade MF impressed the judges with a flowing test. Tarjan (Oldwick, N.J.) and her 2013 Hanoverian mare earned a score of 73.869% to win the class. The pair has had a busy summer traveling to Europe, helping The Dutta Corp. Dressage Team earn silver at CHIO Rotterdam and serving as the alternate for the ECCO FEI World Championships.
“The horse is super honest and just goes and does her job,” said Tarjan. “It was basically clean. The balance is getting a lot better now too. Last year I was losing the balance but now I can get it back. It is going in the right direction, but there’s still so much to improve.”
Emily Miles (Paola, Kan.) and Java Dulce, Leslie Waterman’s 2011 Danish Warmblood gelding, were second with a score of 70.260%. Nora Batchelder (Williston, Fla.) and Faro SQF, her and Andrea Whitcomb’s 2008 Hanoverian gelding, finished third with a score of 70.064%.
The FEI Grand Prix Test counts for 45 percent of the overall score, while the FEI Grand Special on Thursday counts for 40 percent. The division will conclude on Saturday with the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle Test, which counts for 15 percent.
From the Mixed Zone:
What were some highlights from the test?
Tarjan: “For me, the balance overall was getting better. If I lose the balance, I am able to get it back now, whereas last year if you lost the balance, you couldn’t get it back.”
Do you want to improve anything for the next test?
Tarjan: “It’s the Special, which I think is probably a good test for her. The piaffes [today] we lost some points in and that’s silly because typically she can piaffe really well. If we get that, then maybe we can get a clean test.”
USEF Para Dressage National Championship
(SusanJStickle.com)
Three combinations performed their FEI Para Dressage Freestyle Tests to determine the USEF Para Dressage National Championship. They garnered the attention of judges and spectators with their harmonious rides set to music. The freestyle scores were extremely tight, and while Mia Rodier-Dawallo and Jayden were third in the freestyle with a score of 69.288%, they clinched the National Champion title. Rodier-Dawallo (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and her 2014 KWPN gelding’s consistent performances earned them the overall title with a score of 69.094%.
“It is surreal,” said Rodier-Dawallo. “It’s an honor. It is so validating that all of the blood, sweat, and tears that we put into this have come to fruition. In this sport in a matter of a week you can have a humbling of a lifetime or feel like you are on top of the world or everything in between. It is such an emotional roller coaster, mentally, physically, everything. When you get an opportunity to come out on a national stage, and first of all have the time of your life, and second of all, win.”
Sydney Collier (Ann Arbor, Mich.) and All In One, Going for Gold, LLC and Georgina Bloomberg’s 2009 Hanoverian gelding, earned the Reserve Champion title with on overall score of 67.998%. The duo won the Freestyle with their ride to the Kung-Fu Panda music, scoring 69.455%. Deborah Stanitski (Charleston, S.C.) and Heros, her 2014 Danish Warmblood mare, were third overall with a score of 67.149% and finished third in the freestyle with a score of 69.333%.
The FEI Para Dressage Freestyle Test counted for the final 15 percent of the overall score. Monday’s FEI Para Dressage Team Test counted for 40 percent of the overall score, while Tuesday’s FEI Para Dressage Individual Test on Tuesday counts for 45 percent.
From the Mixed Zone:
(SusanJStickle.com)
Tell us about your freestyle.
Rodier-Dawallo: “Freestyle is my favorite day in case that wasn’t clear. We like to have a good time and smile our faces off then sob at the end. My freestyle was designed by Jessica Ash and Jelly Entertainment."
Collier: “I first got this freestyle when I first started working with Alle (All In One) back in 2019. This freestyle is so close to my heart because as I have gotten to know Alle, I have gotten to know all of the intricacies of my freestyle and how to ride it so that the patterns really match up with the music and make it an aesthetically pleasing picture overall. This is really the first freestyle that has ever taught me how to do that. It is actually tells the story of my life through the trials and the tribulations with music from the movie Kung-Fu Panda, which is surprisingly accurate for the story of my life.”
Stanitski: “I can’t thank my trainer Michelle Folden enough for doing the choreography and Beth Hall for bringing it all together. We were trying to figure out how not to make, as Sydney [Collier] would say, ‘a walk test totally boring.’ It has to be perfect, otherwise it doesn’t work.”
Talk about your relationship with your horse.
Rodier-Dawallo: “Pudding is his barn name because that is his vibe. He is like a big bowl of jiggly chocolate pudding. He is a very chill kind of guy. He came into my life about a year ago and he is the first horse I have ever owned in my whole life. I had never had the means to own my own horse [before]. We sort of do this flying by the seat of our pants, pinching every single penny that we can, driving across the country in our horse trailer from the 80s and our horse trailer from 2000. It was always a dream of mine to own my own horse since I was a baby when I caught the horse bug.”
Collier: “From the day we first met, we were very all in one. Because he is actually blind in his left eye and I’m blind in my right eye, we are literally all in one. It is a super special partnership because we even each other out with one good set of eyes between us.”
Stanitski: “I first met Heros in Wellington, Florida. At that time she was owned by Gigi McIntosh. Gigi sold her to a girl in our barn. Just for kicks I rode her one day, but being a pretty short person I said I need a Heros but a bit smaller. I got my other horse Skovlunds [de Nice]. Unfortunately, Skovlunds’s problem is that she is stiff on the left side and my left side sort of works. For Heros, her bad side is my good side. It turns out they look the same, but for me, Heros is much easier to ride. She is getting older, but she is great. She hasn’t figured out it is time to quit yet, sort of like me. She is 18, and I’m almost 70.”
Competition continues Thursday in the Grand Prix Arena with the FEI Grand Prix Special of the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship at 8 a.m. CT., while the FEI Prix St. Georges Test of the Markel/USEF Developing Horse Prix St. Georges Dressage National Championship starts the Markel Arena at 8:30 a.m. CT.
Watch the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions live stream this week on USEF Network.
Keep up with the 2022 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions on USA Dressage Facebook and Instagram and US Equestrian Twitter. Use #USADressage and #FestivalofChampions.