Lexington, Ky. – The Dutta Corp. U.S. Dressage Team brings home bronze at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ The Netherlands at CHIO Rotterdam. Led by Chef d’Equipe Robert Dover, the team comprised of Olivia LaGoy-Weltz, Adrienne Lyle, Kasey Perry-Glass, and Steffen Peters delivered solid performances in the team’s first European Nations Cup of the season.

 
Sitting in third after the CDIO5* with a few points separating them from the leading teams of the Netherlands and Sweden, Chef d’Equipe Robert Dover was pleased with their continuing performances in the CDIO5* Grand Prix Special and Freestyle.
 
Setting the tone for the U.S., LaGoy-Weltz (Haymarket, Va.), with her own and Mary Anne McPhail’s14-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding Lonoir, were the first U.S. combination to enter the ring in the Grand Prix. The pair moved onto the Grand Prix Special where they finished with a 71.213 percent.
 
Peters (San Diego, Calif.), riding Four Winds Farm’s 11-year-old Rheinlander mare Rosamunde, led the team after the Grand Prix finishing on an impressive score of 74.130 percent, advancing them as the anchor combination to ride in the Grand Prix Freestyle where they finished third with a score of 77.135 percent.
 
Lyle (Ketchum, Idaho) and Salvino, Betsy Juliano LLC’s 11-year-old Hanoverian stallion, were hot on the heels of Peters’s Grand Prix score with a 73.913 percent. Prior to the start of the Grand Prix Special, Salvino’s noseband broke, but quick thinking from the U.S. teammates allowed the pair to fix it and get down centerline. Lyle and Salvino’s performance in the Grand Prix Special earned them a final score of 71.915 percent.
 
Perry-Glass (Wellington, Fla.) piloted Goerklintgaards Dublet, the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding owned by Diane Perry, to wrap up the Grand Prix in style, confirming a third top-ten U.S. placement with a score of 73.065 percent. Perry-Glass and Dublet shined in the Grand Prix Freestyle for a final placement of 77.060 percent.
 
Based on the best three placings from the Grand Prix, the best three placings from the Grand Prix Special and the Grand Prix Freestyle, the Netherlands came in first with a score of 20 points, followed by Sweden in second with a score of 21 points and the United States in third with a score of 30 points.
 
“A year ago, the United States won the Nations Cup in Rotterdam with great riding on super horses and some good luck that day. This week we did not have the same luck going our way; however, the thing I will remember forever, besides our superb riders and horses, is the moment when Adrienne Lyle had the misfortune of having Salvino’s noseband snap for no apparent reason,” Chef d’Equipe Dover explained. “Her teammates, all of whom are actually still competing against her for one of four cherished spots on our World Championship Team, ran to help her take off the failed noseband and in record time, only rivaled by pit crews at NASCAR events, placed a new noseband on Salvino and allowed Adrienne to go on to masterfully ride the stallion to well over 71%! It is because of times like this that I am reminded why I am so proud to be the chef d’equipe of the fabulous U.S. team!”
 
In the CDI3*,  the relatively new partnership of Peters and Suppenkasper, Four Winds Farm's 10-year-old KWPN gelding, had a successful outing in the international arena earning a top-three placing in the CDI3* Grand Prix with a score of 72.630 percent and earning a 74.210 percent in the CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle.
 
Fellow U.S. competitors in the CDI3* shared in the success as Lyle piloted Horizon, Betsy Juliano LLC’s 11-year-old Oldenburg mare, to top marks in the Grand Prix Special with a score of 70.681percent. Followed by Shelly Francis (Loxahatchee, Fla.) and Danilo, Patricia Stempel’s 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding, earned a 70.426 percent with Ashley Holzer (New York, N.Y.) and Havanna 145, Diane Fellows's 11-year-old Hanoverian mare, producing clean and consistent tests in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle.
 
In the their first European competition in the CDI-U25, part of their Discover Dressage™ USEF/USDF Emerging Athlete Program membership, consistency was key as Natalie Pai (Wellington, Fla.) and Unlimited, Melanie Pai's 17-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, continued their impressive season as the highest-placed American with a score of 66.487 percent in the Grand Prix and a 67.500 percent in the Freestyle. Kerrigan Gluch (Wellington, Fla.) and Bolero CXLVIII, Hampton Green Farm's 14-year-old P.R.E. stallion, proved to have an equally positive first European outing, earning a 65.256 percent in the Grand Prix and 67.275 percent in the Freestyle.

Find out more about CHIO Rotterdam and view results. 

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Photo credit: Shannon Brinkman
From left to right:  Adrienne Lyle aboard Salvino, Chef d'Equipe Robert Dover, Steffen Peters aboard Rosamunde, Olivia LaGoy-Weltz aboard Lonoir and Kasey Perry-Glass.