Sara Lieser

After completing a year where each win was bigger and better than the next, Weltino’s Magic will now be offered for sale.

Ridden by Steffen Peters, “Magic” never lost a competition in 2011. His biggest wins included topping the Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I at the Aachen CHIO (Germany), taking the national Intermediaire I title and winning team and individual gold medals at the Pan American Games (Mexico).

West Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 28—As the first to go in the last set of riders in the freestyle at the World Dressage Masters, Steffen Peters found himself in the uncomfortable position of patiently waiting ringside to see if anyone could top his score of 83.70 percent with Ravel.

Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin was last in the ring, and if anyone could do it, it was going to be her mount Valegro.

West Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 28—Adrienne Lyle was wearing an ear-to-ear grin as she finished up her Grand Prix Special test at the World Dressage Masters with Wizard, and it’s a safe bet she won’t stop smiling anytime soon.

Just 27 years old, Lyle has never ridden in a World Dressage Masters before. “I’m so thrilled with the outcome. My horse handled everything beautifully in there. It was one of the quietest, most sophisticated tests. He felt happy and relaxed in there,” she said.

West Palm Beach, Fla., Jan. 27—Steffen Peters is never one to count a competition won before he goes down centerline, but after winning the Grand Prix test in the Palm Beach World Dressage Masters for the fourth time with Ravel, it’s safe to say it’s going to take a pretty special combination to beat him.

The original plan at the Palm Beach edition of the World Dressage Masters (Fla.) was for the top two riders in the Grand Prix on Jan. 26 to go forward from the Wellington Classic Sunshine Challenge CDI*** to the five-star competition the following day.

However, things got tricky after the results of the Grand Prix were announced. The riders in first and third place, Canada’s Ashley Holzer on Pop Art (69.91%) and Sweden’s Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven on Divertimento (67.08%), already had horses entered in the World Dressage Masters and weren’t eligible to ride a second mount.

The rule change proposal to the “one fall and you’re out” rule (EV 142.4d) was definitely the hot topic at the U.S. Equestrian Federation Board of Directors meeting on Jan. 14 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Elizabeth “Betsy” Juliano has purchased Big Tyme, the team gold and individual bronze-medal winning mount of Marisa Festerling from the 2011 Pan American Games.

Gladstone, N.J., Sept. 11

Steffen Peters has gone to Olympic Games, World Equestrian Games and World Cup Finals, but after his triumvirate of wins aboard Weltino’s Magic in the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Intermediaire I Championship, he’ll head to Guadalajara, Mexico, for his first Pan American Games.

The 2011 Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Dressage Festival of Champions will take place in Gladstone, N.J. on Sept 8-11. The competition will play host to six U.S. Equestrian Federation National Dressage Championships and will also serve as the selection trials for the Pan American Games dressage team.

The list of riders competing for the Grand Prix National Championship, in order of ranking, are:

The U.S. Equestrian Federation has named nine riders and 10 horses to the definite entry list for the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (England), which will take place Sept. 1-4.

The list is as follows: