Lars Petersen gets his second consecutive win in the hotly-contested competition.

At last year’s Dressage At Devon, Lars Petersen said he wasn’t sure he even wanted to enter Succes in the Grand Prix freestyle until the last minute, so their win on a score of 73.40 percent came as a pleasant surprise. But with another year of experience with their now-popular routine, it was no shock to anyone that they scored their second consecutive win tonight in front of a packed crowd at Dressage At Devon.

Petersen and Succes, a 13-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Clinto—Cinderella), placed second in yesterday’s Grand Prix behind Ashley Holzer with Pop Art and had to perform their freestyle tonight after she had scored a leading 75.10 percent.

“I knew [her score], but I didn’t think about it, I just rode,” said Petersen. “With this horse, I try to keep [my efforts] as small as I can. Last night he seemed to spook, and especially with the water on the ground, he’s very hot.”

Steady rain and mist has fallen all weekend at Devon, leaving the footing in the Dixon Oval “not slippery, just sloppy and sucky [on the horses’ feet],” according to Holzer.

Petersen’s performance wasn’t perfect—he and Succes got slightly behind the music during their pirouettes and never really recovered their timing—but the pair was still able to eek out a win over Holzer and Pop Art, winning by just .15 percentage points on a score of 75.25 percent.

“The footing changes the timing,” said the judge at B, Gary Rockwell. “It happened to a number of riders. You have to take that into consideration a little bit, but unfortunately we can’t do it too much. But it was very obvious to me that the best horses were able to deal with the footing the best, which means they were just more balanced, stronger horses.”

Rockwell said Petersen did lose some points on the canter pirouettes, but that the judges love his test in general and like to reward the high degree of difficulty it boasts.

“I think that’s the most difficult I can make it,” Petersen said of the freestyle, which includes several piaffe-passage tours, a series of crowd-pleasing canter pirouettes up the centerline and perfectly-timed tempi-changes on a circle. “I think I’ll just keep it.”

Petersen originally used this freestyle when competing Blue Hors Cavan. The bouncy, 1950s-style music fits Succes perfectly, and usually gets the crowd clapping and laughing as they recognize “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf” and the theme from Mr. Ed.

Holzer was a bit disappointed in her narrow loss, but said she couldn’t have been happier with her horse’s performance in the conditions.

“I never win that stupid freestyle!” laughed Holzer, who improved on her third-placed finish from last year. “It’s always Lars. Thanks, Lars.”

Turning to him jovially during the press conference, she added, “Next year if you could not come, I would really appreciate it.”

Like Petersen, Holzer is aiming for the 2009 FEI World Cup Final in La Vegas, Nev., and said she plans to change her freestyle in the near future.

“When I designed that freestyle, he was a completely different horse than he is now,” she explained. “When they’re not as strong and not as confident in the ring, you take less risks. But he is really the type of horse that will come out every day and try his hardest. I think if you’re going to go to the World Cup you really need to make something that is worthy of winning. Going to the Olympics and seeing the risks they take in the freestyle really opens your eyes.”

Holzer’s student and fellow Canadian Jacqueline Brooks placed third in the Grand Prix freestyle tonight with Gran Gesto (71.05%). Jane Hannigan and Maksymilian also scored the same mark, but took fourth place when the tie was broken.

Ots Comes Out On Top

In this afternoon’s 35-horse Intermediaire I, the final scores were extremely tight, with the top eight horses finishing within 1 percentage point of each other. And in an unprecedented finish, a three-way tie for the win (66.91%) had to be broken by collective marks.

Endel Ots’ mount Bentley eventually wore the blue ribbon, while Amanda Johnson and Pip took second. Susanne Markham and Donarlicht GGF placed third.

Ots, 22, trains with Kim and Yvonne Barteau in Gilberts, Ill., and describes Bentley as “a little small tour machine.” Over the past few years, the 13-year-old Danish Warmblood (Sorel—Sacajawea) swept young rider classes almost everywhere with the Barteaus’ daughter, Kassandra, so Ots began taking him in open classes about two years ago. Kelly Roetto owns the horse.

“Five years ago I was scoring in the 50s at training level and barely making it into the regional championships,” Ots said. “I told [the Barteaus] I’d do as many stalls as they wanted if they could teach me to ride like Kassie did.

“Then two years ago I did get to come to Devon as a young rider with another horse and didn’t even make it into the ribbons,” he continued. “And now today I was saying to Kim, ‘famous people win here, like Lars Petersen and Courtney King. I’m just a nobody from Chicago!’ The whole class was so close. I thought it was great.”

Goodbye, Marshal

Freestyle night at Devon served as a perfect last competition for Sue McKeown’s mount, Marshal. The amateur rider from Worcester, Ma., has owned the now-19-year-old gelding since he was 1 day old. The black Swedish Warmblood got a rousing round of applause for his last freestyle before retirement, which earned 63.40 percent.

For complete results from Saturday, click here.