• In the first day of competition at the 2010 USEF Para-Equestrian Selection Trials for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, today, June 25, Robin Brueckmann and Raison D’Etre’s Team Test topped the Grade IV division (65.00%). Brueckmann is borrowing Raison D’Etre (“Ralee”), a 12-year-old American Warmblood gelding, from close friend Elly Schobel for the Trials. “We have a really good relationship, Elly and I,” Brueckmann said. “I help her with her horses and she helps me with my horses.”

• Elly Schobel, Williston, S.C., bought Ralee as a 4-year-old and has trained him up through the Grand Prix level herself. Schobel is also competing Harry Butler’s Andalusian stallion Oyente’ in the Grand Prix at Lamplight this weekend.

• Ralee was bred at Dreamtime Farm in Lexington, Ky. “It’ll be really exciting if he gets to go to Kentucky because Dreamtime is right around the corner from the Horsepark,” said Brueckmann.

• Brueckmann’s other ride for the Trials is her own 9-year-old Trakehner gelding Radetzky, or “Sasha,” a horse she imported from Sweden when he was 5, and the pair placed sixth today. Sasha was Brueckmann’s parter for the 2008 Paralympic Games when he was only 7. “I had two really good rides today,” Brueckmann, Summerfield, N.C., said. “This particular test has a lot of trot work, and both horses are really good in the trot work. Ralee is very expressive and he’s really cocky. He thinks a lot of himself, and he loves to show off. This test really allowed him to show off a lot.”
• Brueckmann rides with reflex sympathetic dystrophy in her right leg.

• Rebecca Hart, a Grade II rider, topped the division for Grades I, II and III on Nortessa with a 69.04 percent. Hart also finished second in the same division at the Selection Trials, held June 25-27 at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, Ill., with a borrowed horse, Kerri Sowers’ Kazan.

• Norteassa, an 18-year-old Hanoverian gelding, and Hart have been a team for five years. Kazan is a newer ride for Hart, and she was pleased with how consistent both horses were in their Grade II Team Tests, especially because Nortessa is coming back from a suspensory ligament strain. “I was really, really happy,” Hart said. “Both of them were very consistent, very smooth and they just flowed very nicely. It was nice to have Nortessa doing his thing again.”
• Hart, 25, rides with familial spastic paraplegia, a degenerative and genetic condition that causes muscle wasting and paralysis in the lower body.

• Tomorrow, June 26, both divisions of riders will compete with their Individual tests. For the Selection Trials, the overall score will be taken 40 percent from the Team test, 40 percent from the Individual test and 20 percent from the Freestyle tests all riders must complete on Sunday, June 27.

• There are 10 available spots, six individual and four team, for the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games. The top seven from the Selection Trials will automatically be placed on the short list for the Games and the next three slots will be filled based on the recommendations of selectors. For riders with multiple horses, the top-scoring horse will be put on the short list. For more information about the selection process for Para-Equestrians, visit USEF.

Results:

Team Test for Grade IV Riders

1. Robin Brueckmann/Raison D’Etre/65.00%

2. Susan Ellen Treabess/Moneypenny/64.68%

3. Jennifer Baker/Duel/63.75%

4. Holly Bergay/Grand Ballerina/63.43%

5. Mary Jordan/Paxton Abbey/61.66%

6. Robin Brueckmann/Radetzky/61.56%

7. Kathryn Groves/Friespruch/60.10%

8. Mary Jordan/Brigadier/57.18%

Team Test for Grade I, II, III Riders

1. Rebecca Hart/Nortessa/69.04%

2. Rebecca Hart/Kazan/68.88%

3. Laura Goldman/Carlingford JD/66.07%

4. Jonathan Wentz/NTEC Richter Scale/63.17%

5. Wendy Fryke/Lateran/62.71%

6. Kim Decker/Dashers Destiny/61.96%

7. Erin Alberda/Delectari/60.24%

8. Barbara Grassmyer/Mibis/59.87%

9. Jonathan Wentz/Contigo/57.61%

10. Elizabeth Pigott/Mr. Darcy/56.98%

11. Kim Jones/Fascination/56.82%

12. Wendy Shugol/Statesmans Larissa/53.13%