Local trainer Yvonne Barteau showed two promising stallions to high-point awards at the Illinois Dressage and Combined Training Association’s Summer Kickoff Show, June 23-24 in Wayne, Ill.

On Raymeister, she earned the first-level high-point award, while she rode Liberty, Robert Oury’s 12-year-old, Dutch stallion by Wellington, to capture the Grand Prix (74.16%) and FEI freestyle of choice (74.75%).

Liberty began his serious dressage training at the age of 5, when the husband-and-wife team of Kim and Yvonne Barteau relocated their family to Illinois, after spending many years managing the Arabian Knights Dinner Theatre in Orlando, Fla. Kim had been the horse’s primary rider until just this year, when it was time to debut the horse at Grand Prix.

“Kim thought that I might be better suited at presenting Liberty at Grand Prix, because I have more experience at that level than he does,” said Yvonne. “It has been my pleasure to take over Liberty’s reins because he is meticulously trained. It’s like he has a doctorate in dressage.

“It was fairly easy to get to know Liberty since I have been around the horse for so long. He’s a pretty laid back kind of guy and I am a more intense rider than Kim, so that was probably our bigger hurdle–that and corners. Liberty thought you could just sort of cruise through the corners and get away with it. In the Grand Prix, if you don’t work your corners, you can’t set up your movements. He’s much more honest about his corners now,” Barteau said with a smile.

Creating and riding the freestyle is one of Yvonne’s specialties. Her years performing at Arabian Knights gave her an innate sense of music and choreography.

“I have a huge collection of music at home and put together all of my own freestyles. I believe freestyles should be fun for everyone–the horse, the rider, the judge and the audience,” she said.

“I personally never ride the same freestyle twice. I don’t have a set pattern. I just ride to the music. It drives my husband crazy, but by riding to the music, my horse has to stay on my aids,” said Yvonne.

There was no doubt that Liberty was on her aids during the FEI freestyle test of choice. The horse performed supple, rhythmic piaffe and passage tours to “We’re Off To See The Wizard.”

Half-pass zigzags smoothly transitioned from passage to trot and back again. All of the canter work was performed to the “Roy Rogers” theme and the trot work to the theme from Gigi.

When he’s not in the show ring, Liberty is busy at the collecting shed. For the past two months he has been collected approximately three days a week.

But Liberty isn’t the only stallion that Yvonne shows who is busy being bred. Ginna Franz’ Holsteiner stallion Raymeister competed in a training level and a first level class and was then shipped off to be collected. He arrived back at the show grounds by Friday night.

The schedule obviously didn’t faze the 7-year-old by Rantares, as he came out Saturday morning and cruised through the open training level, test 4, to win with an 81.54 percent.

“I’ve always admired Raymeister. He’s just a cool horse, an eye-catcher,” said Yvonne of the horse Ken Borden raised and presented until just this spring. “He’s athletic like a cat and so balanced. On my ride on Saturday, he felt balanced like a Prix St. Georges horse, and he has the best canter I have ever ridden. He gets 9s all of the time for his canter work.”

When designing a first level freestyle for Raymeister, Yvonne thought mostly about flow. “I’ve loved the music from the movie Man From Snowy River for a long time, but it doesn’t have much of a beat or a lot of interpretive changes. But, it’s so pretty. And since Raymeister is such a pretty horse, I decided to see what I could do with it,” she said.

To add some difficulty, Yvonne guided her horse from a 10-meter trot circle to a lengthening to a leg yield. The stallion never lost his elasticity, swing or rhythm. The ride earned the pair a 76.66 percent and the blue ribbon for freestyles, first through fourth levels.

Yvonne wasn’t the only rider to successfully guide a stallion to a high-point award. Patti Becker guided the 7-year-old, brindle black chestnut Rhinelander stallion, Feuri to the third/fourth level high-point title with a winning score of 76.94 percent in Friday’s open third level, test 1.
The powerful 17-hand Fidermark son drew oohs and aahs for his extended gaits and for his sheer presence.

“He has a way about him. He’s cool about his manliness, very confident and self-assured. Yet, when it comes to working with him, most of the time you would never know he was a stallion. He is very polite and social. Friday afternoon after our test, he was lying in his stall and let me walk in, crouch down and snuggle with him. He just loves to be cuddled. However, when he does puff himself up, you know it,” said Becker.

Feuri didn’t receive a score below 70 percent all weekend, and his tests were consistent and flowing.

“Usually stallions can be a bit tricky to show, because they are so easily distracted,” explained Becker. “But Feuri is really rather straight-forward and uncomplicated. He’s just a nice horse.”

Becker hopes to debut Anne Ramsey’s stallion at Prix St. Georges next winter in Florida. Ramsey is the owner and founder of Annie B Farm of White Lake, Wis., where she and her daughter, Barbara Cadwell, breed sport horses. For many years, they stood the late Oldenburg stallion, Walk On Top.

Feuri is now fathering a foal crop via frozen semen (he is only collected once a year) and will not be available to outside mares until he concludes his competitive career. “It’s been Anne’s life-long dream to own a really super FEI horse. She’s hoping Feuri is that horse,” said Becker.