urena Bell-Stanley rode for more than blue ribbons bons at the Great Amercian American/USDF Region 9 Championships, Southwest Dressage Championships and Houston Dressage Society Autumn Classic. After winning both open Grand Prix championship classes aboard Sally Chionsini’s Castus, Bell-Stanley was elated.

“Sally just turned 70, so it was a big deal for her�it really was about riding it for Sally,” Bell-Stanley said. Bell-Stanley and Castus topped Angel Ozer and Loki in both classes at the show, Nov. 2-5 in Katy, Texas.

Castus is an “awesome horse,” said Bell-Stanley, a Houston-area professional and neighbor to Chionsini. “He’s once in a lifetime.”

Chionsini has owned the 19-year-old, Danish Warmblood gelding for six years. “He was at [Intermediaire I], and we took him up from there,” Bell-Stanley said.

Chionsini’s been riding him at Grand Prix for three years, although this year Bell-Stanley took over to qualify for and ride him at the championships. They scored 64.58 percent in the Great American championship and 62.18 percent in the SWDC championship.

Bell-Stanley also showed student Jeanette Snow’s bay gelding Romeo to the Great American/USDF open third level championship with 64.44 percent. The horse has come along quickly, Bell-Stanley said.

“We started at second level in the spring. Over the summer I taught him flying changes and did one weekend at third level to qualify [for the championships],” she said.

The 14-year-old Belgian-Thoroughbred cross learned flying changes in his own time, she said. “I tried every trick, then one day the light bulb went on,” she said. Next year she’s aiming Romeo for fourth level and Prix St. Georges. He’s also a confidence-builder for Snow, who calls him “the big bay Barcalounger.”


Chestnut Champs
Ozer may have been second aboard her Loki in the two open Grand Prix championships, but she didn’t return home without her own title.

Ozer rode the 11-year-old, Oldenburg gelding to victory in the Great American/USDF Grand Prix freestyle championship. This is the flashy chestnut Oldenburg’s second year of showing at Grand Prix.

Ozer rode Loki to jazz music and scored 68.12 percent for the championship. Sue Malone-Casey and her gelding Lamborghini (68.00%) were second.

The two swapped placings in Saturday afternoon’s SWDC FEI-level open freestyle championship, however. Lamborghini wowed the crowd to a medley of ABBA tunes, culminating in one-tempis on a circle and piaffe and passage up the centerline for 67.25 percent.

The 13-year-old “just loves his music,” Malone-Casey said. He even spent most of the awards ceremony piaffing to it. “Entering to ‘Dancing Queen’ is just perfect [for him] and makes me happy.”

Malone-Casey, a Dallas-based trainer and S-rated judge, has owned the imported Dutch Warmblood by Coktail since he was 4, and she’s done all of his training.

“This is his first full year at Grand Prix,” she said. “He’s just doing a fabulous job getting stronger. [Now] he’s coming up to the next level of potential.”

Lamborghini was the Intermediaire II champion at this show two years ago but spent most of last year injured. “It was very iffy whether he was even able to be a competition horse,” Malone-Casey said. “You don’t realize that in a blink of an eye you can lose eight years worth of work.”

Malone-Casey said the dark chestnut gelding, whose barn name is “Lambchop,” also thinks he runs the barn. He climbs up the sides of his banked stall to check on his buddy. If he were human, Malone-Casey said, “Lambchop would say, ‘It’s good to be the king.’ He’s really the character of the whole barn.”

Lambchop’s buddy Bolzano also had a good show, as owner Wende Neitzel rode him to both Prix St. Georges adult amateur championships. They scored 63.00 in the Great American/USDF championship and 68.75 in the SWDC championship. They also won an Intermediaire I class in the open show with 61.75 percent in their first effort at the level.

The pair moved up quickly since she bought Bolzano a little more than a year ago. “We showed last year at third level because I’d only ever ridden third,” Neitzel said, adding that that was only once or twice.

They came out at Prix St. Georges this spring, and Neitzel has now earned her U.S. Dressage Federation silver medal on him.

The 13-year-old imported Swedish Warmblood (by Gaugin de Lully) “always steps up,” she said, and he’s also a barn character.


Musical Triumphs
South Florida-based professional Lisa Payne-Hyslop found the long drive to Texas worthwhile. Her gray Westphalian, Rolling Stone, was the Great American/USDF Prix St. Georges open reserve champion (64.75%) and won the Great American/USDF fourth level freestyle championship (66.77%).

Her 6-year-old Morena, also Westphalian, was Great American/USDF first level freestyle champion (71.66%) to music from A Chorus Line, and reserve champion at second level using surf tunes (69.68%).

Payne-Hyslop enjoys riding freestyles and helps others with them as well. They’re “part of what dressage is all about,” she said. “I’m surprised every year there aren’t more people doing them.”

The music is key, though. “It has to be music that really showcases your horse,” she said. For suggestions, she added, “I have a lot of luck asking judges what music would work [best].”

Claire Darnell swept most of the junior/young rider championship classes with full brothers Carnegie and Calimar. Carnegie won both third level championships (67.55%, 62.77%), the Great American/USDF second level freestyle championship (73.33%), and was second in the SWDC USDF-levels freestyle championship (72.29%).

Calimar won both training level championships (75.76%, 74.42%). Darnell co-owns the brothers with her mother, R-rated dressage judge Joan Darnell.

The tall black Oldenburgs are by Contucci, out of Vodka Gimlet by Martini. Carnegie is 6, and Calimar is 4, and they look very much alike. Carnegie is 18 hands, while Calimar is 17.2 hands but narrower.

“[Calimar is] a lot squirrellier–he can be wild, but he’s a good boy 90 percent of the time and a little airhead sometimes,” the rider described. “Carnegie gets really upset with himself when he doesn’t understand something. Both are really smart.”

The brothers showed in the FEI Young Horse program this year, and Calimar will probably do so again next year, as well as a first level freestyle. Carnegie will move up, too, Darnell said.

“We’ll try to do [the] Young Rider [classes] with him next year, so [we’re] working on a freestyle, since it’s my last year [of eligibility] and his first,” she said.

Darnell is a sophomore at Baylor University (Texas), where she’s majoring in business. During the school year, her mother rides the horses during the week, and she travels home most weekends. “I want to be a sports agent,” Darnell said, “but I definitely want to ride too.”


Lois Mermelstein