Brentina danced to a brand new tune at the U.S. League Final for the FEI World Cup onApril 2-3 as she and Debbie McDonald debuted their new Grand Prix freestyle with panache, winning the competition with a 77.97 percent.

Their win secured them a spot at the FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas, Nev., April 21-24. And, as it was the first time Brentina had shown since the Athens Olympics in August, it proved that the mare is still in the zone.

Nine competitors vied for honor at the League Final, which was also the U.S. Equestrian Federation Freestyle Champion-ships, held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, Burbank, Calif.

Leslie Morse finished second on her stallion Kingston (75.77%) and in doing so also earned a trip to Vegas. She did double duty and rode her other stallion, Tip Top, to fourth place (72.95%). Guenter Seidel also rode twice and claimed third on Aragon (74.42%) and fifth on Nikolaus 7 (72.12%).

Of the nine, the two competitors from the East Coast, Suzanne Dansby-Phelps on Cooper, who finished eighth, and Emmy Adwers on PF Robinson, who was ninth, were there just to compete in the national championships, as they’d fallen just short of the qualifying criteria for the League Final.

While audiences may miss Brentina’s old freestyle, set to a compilation of snazzy, jazzy, George Gershwin tunes that so aptly suited the mare’s rhythmic way of going, her new freestyle doesn’t lack for much. McDonald pushed the artistic factor in this new creation and used humor to deliver a rather emphatic and personal message to the dressage world.

When McDonald entered at A under the roof of the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, it was to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” As she passaged down centerline, Franklin’s famous words rang out through the arena, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T–find out what it means to me.”

And respect is what McDonald said she wants for a horse “who gives her all every time you put a saddle on her back.”

McDonald added that anyone who knows her and Brentina’s competitive history of never quite being given their true dues should understand the humor behind her musical choice. “I just hope the judges don’t take it the wrong way,” she said, with a mischievous glint in her eye.

McDonald said the year leading up to the Olympics, which included Brentina getting injured in March, was a tough one, and when the Olympics were over she felt a bit burned out. Developing a new freestyle served as a restorative tonic.

“It was just time to make a change. I had to find a way to bring more fun back into my freestyle. I had lost that joyful feeling I had back when I first started to ride my freestyle, and what I really wanted was to have fun again,” she said.

New Steps, New Tunes

McDonald’s new freestyle uses completely new choreography. The old freestyle was technically demanding, but McDonald said when she set out to create the new test she took note of what the judges rewarded in Athens.

While the new freestyle is no cakewalk–McDonald earns technical kudos with the many varied and seamlessly performed transitions–it is more of a dance than a dressage test. Brentina weaves all over the arena, and because she is so consistent in her tempo and her paces, she really matches the beat of the music as it segues from song to song.

In an emphatic endnote she ends her test again to Franklin’s demand for respect.

This was the first time McDonald had ridden the test in a show environment, and she admitted to being a tad cautious at the start of the test and not giving it her all.

“I could hear Klaus [Balkenhol, the U.S. team coach’s] voice in my head, saying ‘You have time, Debbie, you have time.’ So I composed myself and went for it, and by the end of the test I definitely felt we were in sync,” she said.

The judges approved of the new freestyle too. Hanne Valentin, an O-rated judge from Denmark, said McDonald’s transitions were “beautiful, and her piaffe and canter pirouettes were done very well.” She also added that she enjoyed the “pattern of the test” and its smooth flow.

Elizabeth McMullen, an O-rated Canadian judge, commented on the climax.

“I loved the ending of the test. The mare’s rhythm in the passage and the extended trot was spot-on to the tune ‘Respect.’ When a rider picks a very rhythmical piece of music and then matches it exactly like Debbie did, it’s very effective,” she said.

Power And Then Some

Morse and Kingston also delivered a highly effective freestyle. While McDonald’s freestyle was lighthearted and intended to be fun, Morse’s freestyle is an imposing, technically tough performance set to the swelling, booming music from the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and it contains a significant “wow factor.” The choreography also perfectly suits the nearly black Dutch Warmblood stallion, whose 17.1-hand presence is the epitome of power.

There is an essential risk in performing a technically demanding freestyle, because if you can’t pull it off, you’re left with egg on your face. But Morse had no troubles in Burbank and performed one of her best freestyles yet.

She highlights Kingston’s ability to do the highly collected work–piaffe, canter pirouettes, passage–and extreme transitions, such as piaffe from a canter pirouette.

Morse doesn’t hold back, piaffing at G while looking the C judge in the eye, and she performs a double canter pirouette at G too.

Before the freestyle, the nine competitors rode the Grand Prix to establish the order of go for the final. And, just as it is in the World Cup Final, the Grand Prix scores don’t count. But since Morse and Seidel each had two horses each to ride, they had to draw for their position in the order of go.

Morse finished third in the Grand Prix on Tip Top. Although the Swedish Warmblood is green at Grand Prix, he outscored Kingston by 0.04 percentage points and, therefore, got to go last in the freestyle.

She wasn’t so lucky with Kingston and drew first to go, a dreaded positions because judges generally feel more comfortable with their marks after they’ve evaluated a few horses.

So knowledgeable observers speculated that, had Morse ridden Kingston later in the order of go, or had she ridden him last instead of Tip Top, she may well have gotten the marks to beat McDonald. As it was, Axel Steiner, the O-rated judge who was conducting a judge’s forum ringside during the freestyle, said Morse’s score of 75.77 percent was one of the highest he’d seen for a first ride.

Seidel, who was second in the Grand Prix on Aragon, his 2004 Olympic partner, finished third in the freestyle. While Aragon was much improved in the freestyle over the Grand Prix, he wasn’t his usual electric self. Seidel had trouble keeping a consistent connection as Aragon showed some tension, which disturbed the rhythm of his passage and piaffe.

At the competition’s end, only one thing was certain–both McDonald and Morse were going to Las Vegas. The fate of Robert Dover and Seidel were less than certain.

Dover, who topped the qualifying standings coming into the U.S. League Final on FBW Kennedy, chose not to compete in California. Unwilling to ship his horse twice to the West Coast-once to compete in the U.S. League Finals and then 18 days later to compete in the World Cup Final-Dover gambled instead on getting the one wild-card berth assured to the United States as the host country.

According to Marilyn Adams, the U.S. Equestrian Federation director of dressage, there was a possibility for the United States to receive one more wild card since the Pacific League hadn’t qualified a rider for the Final. But the decision was in FEI officials’ hands, and they announced on April 4 that Dover and Seidel had both been granted wild-card invitations.

Marlando Moves Forward

Steffen Peters won both the CDI Prix St. Georges (70.55%) and Intermediaire I (71.05%) at the Burbank CDI*** on Marlando. He’s been riding the 11-year-old, Dutch Warmblood gelding since he was 3, and this is his second year on the small tour, but Peters is in no hurry to move the horse into the Grand Prix arena.

“He’s a very sensitive horse, a very forward horse. He would go as long as you wanted him to go, but a lot of his energy is nervous energy,” said Peters. “I think he would be overloaded with Grand Prix right now. This is the first time in his training I have been able to ride for a little more brilliance. I’ve had so many rides where all I did was put on the brakes.”

Peters said he couldn’t see any reason to push his horse to Grand Prix and then score a 62 or 63 percent.

“It’s important to be fair to the horse. When he’s ready to do Grand Prix, he’ll tell me. He’s schooling all the movements now. I’ve never pushed for the Grand Prix with any of my horses. I’d rather take my time and keep them mentally and physically sound.”

In the Intermediaire I, Peters narrowly beat Debbie McDonald on Felix. This was Felix’ first serious attempt at showing on the small tour, and he showed he has all the right kind of talent. The dark bay gelding has a brilliant extended trot, and, like his famous stablemate, Brentina, McDonald trains him to perfection.

“Debbie rode a cleaner test, but I think that small difference came down to the more experienced horse,” said Judge Janet Brown, who placed Marlando first by only .5 percentage points. “Marlando’s pirouettes were smaller, Felix’ extensions were better, but Marlando also had a very good walk. The double coefficients on the pirouettes and the walk edged Marlando’s score above Felix.”

Listening to what the judges thought about her horse Pharaoh the first time she rode the FEI 5-year-old test helped Canadian Nancy Olsen win her second FEI 5-year-old test.

After Friday’s test, where she finished third, the judges told Olsen she needed to get her young horse in front of her leg a bit more and encourage him to be more forward.

Speaking for the panel of two judges, Jane Weatherwax said Pharaoh had a very active hind leg, but because he was a little too much “rolled over his front shoulders,” it prevented him from using his withers and shoulders and prevented throughness.

Olsen took their comments to heart, and when she warmed Pharaoh up the next day she rode aggressively and carried that energy to the arena.

“My half-halts are my downfall. I just needed to close my leg a little and push. I’m not very aggressive. I love my horse so much that I’m just as happy to pat him as I am to ride him,” she said with a smile.

Olsen, from Maple Ridge, B.C., trains with Olympian Leslie Reid and is not a stranger to the FEI arena. In 1984 she was short-listed to the Canadian Olympic team on a Thoroughbred.