Wellington, Fla.—Feb 26
In only her second show in the open CDI ring, 25-year-old Hope Cooper rode Hot Chocolate W to the win on Friday in the CDI3* Grand Prix freestyle (73.92%) at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.
She and Mary Mansfield’s 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Hochadel—Pikolina, Pik Senior) also finished second in Thursday’s CDI3* Grand Prix for the freestyle (68.50%).
“It’s like crazy and really surreal, and honestly, not something I thought that would happen this year, but I’m so proud of him,” she said. “He feels so good, and he puts really a 120 million percent into anything I ask him, so I just thought, ‘Maybe the first year in the Grand Prix, we’ll take our time,’ and to have this as the second time we’ve done the freestyle, and the first [long] Grand Prix start is just unbelievable to me. I’m so appreciative to him and his owner Mary.”
Hope Cooper and Hot Chocolate W.
Cooper’s music included the song “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony. “ ‘Chocolate’ has so much suspension off the ground, especially in the passage,” she said. “He has some jumper bloodlines too, so I think having this extra music that has a lot of lift to it and a lot of soul and means a lot to a lot of people is a cool thing to have for him, because he’s such a heart horse, so it was nice to have that.”
She’s based in Concord, Massachusetts, at Bear Spot Farm alongside her mother, Jane Karol, who’s a Grand Prix rider and an equine facilitated pyschotherapist.
Cooper triple majored in dance, Africana studies and behavioral neuroscience at Connecticut College, but for now wants to focus on her riding.
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Carrie Schopf and Saumur won the CDI3* Grand Prix Special on Saturday.
Armenia’s Carrie Schopf picked up another win on Saturday with Saumur, this time in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special (70.97%).
“It is exciting,” she said. “But you ride them every day, and you’re working toward kind of a goal, so in the end, if he would’ve been first, second or third or a fifth, or whatever today, when he goes into the show ring and does what he did, which is to meet me in there, and as long as I rode properly, he went properly, so then your feeling is that you’re on the right track. That you’re doing the right work that benefits the horse, and helps him to become the athlete that our sport would like him to become. It’s gratifying.”
Schopf said the 14-year-old Oldenburg gelding (Sancisco OLD—Lioness, Tanzmeister) is good at the challenging and technical Grand Prix test, and the Special is a very forward test.
“This is a very forward test in the trot work, and it’s a forward test that if you swing with them, you can really capture that energy, and so I thought this is a fun test to ride today. Grand Prix isn’t fun. You sort of grit your teeth and make your way through it. It’s not a fun test. But this is a fun test,” she said.
She describes Saumur as grumpy, so she tends to do most of the work with him in the barn. “He doesn’t mean anything by it, but he’s not a huge horse, and so I think what happens is by doing that, you know, he has sort of a Napoleon complex,” she said with a laugh. “By doing that it makes him feel much bigger. He’s a Dachshund in disguise. He’s wonderful. He really is.”
Jessica Howington and Cavalia finished second in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special.
Codi Harrison and Katholt’s Bossco finished third in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special.
