Carol Lavell’s weekend at the Col. Bengt Ljungquist Memorial Championships at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington,Oct. 21-24 started with near disaster.

She was riding Much Ado in a schooling area full of riders when the speaker system emitted an unexpected screech on Wednesday evening, causing havoc.

“Horses were ricocheting off one another,” said Lavell, of Fairview, N.C. “I needed help getting him to go back into the ring.”

Lavell and Much Ado, a 17.3-hand, Dutch Warmblood gelding, won the Prix St. Georges at the Virginia Horse Center a year ago.

“He was just fine [then],” said Lavell. “But in truth, he’s a really hot, spooky horse, and he got thoroughly panicked by the noise. It took him three days to get over it.”

Despite the mishap, Lavell won both the BLM Intermediaire II (65.61%) and Grand Prix (68.12%). By the Grand Prix on Sunday, Lavell’s horse was tired, but “he pulled it together and made beautiful one[-tempis],” she said.

After Much Ado’s first few tests of the weekend, Lavell said, “In my [Intermediaire II], I had a couple of, ‘No, not that agains,’ and I had one again today [in the Grand Prix]. But it really didn’t matter, because you’re not just riding to get through the test, but you’re telling the horse that you really have to do it.”

Lavell said her final piaffe may not have been in the right place and there wasn’t a transition into the movement. “I had to restart him but he went,” she said. “I can go home saying at least he tried. He didn’t back up, didn’t shake his head, didn’t resist in a disobedient way.”

Over the winter, Lavell’s plans include big trots and canters uphill to build strength. “It takes ages to build muscle,” she said. “He’s got some spectacular things that he loves to show. The ball’s in my court to ride him well.”

The 22nd annual BLM finals, hosted by the Virginia Dressage Association in conjunction with the VADA Fall show, also featured, for the first time, $10,000 in prize money for the freestyle championship classes. Patton Equine Legal Services donated the money in honor of The Dressage Foundation’s Dancing Horse Fund.

The pas de deux team of Laura Cross of Edinburg, Va., and Andrea Martens of Remington, Va., on their perfectly matched chestnuts, Sir Quincy, a Quarter Horse and Ad Infinitum, a Hanoverian cross, wowed the crowd and the judges. They were honored for their efforts with a freestyle high score of 79.87 percent.

“We don’t see pas de deux very often,” judge Lilo Fore said. “There was such har-mony between those two, and that is what dressage is really all about.”

“When they did their leg yields together, their boots were almost touching. It just needed to be rewarded,” added Jane Weatherwax, who judged from C. “It was a true performance.”

Freedman Shifts Her Focus

Erin Brooke Freedman won the BLM fourth level freestyle (66.77%) riding Good Lookin’. The pair also won the open show’s FEI Young Rider Prix St. Georges (62.62%).

The win was sweet after the difficulties of the past summer for the 20-year-old James Madison University (Va.) student and her family. Earlier this year, her father lost his leg in a work-related accident. “It was a rough summer,” Freedman admitted.

“Teddy,” is an Oldenburg-New Forest cross that Freedman has owned for seven years, since he was a yearling. Freedman originally evented Teddy through preliminary. “He just loved the dressage so much more,” she said. “And he’s my baby so I have to do whatever he wants to do. We call him Theodore now because he is a dressage horse.”

Teddy has only been focusing on dressage for the past year. “He can be difficult when he thinks he knows what he is doing,” Freedman said. “If he thinks he is supposed to be doing three tempis, then that’s what he’s going to do. He’s just a big show-off, absolutely full of himself.”

Freedman was a member of the gold-medal two-star team from Area II at the 2002 North American Young Riders Championships. She is looking forward to returning to the sport in the future. “I love eventing so much, but I’ve learned a lot about my seat and about patience,” Freedman added.

Her goal is to move up to Intermediaire next year and to qualify for the NAYRC dressage team. If she makes it, Freedman thought she would be the first rider to compete in both the eventing and dressage championships.

“They’re quite a team,” Freedman’s instructor Sally Stenard said. “Erin just got in the zone today. When she realized finally that it all came from her seat, then everything just fell into place.”

Teddy goes to school with Freedman, and on weekends, the pair travel to Stenard’s farm in Fredricksburg, Va., for lessons. And if going to college and riding aren’t enough, she is also training for a marathon and has done 500-mile bike rides with her father. They plan to do that again next summer after he is fitted with an artificial limb.

Twelve-year-old Chelsea Allen and her 17-year-old, 14.1-hand Morgan gelding, Don’t Tell Daddy, beat out 17 other riders in the BLM first level freestyle championship (74.68%). The petite seventh grader from Erie, Pa., has a shy and winning smile.

Don’t Tell Daddy, who was never backed until he was 12, had been known as “Mr. Speedy”– because of his charging walk and trot and his total lack of a canter–during his brief career as an eventer before Allen owned him.

A year ago, Allen nearly lost her horse when he was laid up for six months with enterocolitis. She decided to focus on dressage when he went back into work, and her efforts have paid off. The pair also won an open test of choice class (64.50%) and the BLM second level, junior/young rider finals (60.63%). They stand fourth in the country for first level freestyle.

Allen also scored her first 8 over the weekend in her collective marks for rider position. “When he was warming up, he got tense, but I was able to keep him calm in the arena,” she said. “I was really happy with keeping the counter canter too.”

Allen hopes to move up to third level by next year with the help of her instructor, Kathy Rowse.

Batts Doubles In FEI Classes

It was a good weekend for Tami Batts of Greensboro, N.C., as she won the BLM Prix St. Georges with Ivan (69.50%). “He’s a very forward moving horse with a lot of expression in his gaits,” Batts said.

The 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood is owned by neurosurgeon Vicki Nave. “Her riding time is very limited,” Batts explained, “but we do share the ride.”

Batts purchased Ivan for Nave four years ago. “He knew all the tricks. We just schooled it better, I hope, and tried to improve on the basics and develop more self-carriage and expression.”

Batts also won an open FEI test of choice (66.75%) and open Prix St. Georges (64.25%).

Aboard her own Unforgettable, Batts won the BLM Grand Prix freestyle (66.87%), riding for the first time to a medley of big band tunes.
She has owned the 16-hand, Trakehner gelding since he was 3. “We’ve done it all together, good and bad. He’s been a great learning horse. But he’s a tricky horse, true to the Trakehner breed. You never get the same horse twice,” she said.

Batts had to withdraw Unforgettable from the BLM Grand Prix finals on Sunday because of a swollen ankle. “My goal is to get a little higher score on him in the Grand Prix and to continue to learn and sharpen my tools,” she said.

Brooke Doss decided to pack up one day early and go home to Greensboro, N.C., after taking the grand and reserve championships in the BLM third level finals with Nambe (66.90%) and Aussie (66.31%).

“I’m so pleased because he’s really seasoned lately, ” Doss said of Nambe, a 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood owned by Marcy Wright of Tryon, N.C. “He’s become a lot more confident at this level. He’s very loose with a lot of suspension, and he’s got a very outgoing personality and loves to have fun. Sometimes organizing all of that into a steady, consistent test can be challenging.”

It has been a gradual process during the past year to develop the balance and collection and integrate all of that with the mental steadiness. “We’ve developed a stronger partnership over the past few months,” she said. “I can really feel him develop the skills that he needs to go on to the FEI, and that’s exciting.”

Doss rode her own 12-year-old, Trakehner gelding, Aussie, to second place. She purchased him 11³2 years ago. “He was very tense, not very happy with his work,” she said. “And physically he needed better development.”

Doss took him on as a “rehabilitation” project. “I knew it would be a long-term project, but I wanted to make him more comfortable in his work and gain more confidence in himself. This morning represented to me that things are really starting to solidify. The wonderful natural gaits that I knew were in there are starting to come to the surface.”