Lexington, Ky.—Nov. 9

Patricia Hughes has been waiting three years for a championship cooler at the U.S. Dressage Finals, and this afternoon she finally got it, leading the victory gallop with her own 18-year-old Oldenburg gelding San Angelo (San Remo—Weltfee) in the adult amateur second level freestyle (72.65%). The pair came into Finals off a win in the same division at the GAIG/U.S. Dressage Federation Region 9 Championships (Texas).

“I was here last year and the year before, and all I wanted was this cooler. I’ve had my mind set on this cooler for three years! I’m thrilled beyond pieces,” the 52-year-old said. “I feel incredibly grateful and unbelievably humbled to be here with the best judges and riders in the country. It’s just a spectacular feeling to be here with my trainer, Kristin Currie-Williams, and my groom Antonio Sandoval. I am so grateful to this horse who has been so patient and so generous and kind with me. It’s been an unbelievable experience to be here.”

The gelding has plenty of dressage finals experience, competing with his previous owner Tricia Earley and winning an adult amateur third level freestyle championship in 2018 and an adult amateur fourth level freestyle championship in 2019.

“I just wanted a steady Eddie,” said Hughes, Dallas. “I rode him for 10 minutes when I tried him out. I didn’t do any lead changes, and was like, ‘OK, I’ll take him!’ I just loved him because he was a big old hunk of love. It’s a dream come true to be here.”

Steinberg Captures Open First Level Championship With Henry

When Jeremy Steinberg first saw a picture of a 2-year-old Henry, he fell in love with his facial expression. After seeing a short video clip, he was ready to make the purchase.

“I saw the video of him and thought he was a decent mover. He showed up at the farm, and we all fell in love with him, and he’s become our family,” he said.

Co-owned by Carolyn and James McMullen, Henry won the open first level championship this morning with a score of 74.58%.

Steinberg, Aiken, South Carolina, was riding through some pain today as he’d reaggravated a year-old groin injury about two weeks ago.

“I almost didn’t think I was going to be able to ride this weekend,” he said. “The expectations were pretty low because I haven’t ridden much the last two weeks. I literally couldn’t canter him on Wednesday. I had a disaster. I couldn’t canter around the arena to save my life, so I did a half an hour without stirrups, just going, ‘What else am I going to do? I just have to putter around.’ ”

Luckily, he felt well enough to ride today, and the 5-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding’s (For Final—Krystle Lina Poh) good temperament contributed to an easy ride.

“Just because it was such a rough couple of weeks building up to get here, I couldn’t be happier with what he did today,” he said. “I got on him yesterday after all the canter problems and just went, ‘I’m going to go for it’ and fired him up in the warm-up. He went in the arena, and he made one mistake at the end of canter lengthening where he switched leads from behind, but other than that, not a mistake.”

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