It’s not often that dressage horses in the United States get the chance to perform to a packed house, but the audience in the Thomas and Mack Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. provided five horses just that opportunity in the Invitational Grand Prix.
Mette Rosencrantz did a superb job handling the exciting atmosphere to win the national Grand Prix with Basquewille (63.54%). Michael Barisone and Neruda took second place (63.04%) over Kristina Harrison-Naness on Rociero XV (61.62%) and Jennifer Hoffmann on Petit Danseur (58.33%). Jo Moran finished fifth with Minna (57.58%).
“For me it was phenomenal,” said Rosencrantz. “Everybody is trying to move on and go to bigger shows. It’s hard to find the environment here, but if you go to Europe, this is what you’ll find.”
Rosencrantz said that her horse is strong, and she was worried that the electric atmosphere would make him too strong, but that didn’t happen. “It was fun to ride,” she said. “I enjoyed every minute of it. We can all do better, but I was very proud to win.”
Barisone confessed to being a bit disappointed with his performance. “He’s felt better other days,” he said of Neruda. “He was stirred up. He was spooky and distracted, not really on my aids.”
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The pair had two major mistakes–a flying change out of the pirouette, which counts double, and a mistake in the two-tempi changes.
“My horse is the most experienced,” said Barisone. “He’s done two indoor seasons in Europe. It was much harder this time. But I saw the same thing yesterday. Horses with experience couldn’t concentrate in this ring. It was a riding lesson for me to watch Isabell Werth keeping her horse focused. Now I have try to figure out how she keeps him on the aids.”
One exciting horse wasn’t even competing in the Grand Prix test. Jan Ebeling performed a test ride with Rafalca prior to the Grand Prix, and FEI O-level judge Axel Steiner commented on his ride for the audience.
Although Rafalca has never competed at Grand Prix, she didn’t seem overwhelmed by the crowds. At the end of her test Steiner praised her talent and predicted that she’d be competing for the United States in the future.
