The United States will be represented by two horses this week at the FEI World Dressage Championships for Young Horses held August 1-5, 2012, in Verden, Germany. Sanceo, ridden by Sabine Schut-Kery, and Florentinus V, ridden by Jennifer Hoffman, will both compete in the six-year-old championship. Both horses were deemed sound and fit to compete at today’s Horse Inspection and begin competition Friday in the Prize of Mrs. Madeleine Winter-Schulze. Friday’s test will qualify pairs to either compete in Saturday’s Small Field Final; the Prize of the company ZEDAN or Sunday’s International Final; the Prize of Privatbrauerei Wittingen.

Sanceo (San Remo-St. Pr. Hauptstutbuch by Ramiro’s Son II) qualified to compete in Verden after an impressive showing at the Western Markel/USEF Young Horse Selection Trial in May. Alice Womble’s Hanoverian stallion scored an 8.652 at the Selection Trials held in conjunction with the Dressage at Flintridge CDI*Y/J. In 2011, Schut-Kery guided Sanceo to a fourth place finish in the Markel/USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championship five-year-old division.

German-based Florentinus V and Hoffman have been turning heads in Europe throughout the year and the pair will be right at home going toe-to-toe with the best young dressage horses that Europe has to offer. The Westphalian stallion, who is also owned by Hoffman, gained his spot in the championships after earning a qualifying score of 8.500.

The FEI World Dressage Championships for Young Horses also hosts acompetition for five-year-olds but the Markel/USEF Young Horse Selection Trials did not produce any qualified five-year-olds to contest in this year’s championship. However, USEF Young Horse Dressage Coach Scott Hassler is confident that the U.S. will produce a strong showing in the six-year-division.

“While it is unfortunate we won’t be represented in the 5 year-old division this year, we have two very good combinations to represent the U.S. in the 6 year-old division. Sabine and Sanceo performed excellently at the Selection Trial and Jennifer and Florentinus have been doing quite well in Europe. I’m confident we will be represented well.”