She and Clairvoya start the season with a qualifying win.

In her first Grand Prix competition with Clairvoya, Lauren Sprieser achieved all that she’d hoped for and more at the VADA/Nova, Inc. Spring Dressage, held at Morven Park International Equestrian Center in Leesburg, Va., April 11-12.

She rode Clairvoya to a win, with a qualifying score for the USEF National Young Adult Brentina Cup in June.

“I spent most of yesterday going, ‘We’re actually riding a Grand Prix test, oh my God,’ ” Sprieser said. “Then about halfway through I thought, ‘I should actually show up and ride now.’ ”

The gray Hanoverian mare, by Certus out of Wachtel, is 11, and Sprieser has owned her since 2006. “This is our fourth season together,” she said. “She had done her first Prix St. Georges test when I bought her.”

The pair had three good seasons in the small tour and qualified for the USEF National Intermediaire I Championships last year but couldn’t afford to go to California for them. That was fine, though, Sprieser said: “I definitely wanted to focus on getting her to the next level.”

Sprieser actually met the mare as a 5-year-old. “Deanna Landwehr, her previous owner and trainer, had her from 3 or 4 to age 8 [and] did a super job,” she said. “But she didn’t want to take the time to compete an international horse.”

It took a long time to get the mare fit enough to complete the Grand Prix test, said Sprieser. “She was a little tired today,” Sprieser said. “The last centerline she asked if she could halt now about every three steps.”

They need two more scores to qualify for the Brentina Cup, at Gladstone (N.J.), in June. “We’re going to be busy in May,” she predicted.

Sprieser also won Sunday’s third level, test 2, class with her mother’s Dutch gelding, Victorious. The 7-year-old, by Patijn out of Koriene, had a tough test in the slop on Saturday but did much better on Sunday.

Victorious hadn’t competed since 2007, at training level. “I’m still figuring out how to channel his exuberance,” Sprieser said.

Victorious was the first horse Sprieser helped start. She was a rising college senior, and he was a 21⁄2-year-old “funny looking downhill stud colt.” Then his owner died, and Sprieser’s mother Judy bought him, thinking they would show him at training level a couple of times and resell him. He just got better from there, she said, and “he just weaseled his way into my heart.”

Now he’s showing a lot of talent for piaffe and passage, Lauren said. “When I can keep the elasticity he’s going to be super,” she said. “I like the horses with personality. Winning is fun, but winning on somebody you love is even better.”

After a bachelor’s degree in public policy and urban planning, and working student stints with Carol Lavell and Pam Goodrich, Lauren moved to Marshall, Va., in October 2007; she runs a training barn with her parents. “My parents wanted to retire somewhere where the winters weren’t quite so dreadful as Chicago,” she said. “My students range from walk-trot-canter to third level dressage [and] three-star event riders.”

She likes to get out of the arena, too. Victorious swims in the pond on their property, and she spends lots of time training on the hills.

A Dream Come True

Carter Bass stepped up to Grand Prix and won Sunday’s class on her homebred Gossamer. An R-rated dressage judge, Bass is working on upgrading to S-rated status, for which she needs five scores of 60 percent or higher at Intermediaire II or Grand Prix, including three at Grand Prix, by June. The pair earned the necessary Intermediaire II scores last year, but Morven marked her first weekend at Grand Prix.

“I just wanted to get my score,” she said. “To win is just icing on the cake.”

It’s been a long time since Bass, of Ruckersville, Va., was within striking distance of this level. “I had a Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse cross that I paid $425 for,” she said. “I showed in the I-1 and did all the Grand Prix movements with him 20 years ago. I figured I’d never have a Grand Prix horse again.”

Gossamer, or “Ozzie,” is a black Oldenburg gelding by Goldfuerst, out of Bass’ mare Wendemere. He was set to be sold at the age of 5 but was badly injured in a pasture accident instead.

“She really thought he was going to be a lawn ornament,” said Bass’ current trainer, Pati Pierucci. “But then she got on him at age 7 and he was sound.”

She took him to his first show in March of 2002, at training level at Morven. “I just decided that I would go level by level and see what he would offer,” Bass said. “He’s just done consistently well. His longitudinal work has always been really good. He’s just a really fun, consistently straightforward horse to ride.”

Some skills took longer than others, though. “It took me 21⁄2 years to get a clean flying change,” she said.

Ozzie has lived at Pierucci’s barn since November, Bass said, and the pair share students and trade off riding him. “I’ve never had consistent help like this,” Bass said.

Pierucci had done “a lot of good piaffe-passage work” in her previous job riding Hampton Green Farm’s PRE stallions.

“Carter and I met when I was 25 years old in Florida,” Pierucci said. “She’s known me a long time. To come back and for her to even ask me to help her—you have to pinch me.”

When Bass decided to work toward Grand Prix over the winter, she knew the one-tempi changes would be her toughest challenge. “I just kept playing with them all winter,” Bass said. “We got seven ones in November [and built from there].

“I lost Wendemere [Ozzie’s mother] on February 6,” she said. “That’s the week I got 15 ones. We’re attributing this to Wendemere looking down on us.”

Bass still has two of her offspring—and two more out of Ozzie’s sister—at home.

“The fact that [Ozzie] got hurt is the reason we’re here today,” said Bass. “It’s just a dream come true. I’ll take it.”

Pierucci also had success with Joanne Balling’s 5-year-old Hanoverian, Rouault, winning Sunday’s first level, test 1, class.

“This was his first show with me,” Pierucci said. “I’ve had him [in training] since October. It’s nice to have such a wonderful owner. She said, ‘Do what’s best for the horse.’ He has just the best work ethic. We’ll just keep going on this path and see what he tells us.”

Working Toward The NAJYRC

Jordan Rich won the Junior team and individual classes aboard Milazzo, and Jillian Kemenosh tied for the Young Rider team class and won the Young Rider individual class on her Nelzon. Both riders are hoping to qualify for the FEI North American Junior and Young Riders Championships in July.

Rich, a 16-year-old high school junior from Rockville, Md., showed Milazzo, his mother’s 20-year-old bay gelding, whom he has ridden for two years.

Rich called “Milo” a saint. “The most he does is get full of himself, especially when he gets tired and tries to get through the test faster,” Rich said. “He’s a cool guy. He does what I want, and that’s special.”

Rich also shares a 6-year-old gelding, showing at first level, with his mother. “We trade off who rides him,” he said.

Both horses live in Sandy Spring, Md., where they train with Vanessa Swartz. Rich and Milazzo were reserve champions at USDF Region 1 championships at third level and fourth at the BLM championships at fourth level.

As well as riding and taking AP and honors classes at high school, Rich is co-owner of an entertainment company, supplying DJs, dancers and videographers for parties. He has to schedule weekends carefully; some of the qualifying shows fall on the same weekends as his other commitments. “It’s a balancing act, but it seems to work,” he said.

Kemenosh, who also qualified at this show, is in her first year at the FEI Young Riders level. In 2007 she competed on the third-placed FEI Junior team and was ninth individually; last year she also qualified for the FEI Junior championships but her horse was injured. Now the New Jersey rider is about to graduate from high school and is heading off to the University of Delaware in the fall.

She’s had Nelzon since January 2007. He was bought to do Juniors and Young Riders, although he hadn’t really shown at these levels before. “He had gone to one show at fourth level,” Kemenosh said of the Dutch gelding by Wolfgang.

“He’s very hot,” she said. “The first day [of this show] he missed all of his tempis, cantered in the trot extensions.” The pair still won the class with a 64 percent.

Now she plans to finish qualifying for NAJYRC and is considering trying to qualify for the FEI World Cup Dressage for Young Riders.

“[That’s] based on all freestyle scores,” she said. “I was hesitant to start competing because there are some amazing horses and riders. But after the first two shows and having done well, I’m pretty comfortable with myself.”