After a two-year break from the show ring, Mark returned to action with Sue Blinks and handily won the Grand Prix and Grand Prix freestyle at the Golden State Dressage Festival CDI, April 3-6 in Rancho Murieta, Calif.

“He’s an amazing horse,” said Blinks. “He’s got a heart the size of a 747. He just goes in the ring and tries. That’s his personality and his temperament and all the positive things that Leslie [Reid] did in his life before.”

Blinks’ sponsors—Louise and Doug Leatherdale of Long Lake, Minn.—purchased the 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding for Blinks in 2005. Mark (Edison—Gina) competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics with Leslie Reid of Canada.

“It’s an unusual situation for me to be doing Grand Prix with a horse that I haven’t brought along from the beginning,” said Blinks. “You accumulate a lot of information each time you go down the center line with a horse, especially when you’re jumping into it this late in their life. So for me, each time we go through the test we trust each other more. I know more where to take risks and where to be careful. It’s still a getting-to-know-him process. He tries so hard in the ring, and he’s so unaffected by his environment. He feels like he can be a very, very reliable horse. It’s a joy to ride him.”

Blinks started showing Mark again in February and by the Golden State CDI felt comfortable riding Mark more forward. She was able to ride the half-passes bigger, trusted him more in the piaffe and asked for bigger extended trot work. Mark and Blinks scored 69.33 percent in the Grand Prix, ahead of Reid with her new Grand Prix mount Orion (Jazz—Havanna).

Saturday evening was the debut of Mark’s Grand Prix freestyle, and it earned a 73.00 percent, once again beating Reid and Orion.

Blinks called the freestyle a skeleton of what is going to happen. Eric Aubrey, with whom she has worked in the past on music for Flim Flam, put together Mark’s music.

“I hadn’t had time to give him a very good map of what we were doing, nor was I sure of my music and the cues,” explained Blinks. “So the whole thing was a little bit hectic and tense. It didn’t feel old and comfortable to either of us, so it was a little bit on the edge.”

Blinks lives in Encinitas, Calif. She spent four months last fall in Germany training with Klaus Balkenhol in preparation for this year’s Olympic trials with both Mark and her second Grand Prix horse Robin Hood.

Robin Hood, a 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Jazz, placed fourth in the CDI Grand Prix (66.70%). He won the open Grand Prix class (71.25%).

Sandrina Cruises To Blue

Jan Ebeling, of Moorpark, Calif., topped the CDI Prix St. Georges (67.30%) and the Intermediaire freestyle (68.45%) with Sandrina, owned by Ann Romney of Belmont, Mass. This is the 10-year-old Oldenburg mare’s second year of competing in the small tour at the CDIs.

“We worked on some of the Grand Prix movements since last season,” said Ebeling. “We did a lot of work on the passage and on improving her pirouettes and her overall engagement and connection. This Prix St. Georges test felt great. There are still little things here and there that need improvement. She likes to get a little tight in her back sometimes, and the result is that sometimes we have a change that can be short. We’ve really been focusing on that and really riding forward. Wolfram [Wittig] had me going forward and really getting her engaged behind and getting really big forward changes with her.”

Wittig flew to California from Germany for a week to help Ebeling with his Grand Prix mount Rafalca and Sandrina.

Ebeling won the Intermediaire freestyle riding to music from a Zorro movie. “I thought it worked great,” said Ebeling. “It rode really well—it’s powerful music and she’s a pretty powerful mover.”

Ebeling has been riding Sandrina (Sandro Hit—Stutbuch) for about two years. He found her and Rafalca on the same trip to Germany. Sandrina was just starting flying changes at the time.

“She learns really fast,” said Ebeling. “She’s kind of cruising through her training right now. The main thing is the engagement and keeping her relaxed in her back and keeping the connection right.”

Donna Novella Debuts

Elizabeth Hendrix completed her first CDI competition with a blue in the Intermediaire I on Donna Novella (65.90%).

“She’s been getting better and better all season,” said Hendrix of Donna Novella (De Niro—Walessa). “She’s fairly green at this level. This was the first CDI we planned, because I need to hurry up
and get going if I wanted to go for the Intermediaire championships. I think we brought her out at the right time. I’m pretty excited about her.

“I think her pirouettes are going to be her strong points, but she still isn’t showing them to the judges in the tests,” Hendrix continued. “When she gets more confident, and I get more confident in her, then the tests will be much better. I think I can shorten up my warm-up and have a little bit more brilliance in the tests once we get out a couple more times.”

Owner Melissa Mulchahey, of Livermore, Calif., purchased Donna Novella at one of the Verden auctions
in Germany. She competed with her in the young horse classes until Hendrix took over Donna Novella’s training in the end of 2006.

Last year, Hendrix qualified Donna Novella for the developing horse Prix St. Georges championship in Kentucky but they elected not to make the long trip east. Instead Hendrix took a six-month break from showing and worked with Donna Novella on long lines and taught her how to piaffe.

“That made her so much stronger and more confident in the collection for the Prix St. Georges and Inter-mediaire I,” said Hendrix. “It was definitely worth taking the time off and just working with her at home.”

It’s Time For Rolex

There’s not much Chelsea Seburn hasn’t done in the Young Rider ranks. She’s a three-year veteran of
the North American Young Riders Championships and last year represented the U.S. in the FEI
Young Rider World Cup Final in Frankfurt, Germany.

At Golden State, she started her last year as a Young Rider with a win in the Young Rider team test (64.62%) and Young Rider Prix St. Georges (64.30%) with her 13-year-old Rheinlander gelding Rolex.
Traveling to Germany from her home in Greenleaf, Idaho, last year also gave her the opportunity to
train with Conrad Schumacher for a month. Seburn now rides in clinics with Schumacher when he is in the United States.

“He’s so great with working with the rider,” said Seburn. “He makes me have a lot more confidence with what I’m doing. I’ve been so happy with how I and my horse are going. We’re both enjoying ourselves. I think that shows through in the tests.”

Seburn got her first horse at age 5, and started taking dressage lessons with Ernst Herrmann, of Eagle, Idaho, at age 8. She purchased Rolex five years ago.

Seburn said that Rolex’s trot work is his weakest point. “I always have to think about the trot and to slow it down a little bit,” said Seburn. “His pirouettes and changes were good.”

Seburn placed second in the Young Rider freestyle, only one point behind winners Brianna Dutton and Tibet.

“We got a little behind the music, and I was trying to keep up with it throughout the test,” said Seburn. “I really think if I’d been on my music a little bit better, the test would have had a little bit more presence and a bit higher score.”

Seburn’s freestyle music is from the movie Backdraft. Seburn’s aunt, Cindy Seburn, purchased a music program a few years ago and now edits all of Seburn’s freestyle music. Seburn’s trainer, Herrmann, assists her with the choreography.