Anky van Grunsven may have traveled to the United States expecting an easy victory in the Palm Beach Exquis World Dressage Masters CDI*****, but she found a tough battle on her hands after a disappointing Grand Prix ride.

The format of the WDM, held Jan. 28-31 in Wellington, Fla., pitted 18 top riders from around the globe against each other in the Grand Prix class. Then, the top eight could choose to ride in either the evening freestyle with almost $80,000 in prize money or the afternoon Grand Prix Special with half that amount.

Steffen Peters won the Grand Prix with Ravel, and a shocked crowd watched the Netherlands’ van Grunsven make an astounding two errors with I.P.S. Painted Black. She finished ninth, one spot out of the running for the freestyle.

“I was a bit afraid, because it was outdoors, and I thought he might be too wild,” said van Grunsven. “In the warm-up, he was good, so I thought I was fine. Then, stupid me, I forgot the reinback. He didn’t really take to the passage and piaffe, and then he got scared of the short side where the judges were. I don’t know why. He’s never afraid or spooky.

“The rest of the test I was trying to get him down there,” she continued. “Because it was a new test, and I was focusing on him so much because he was so afraid, I completely screwed up myself. I made another stupid mistake and did the wrong test two times. It’s never happened before in my entire life. I’m very embarrassed.”

This turn of events left everyone in a difficult position. The sponsors of the event, Equestrian Sport Productions and Exquis, had paid to fly horses in from Europe and California, and van Grunsven, the reigning Olympic and World Cup champion, was the main attraction for the show. The schedule had even been changed to accommodate her, so she and “Painted” would have enough time to settle in, since they’d competed the prior weekend at the CDI-W in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Spectators were coming from far and wide to watch her compete in the freestyle on Saturday night.

Van Grunsven’s students, Edward Gal and Hans-Peter Minderhoud, offered to ride in the Grand Prix Special so she could ride in the freestyle, but it was U.S. rider Michael Barisone who stepped up to the plate after a fifth-placed finish in the Grand Prix and opted to ride the Special.

“I had several reasons why I did the Special,” said Barisone. “I had a really incredible time being on the team going to Hong Kong. [He was the reserve rider for the 2008 Olympic Games.] I really want to go to Kentucky next year [for the FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games]. That means that your first test, the one that’s the prescribed test, has to be the good one. That consistency of being able to ride a Grand Prix as it’s written on the paper, you have to do things at a certain point, and I thought it was more important with him right now that I did a set test.

“The other thing was that I personally felt that this competition was such an effort for everybody to come from Europe,” he continued. “There are going to be thousands of people coming to the freestyle to see Anky. I felt that it was the right thing to do to ride the Special and let her move into the freestyle. If the Exquis folks want to do these kinds of things for the sport, they need their headliners in their headliner events. I thought it was my responsibility to the organizers and everybody to give the people who are going to fill this thing up their shot to see the person they wanted to see.”

This decision turned out to be a smart one for Barisone, Long Valley, N.J., who went on to win the Special aboard Neruda (69.29%). And a determined van Grunsven gave the audience exactly what they paid for with a spectacular freestyle to tango music and a big win with 79.60 percent.

A Super Second Horse

Although Painted spends a lot of time in the shadow of his two-time Olympic-gold winner stablemate, I.P.S. Salinero, the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion (by Gribaldi) shouldn’t be underestimated.

Van Grunsven said she believed he could match Salinero at some point.

“I really think he has all the qualities in him, but he’s a stallion, so it’s a bit more difficult,” she said. “When he goes home now, his breeding season will start again. Combining it all is still difficult. I know he has the qualities to do well, and at the last two shows in the kür it worked. It’s still not the score of Salinero, and I think he’s not that good yet, but he’s a super second horse.”

He displayed gravity-defying piaffe and passage to popular tangos, and his electric but contained energy impressed the judges.

“There were no weaknesses at all,” said Great Britain’s Stephen Clarke, who was the president of the ground jury. “The interpretation of the music was, as usual, brilliant. It’s a lovely picture.”

Van Grunsven said the freestyle is an old one, but a fun one. “I really have to work on a new one, but I like it so much, and every time I think it’s still fine. It’s never been boring for me so far. It could be a little bit more complicated, so we do want to make a new kür. But this one really works well with him, and I’m still happy with it.”

She’d like to return to the United States in April for the Rolex FEI World Cup Final. As the winner last year, she’s qualified, but the rules require her to ride Salinero in two World Cup qualifiers. She’s only planning on riding him in one show, though, as he had a long break after the Olympic Games and won’t be fit enough to show earlier.

“I hope they’ll allow me with just one completion with Salinero,” said van Grunsven. “I don’t want to take a place away from somebody else if they give me a wild card. I would also be qualified with Painted. Painted isn’t a definite no, but I’d rather take Salinero.”

Minderhoud, van Grunsven’s Olympic teammate, also plans to return for the World Cup, but he’ll have a tough decision about whether to ride his Olympic mount Exquis Nadine, or the horse he brought to Wellington, Exquis Escapado. Minderhoud placed second in the freestyle (77.75%) and third in the Grand Prix (71.14%).

Escapado attended the Olympic Games in 2004 with Great Britain’s Carl Hester. Now 16, the Oldenburg gelding (by Ex Libris) is still full of vim and vigor.

“In the last six months he’s improved a lot. He’s really healthy and happy,” said Minderhoud. “I think today he did his best freestyle ever. Yesterday the Grand Prix was really good, but I had one stupid mistake.”

You Never Know With Horses

As van Grunsven and Minderhoud improved over the weekend, Peters suffered the opposite fate with Ravel. He put in a lovely Grand Prix test with no obvious errors to place first (75.57%) over Canada’s Ashley Holzer and Pop Art (71.31%).

“The horse makes me look good. He was so honest today. He was very forward and very, very supple,” said Peters. “Sometimes you go in there, and some tests are more work. Today was honestly pure fun. He offered every single movement. It was definitely one of the best rides I’ve ever had with him.”

But on Saturday, with temperatures diving down into the 40s, the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Contango—Hautain) rebelled just a little. He threw his head up high when Peters asked for piaffe as he went around the arena and repeated the resistance twice during the test.

“He came out of the warm-up a little fresh, so when I came into the first piaffe, I thought, ‘Let’s not go crazy here.’ I rode into it a little too passively, and he actually put a walk step in there. When I corrected him, he said, ‘That’s not a good idea,’ ” explained Peters. “From there, the movements in between felt great. I was very happy with the last two piaffes. The canter work felt great. There were good half-passes. There were wonderful moments in the test, but unfortunately the big mistakes were evident.”

Although clearly disappointed, Peters, San Diego, Calif., showed his usual good sportsmanship and pragmatic attitude.

“Every single horse gets a little smart in the arena,” he said. “It is important to make sure when we practice at home that we do practice our tests. He’s been so consistent and so honest that this took me a little bit by surprise. At the end of the day, they’re just horses and we’re just human. Those things do happen.”

Despite the problems, Clarke had nothing but positive comments about Ravel.

“Even the best can make mistakes. When they do, we have no alternative but to go down [with our scores]. When people are good, it doesn’t matter who they are, then we have to go up,” he said.

“Ravel has no limits,” he continued. “He’s so elastic. There are still so many things that can still be even more developed. It was a pity today that he made a couple of mistakes, but for me, he represents what the sport should be about—harmony, elasticity. You don’t have to be an expert in dressage to realize that this is how riding should be.”

A Plan For 2010

Being on a team with Steffen Peters was an eye-opening experience for Barisone, and he credited his exposure to the Olympic Games and other major championships for his success in the Grand Prix Special with his 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Haarlem—Gdadermie) gelding.

“I’m trying really hard to not make mistakes,” said Barisone. “Sliding through one of your less-good things on a 6 is completely different than blowing it and getting a 4. No one worries about me piaffing or passaging, but everybody always goes, ‘Oh, the changes are coming.’ I’ve been working really hard to try to level that out. This weekend it worked great. They’re not of the caliber of some of Neruda’s other work, but if they’re credible, it’s about credibility for me. I really want to go again with Steffen next year, so credibility is what I need.”

He said that the experience of warming up alongside some of the biggest names in the sport was invaluable for him.

“I come out and watch all these guys ride. They go every week to international shows, and I watched the way they warmed up and worked their horses,” said Barisone. “Part of what I got out of the Olympic Games was to see how they prepare their horses for the test. I tried to do a better job with that this week, and it worked.”

“He shouldn’t have watched that much,” joked second-placed Anne van Olst.

The Danish Olympian was on track to pull ahead of Barisone in the Special with Exquis Clearwater until the final pirouette, when the 11-year-old Danish Warmblood (Carpaccio—Abigirl) gelding broke to a trot. Another glitch in the last piaffe and passage on centerline brought the pair down to 69.12 percent.

“I’m still angry at myself for that pirouette,” said van Olst. “Today is the first day where he’s felt really fit after the trip over here. I think we shouldn’t underestimate how difficult it is for us to come here from -5 degrees Celsius to where it’s really warm.

“Today he was fresh, he was happy and feeling good,” van Olst added. “I did warm up much less than yesterday. I said, ‘OK, we’ll go in the ring with a fresh horse and see what happens.’ The pirouette was a rider mistake and a little bit of a misunderstanding from the new tests. I’m really happy with him. He still needs a lot of experience. He was doing a great job for me in the ring today, so I’m really pleased.”

Van Olst was so pleased with her experience in Florida that she said she’d consider returning for a longer stay next year and riding in two or three CDIs.

“You come here and see that the facilities are great, and the footing is very good. I didn’t know that before I came here. I didn’t expect it to be that perfect,” she said.