Wellington, Fla.—March 30

No matter which nation you represented, when you left the ring following your test in the Wellington FEI Nations Cup CDIO***, you received a rowdy applause.

After twelve weeks of competition at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, the riders and trainers have all gotten to know each other pretty well. So they celebrate each other’s successes; cheering no matter which flag adorns the rider’s saddle pad.

While the camaraderie felt amongst the riders is a positive effect of a long circuit, it’s still a competition, and everybody is looking for the win. Tonight that win belongs to the United States, as the team composed of entirely Grand Prix pairs (Arlene “Tuney” Page and Woodstock, Shelly Francis and Doktor, Kasey Perry-Glass and Goerklintgaards Dublet, and Laura Graves with Verdades) gave themselves a solid lead on a first day score of 221.61, over second-placed Canada on a 212.6.

“I thought that each one of them rose to the occasion and did a really nice job. I think that I’m very happy with them all. It’s a good group,” said U.S. chef d’equipe Robert Dover.

A total of seven teams turned out to compete for this year’s Nations Cup title. The teams, coming from Spain, Costa Rica, Denmark, Canada, the United States, Australia and a team of individuals riding  for Austria, Columbia, Chile and Argentina, are allowed a combination of small and large tour pairs. Three teams (Canada, U.S., Australia) brought only large tour pairs while Spain and Costa Rica only fielded small tour combinations. To make scoring even, 1.5 was added to each Grand Prix score. For teams of four, the lowest score was dropped. Today small tour riders did the Prix St. Georges test and will ride the Intermediaire I test tomorrow, while Grand Prix riders will do the Special.

Kasey Perry-Glass and Goerklintgaards Dublet earned the second highest score in the Grand Prix with a 73 percent. Photo by Kimberly Loushin

Rain settled into Wellington the previous afternoon and with storms forecasted throughout the day, the Nations Cup was moved from the stadium to the Van Kampen covered arena, something that U.S. anchor rider Graves said made her nervous. The last time the show was moved inside, Graves and Verdades turned in an uncharacteristic test.

“The last time the show was forced inside we had one of our lowest scores in I don’t know how long, so coming back in a team situation where you know they’re counting on you as anchor and the show gets pushed inside, you’re going, ‘oh god, I hope this isn’t regular. I hope what happened last time was an anomaly,’ ” said Graves, Plymouth, Fla.

“We really wanted to conquer that today, and we did,” she said. “He was great. I thought he gave me that same feeling that he actually gave me in the indoor before, I was just able to ride it better and we’ve been working on that. So I was really pleased. I thought our zig zag was great, most of our canter tour, the pirouettes were really super; that felt nice.”

Graves turned in a score of 76.86 percent (prior to the additional 1.5) which was the highest score of the afternoon, with teammate Perry-Glass coming closest (73%)

“Always the opportunity to compete on a team is a real honor, and it’s different because no matter what you have to show up for everybody else,” said Graves. “As much as we sometimes want to be down on ourselves or pick on our flaws, having a team around you [means] you’ve got to stick together and you’ve got to stay positive and be there for one another.”

Lars Peterson was slated to ride for the Danish team, however he withdrew Quascai Nexen from competition, leaving the team without a drop score.

Results from the Adequan Global Dressage Festival can be found here. Don’t forget to check www.coth.com tomorrow to see if Team USA holds onto their lead in the second day of competition.

For an in-depth look at how the winning team made it to the top of the podium, be sure to pick up the April 25 issue of the Chronicle.