Feb. 5 –Wellington, Fla.

Lars Petersen is on a roll. After topping two CDI classes two weeks ago at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival with his longtime partner Mariett, he brought home another blue, this time in the CDI***** Grand Prix.

While the class was moved until 6 p.m. due to thunderstorms early in the day, Mariett, a 17-year-old Danish Warmblood mare (Comeback II—Zendi, Sidney) owned by Marcia Pepper, had no problem under the lights on a cool and damp night.

“She was basically like normal—very fresh, which is good,” said Petersen, who rides for Denmark. “Otherwise, I didn’t really change anything, other than going to bed a little later!”

The pair scored a 74.16% to win over fellow Dane Mikala Gundersen and My Lady (72.96%). So what’s Petersen’s secret to Mariett’s longetivity?

“She’s getting younger and younger and I’m getting older and older!” he said with a laugh. “The thing is right now when she’s at this stage, it’s really what you do at home before you go the horse show. I don’t practice that much. I keep her fit and loose and in good condition, so going to a horse show is almost more work because of the test riding. At home, I just try to keep her happy and fresh. She’s like riding an 8-year-old.”

For Gundersen, her second-placed finish on Janne Rumbough’s 15-year-old Danish Warmblood mare (Michellino—Marion, Ritterstern) was icing on the cake of a great partnership.

“She loves [the atmosphere,]” she said. “She’ll be better tomorrow. I’m really happy with where I am. Looking at the starting list—I know you shouldn’t do that—but you have some really big names here. I would have been very happy to be in the top five today and where I am is like a dream.”

California-based Kathleen Raine slotted into third (72.42%) with Breanna, another mare with plenty of experience under her belt.

The 15-year-old by Brentano II spent time in Europe with Raine this summer where she trained with Johann Hinnemann, who was also on hand to coach her.

Raine last competed in Florida for the 2000 Olympic selection trials and she was impressed with the facility and her mare.

“She was so consistent and handled the atmosphere. I was thrilled,” she said. “I really think the experience in Europe matured her. The timing to come here was perfect.”

Dusting Off The Cobwebs

Laura Tomlinson made her AGDF debut a winning one when she took top honors in the CDI* Prix St. Georges with Unique.

The pair scored a 73.31% in a show that was also Tomlinson’s first back since giving birth to her daughter, Annalisa, in July.

“It was nice to get back in the ring,” she said. “It was Unique’s first time back in the ring since the [British] National Championships in 2013. Both of us just needed to get back in the ring and find our feet again, so I’m really happy with the way she went. She was really responsive. She’s been known to be really firey and difficult, so I was really pleased with how well she rode. I couldn’t have asked for more today.”

Tomlinson decided to come to Florida with her husband, Mark, who plays polo professionally. While he’s been keeping busy, Laura brought five horses over and is based at Tuny Page’s Stillpoint Farm, just a mile from the AGDF grounds.

“I missed all of last season because I was pregnant,” she said. “I was still riding but not competing. Over in Europe at the moment all of the Grand Prix [shows] are World Cup qualifiers in quite big atmospheres indoors. I’d have to travel to Germany or Holland or somewhere quite far away and back, whereas here you travel a mile down the road and compete every other weekend.”

Unique, an 11-year-old Holsteiner mare, came to Laura as a 7-year-old with some confidence issues.

“She was a talented horse but a sort of longterm project,” she said. “She was very cooked and was quite scared of the leg but was vaguely collected. She was obviously a talented horse. A horse her size needs a lot of time to be able to build the strength to cope with the movement that she’s blessed with. If you try and run before you can walk with a horse like that, you’re going to cause them physical harm.”

“Minnie”, as the 17-plus hand mare is jokingly known around the barn, will likely make her Grand Prix debut with Laura during the Florida season.

Laura, 29, is hoping to make the British team for the FEI European Championships (Germany) this year, and has the 2016 Olympics in Rio as her longterm goal.

“Everything between now and that is making the two of us a strong partnership with lots of confidence in the ring,” she said. “She’s the kind of horse that if she finds things easy, it looks relaxed and easy and that everything’s a piece of cake, but if she feels like she’s being forced into something or she feels like you’re putting her in a box, then she says, ‘No thank you.’ She’s a proper diva.”

Rosie Reigns Supreme

Steffen Peters had everyone talking as he brought the 8-year-old Rosamunde from California to contest her first CDI Grand Prix.

Peters, San Diego, debuted Rosamunde at Grand Prix just three weeks ago in his home state and she impressed again by winning the CDI*** at AGDF.

Peters has had the ride on “Rosie” for about a year and a half.

“She amazed me the first day I sat on her,” he said. “Of course, it was even more amazing today in the Grand Prix because she was so focused. We had a few little rookie mistakes, but obviously I’m very happy with her half passes in the beginning, the canter pirouettes, two tempis. There were lots of wonderful things, and the best thing is she does it with so much lightness. There’s a lot of expression—she feels so beautiful in the front end and is a lot of fun to ride.”

Peters thought carefully about contesting the Grand Prix with Rosie, and after a successful small tour season last year, he found she was easily handling the tougher movements.

“In the summer during training camp, I still wasn’t quite sure if we would do another year of small tour,” he said. “I said, if I would have to push the Grand Prix movements then I wouldn’t compete her in the Grand Prix. I’d play with it and try the one tempis and play more and more with the piaffe. It worked out great. That’s the only reason I did it.”

While their test at Thermal was cleaner according to Peters, he couldn’t be more pleased.

“We had a little mistake today and some tension in the first piaffe, so the test a little while ago was better, but it’s still not a test where I could in any shape or form be negative about. It was just a great, great go for an 8-year-old Grand Prix horse,” he said.

Full results are available on Foxvillage.com.

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