A beaming Melissa Taylor captured the Grand Prix Special with Lars Petersen’s Succes on Oct. 1, the last day of Dressage At Devon with a score of 61.32 percent.
“He was super, the best he went all weekend,” said Taylor of the 11-year-old Danish Warmblood. A few rider errors kept them from achieving an even higher score when Taylor rode her first canter pirouette at L instead of D, which made squishing nine tempi-changes in along centerline more difficult before her next pirouette.
“I was so focused on learning to ride him in the ring that I just got lost in the test,” said Taylor. “I haven’t ridden the Special in six months.”
She opted not to try for the freestyle because of her mount’s hot temperament. She said that exposing him to the cold air, bright lights and electric atmosphere wouldn’t have been in their best interest.
“He’s young and fresh and brilliant,” said Taylor. “It’s for me to figure out his buttons, but his buttons change dramatically in the ring. Now is the first season that we’re really coming to know each other.”
Cheryl Meisner Linssen placed second in the Special with Hesperos (60.16%) over Karin Reid Offield and Welt Adel (59.52%).
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Balmoral, another young, fresh horse, took home home top honors in the Intermediaire freestyle with Canada’s Jacqueline Brooks (70.60%). Brooks spent the morning going back and forth between using “Smarty’s” normal freestyle or substituting a more difficult one that she’d used for Gran Gesto at the Pan American Games.
She finally decided to go with the harder freestyle to show off her mount’s progress and maturity. Just seven years old, Smarty won at Devon as a 5- and 6-year-old and progressed up the levels through the FEI young horse tests.
“He’s a great representative of that training program,” said Brooks. “The tests prepare them to learn the upper level movements.”
Brooks said that she’s confident Smarty will eventually be a Grand Prix horse. “I haven’t wanted to push him, but he already does some one-tempis and a few steps of piaffe and passage,” she said.
The pair improved in confidence throughout the weekend. “On the first day he was early in the class and the footing was quite wet,” said Brooks. “He’s not experienced enough in the wet footing. But by the Intermediaire I the footing was dry, and I got a lot of compliments in the ring. It was great for the freestyle because I had the confidence to ask a little more of him.”
Another Canadian, Gary VanderPloeg, grabbed second place in the Intermediare freestyle with Cezanne (69.60%) over Melissa Jackson and Wellington (69.15%).
