Anky van Grunsven came into the ring on Saturday night, Jan. 31, on a mission. She’d made two uncharacteristic errors in the Grand Prix test the day before and only squeaked into the freestyle when Michael Barisone, who’d placed above her, chose to ride the Special instead.

But van Grunsven doesn’t make the same mistake twice, and she went big with her foot-perfect, electric test aboard IPS Painted Black. Her score of 79.60 percent put her well into the lead, and no one could catch her.

Steffen Peters, who’d won the Grand Prix with Ravel, put in his best effort, but he encountered some surprising resistance from the 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding in the piaffe. The mistakes meant the test was only good enough for third place (76.60%) behind the Netherlands’ Hans-Peter Minderhoud and Exquis Escapado (77.75%).

Ashley Holzer took fourth place with Pop Art (76.35%) over Edward Gal on Interfloor Next One (74.00%) and Lars Petersen on Succes (72.45%).

“He was fresh in the warm-up,” said Peters. “So I rode a little too passively in the first piaffe, and he took a walk step. When I corrected him, he said, ‘That’s not a good idea.’ ”

Ravel threw his head up high in that first piaffe and again in the second, but after that he settled down and the rest of the test reflected his normal quality.

“Ravel has no limits,” said Stephen Clarke, president of the ground jury. “He’s so elastic, and there’s still so many things that can be developed. It’s a pity he made a couple of mistakes.”

Peters was pragmatic about the test. “At the end of the day they’re just horses, and we’re just humans,” he said.

On the other hand, Van Grunsven was delighted with her comeback. “Yesterday I was really surprised he was so spooky,” she said. “He’s not normally a spooky horse. Today I was really happy with him. He really tried and didn’t have any mistakes.”

She rode to an old freestyle of tango music. “I should do a new one, but it’s still fun, and it works well,” she said.

Van Grunsven also treated the audience to a reining demonstration after the awards ceremony. “I don’t have any pretensions that I’m good at it,” she said. “I do realize I’m an amateur. I did some practice competitions and didn’t even ask for the scores.”

Van Grunsven hopes to return to the United States in April for the FEI World Cup Final with her top mount Salinero. Minderhoud also said he expects to compete in the Final, but he wasn’t sure whether he’d bring his Olympic mount Exquis Nadine or Escapado.

“Today he did his best freestyle ever,” said Minderhoud. “In the last six months he’s improved such a lot.”

 For full results go here: http://www.palmbeachworlddressagemasters.com/scores.html