Lynndee Kemmet

Jan. 31, 2003

Although freestyles were a normal part of the dressage world by 2003, the debate continued over how to marry the artistic and technical merits.

The musical freestyle, once a rarity, is now firmly entrenched in the world of competitive dressage. The World Cup first required freestyles in 1986, and they were added to the Olympic format in 1996. And while it is growing in popularity among riders and spectators, many people are not sure just what it should be.

An official title like the Eastern States Dressage And Combined Training Association Memorial Weekend Dressage And Allentown CDI doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue—at least not the way “The Ashley Holzer Show” does.

And that turned out to be the most apt nickname for the May 26-29 competition in Allentown, N.J., after Canadian veteran Holzer emerged victorious in each of the four CDI classes she entered with her small tour mount Ultiems Flemming and her Olympic and World Equestrian Games partner Pop Art.

•    Barbara Strawson, of Dickerson, Md., took the wins in the Intermediaire I (69.60%) and Intermediaire I freestyle (71.00%). She earned those titles with the 13-year-old Hanoverian Degas, sired by Dederick.
         Strawson currently has the ride on the horse because his owner Marianne Campano, who had raised him since he was a yearling, is stationed with her husband in South Korea until next spring.  

With Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel, the Lusitano stallion wins at Prix St. Georges. 

Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel has been competing in the Col. Bengt Ljungquist Memorial Championships since they began in 1983.

“Last year I would have won the Grand Prix freestyle on Roulette, but due to a breakdown of the speaker system we missed the awards ceremony,” said von Neumann-Cosel, of Lisbon, Md. “I was saddened that the horse did not get the recognition he deserved. He also had won the fourth level and Prix St. Georges championship in years prior.”

•    Marlee O’Neill, riding the Hanoverian gelding Leonardo, earned a score of 62.23 percent to become the junior/young rider Prix St. Georges champion. O’Neill rides with Sharon McCusker, from whom she bought Leonardo.
        The 18-year-old started her freshman year at the University of New Hampshire two weeks before the Region 8 championships.
        O’Neill said that she and Leonardo, who have been together for about a year, have had their “ups and downs.”

The Hanoverian gelding and Sue Jaccoma take three FEI-level titles.

Susan Jaccoma may have gotten drenched while winning her open Intermediaire II class at the Great American/ USDF Region 8 Championships, but that didn’t stop her from turning around and heading right back in the ring again, this time to claim the Grand Prix freestyle title.

The championships were held during the New England Dressage Association Fall Festival and Saugerties CDI at the HITS-On-The-Hudson show grounds, Saugerties, N.Y., Sept. 9-13.

She couldn’t be happier with their progress as she makes the leap to Grand Prix.

Tosha Zubrisky is pleasantly surprised to win in New York.

As she rode up to the awards ceremony at the Great American/USDF Region 8 Dressage Championships, Tosha Zubrisky didn’t know how she’d placed in the Grand Prix.

“When they called me first I was shocked and thrilled,” Zubrisky said. She and Gunter led the victory lap after scoring 60.75 percent at the Saugerties, N.Y., competition, held Sept. 10-14 in conjunction with the New England Dressage Association’s Fall Festival of Dressage.

Coldblow Honeysuckle went from neglect and abandonment to FEI dressage pony.

Coldblow Honeysuckle didn’t receive the best start in life. The pony mare was found abandoned in a cavern below the Thames River in England as a 5-year-old and spent the following year in police custody before finding an adoptive home.

Medals pile up for mountain state competitors in the junior and young rider divisions.

Young riders from the Western United States collected most of the medals in the dressage competition at this year’s CN North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, held July 29-Aug. 3 at the Colorado Horse Park in Parker. Junior riders from the mountain states of Region 5 took the gold medal in junior team competition, while an all-freshman team from California’s Region 7 won the young rider team gold.