Alberta Equine ...On-Line News: Arlene Page and Wild One Win USEF Grand Prix Special, High Performance Qualifier at Wellington Dressage at the Winter Equestrian Festival

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Arlene Page and Wild One Win USEF Grand Prix Special, High Performance Qualifier at Wellington Dressage at the Winter Equestrian Festival

February 5, 2006

Arlene Page and Wild One Photo Credit: SueStickle.com

Wellington, FL --- Wellington Dressage (February 2-5), the first of three dressage shows at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, wrapped up today on a sunny Sunday under clear blue skies. It was a change from yesterday’s bad weather to good, and a dramatic difference in performance as well for Arlene ‘Tuny’ Page and Wild One, who finished a disappointing 10th in Friday’s USEF Grand Prix, but came on brilliantly today to top a class of seven contenders in the USEF Grand Prix Special, a High Performance qualifying class for the 2006 World Equestrian Games Selection Trials and the 2006 USEF National Grand Prix Championship. Page and Wild One, who are the reigning Reserve National Grand Prix Champions, claimed victory with a score of 68.800%. Charlotte Bredahl Baker, a member of the 1992 Barcelona Bronze Medal Olympic Team, aboard Komo earned second place with 68.733%. Pierre St. Jacques and Lucky Tiger, a duo that competed on the 2003 Pan American Gold Medal Team, was third with a score of 65.133%.

“I warmed him up smarter and it felt like I rode him in the ring a little bit more intelligently for him at this stage of the game,” said Page, explaining the difference between her performance in the Special on Friday, which earned 63.194%, and today’s jump to 68.80%. “He is a horse that needs to feel very, very confident within himself and confident on his four feet. He is so highly reactive in this situation. He has to be willing to relax and stretch down into the reins in a heartbeat, because if something happens outside the arena, he can be distracted.” She noted that her 10-year-old, 17.2-hand Hanoverian gelding looked at something outside the ring on Friday, “and then I couldn’t quite get him back.” To prepare for Sunday, Page used a strategy she knows works with Wild One. “I went out Saturday morning and very calmly asked him to piaffe deep or walk deep – just relax so that I knew that today if there were 25 blenders whirring or whatever, that he was instantly familiar with it. Today we had to go a little low because that’s what makes him calm. Our boy’s got a lot of fire.”

Page also stated that she’d met the goals she’d set for this show: to ride her hot horse a little more open and a little more freely. “He knows what to do and it’s time for the judges and spectators to see what’s extraordinary about this horse,” she said. “He is extraordinary in every movement. He has good piaffe/passage, good canter work, good pirouettes, good flying changes, good half passes – everything is good. But you have to go to the ring and show that. That was very much my goal for this show. My horse is very sensitive. He panicked for a moment two days ago, but today he just settled in and did the work. What I want from my horse is that every time he goes to the ring he feels safe and he feels confident.”

Page and Wild One have accumulated the scores to qualify to compete in the USEF National Grand Prix Freestyle Championship/U.S. League Final, which will be held March 17-18 in Wellington and will determine the rider who will represent the U.S. at the World Cup Final in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in April. She and the talented gelding also have the scores to qualify to compete in the USEF National Grand Prix Championships and World Equestrian Games (WEG) Selection Trials, which will be held at the Festival of Champions at Gladstone, June 15-18. The WEG will be held August 20 to September 3 in Aachen, Germany. Though it would mean two roundtrips to Europe to compete in both, Page is aiming Wild One for both the World Cup and the WEG.

“I am 49, and time and pride are waiting for me to get a little American flag on my jacket,” Page said. “There comes a time when you have to take your opportunities when they knock. My horse is coming 10, and maybe there are times in horses’ lives when you say, ‘You’ve got to take the ball this year because you’re the young healthy quarterback’.” Page, who lives in Wellington, trains with Lars Petersen and Klaus Balkenhol, the U.S. Chef d’Equipe for dressage, and said that both trainers had advised her to wait until she is selected to both competitions before making any decisions on which one or both she would compete in. “I would defer to Klaus’s decision,” Page said.

Barely edged into second place, Charlotte Bredahl Baker of California said of her finish in the Special today, “I couldn’t be happier with the horse. I was absolutely thrilled.” Baker is also aiming to compete in the World Cup Final and the World Equestrian Games. She plans to remain in Florida, compete in the upcoming CDIs, and qualify to compete in the USEF National Grand Prix Freestyle Championship/U.S. League Final, which could give her the U.S. slot for the World Cup. She’ll return to California after the Florida winter circuit, but intends to be back on the east coast in June to compete at Gladstone for a trip to the WEG.

Bredahl has had the ride on the 14-year-old Dutch gelding owned by Kathy Pavlich of Solvang, California, since July, taking over the reins from the horse’s long-time partner Carol Plough, who passed away. “I’ve been friends with both Carol and Kathy for at least 12 years, so when Carol passed away, the owner decided to send the horse to me,” Bredahl explained. “He’s just an awesome horse. I just love him.”

Bredahl and the 17-hand chestnut received 8s on their passage and a 9 on their piaffe in the USEF Grand Prix on Friday, taking third place with 68.056%. The score today in the Special was slightly higher at 68.733%. “Today I felt like he was so on. He felt great. It really felt like we had a good ride. I could not have been any happier,” beamed Bredahl. “In the Grand Prix I felt like in the canter work he got a little behind my leg, a little curled up and he didn’t feel as good. Today he felt really, really good. He felt super good today.”

Concluding the High Performance qualifying competitions today, Bent Jensen riding Liberty Light was the sole competitor in the USEF Intermediaire Freestyle, scoring an impressive 69.542% for the win. The class is a High Performance qualifier for the USEF National Intermediaire Championships to be held in June at Gladstone. George Williams also went solo, taking the win in the USEF Grand Prix Freestyle aboard Marnix with a dazzling freestyle that earned 72.083%.

Officiating over the USEF Grand Prix Special were ‘I’ (International) judges Marianne Ludwig at H, Joan MaCartney at C, and Lois Yukins at B.

In open competition, Canada’s Ashley Holzer continued her winning streak, claiming victory in the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle aboard Gambol with a score of 75.083%. Brazil’s Pia Aragao riding Nirvana Interagro won the FEI Intermediaire Freestyle with 69.917%.

At the end of the show, Wellington Dressage High Score awards were presented to riders from First through Fourth Level as follows:

First Level Champion, Allison Brock and Peajay, 72.22%

First Level Reserve, Kelley Corrigan and Robinson, 70.741%

Second Level Champion, Krystal Ann Shingler and Tividor, 68.289%

Second Level Reserve, Joan Pecora and Talent, 65.132%

Third Level Champion, Lars Petersen and Chicco, 68.333%

Third Level Reserve, Lynn Leath and d’Artagnan, 67.917%

Fourth Level Champion, Lynn Leath and d’Artagnan, 73.488%

Fourth Level Reserve, Bill Warren and Romantic, 69.348%

For complete Wellington Dressage show results, visit www.stadiumjumping.com

Stadium Jumping, Inc., producer of the Winter Equestrian Festival, continues dressage at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club with these upcoming competitions:

• Zada Enterprises, L.L.C. Florida Dressage Classic - February 16-19.

• Zada Enterprises, L.L.C. WEF Dressage Classic, CDI 3*/Y - March 16-19.

• USEF National Grand Prix Freestyle Championship / U.S. League Final CDI-W, the Official Selection for the 2006 FEI World Cup Dressage Final, March 17-18.

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