It was a beautiful warm sunny day in Pinehurst, NC with a cool light breeze blowing through the trees, helping to keep the dressage competitors and spectators comfortable after the recent heat wave. The dressage show was comprised of a combination of both top FEI riders showing their well-trained horses as well as younger riders and their ponies. Many local trainers also brought young horses to school before their next big show.  Riders came from as far away as The Fork, a stable outside of Charlotte, as well as Raleigh and Apex. 

The high score of the day went to Rebecca Vick on Sarah O'Leary’s young horse Cosmic Confidant, with a score of 71.786 % at training level test 3. The second high scoring pair was Sabine Desper riding Midnight at the Oasis, an Arabian gelding, winning with their third level ride with a score of 67.179%.  Peter Nordlander also won his class riding Salutation, a horse from the Boston area, with a 65.333% score at first level.

 
_{Peter Nordlander}

There was a wonderful group of local young riders including Taylor May and her horse Austin, who won the introductory test B class with a score of 64.286%.  The most advanced horses that showed the highest level tests of the show were Erin Mullen on Zhivago and Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch on Port Authority.  Erin rode two FEI tests including the Junior Team test where she scored a 64.5% and the Junior Individual test scoring a 64%.  We hope we see Erin join some of the other top Eastern young riders soon.  Stephanie rode a CCI ** test winning the class with an event score of -35.000, equivalent to a dressage score of 65%.  Rebecca Blikslager showed her horse Liberty at the Prix St. George level achieving a score of 63.5%.

 
Sabine Desper

The was also a nice opportunity for shopping with the trade fair vendor All About You Equine who set up their tent of equine gifts.  Toby Saskor was the show photographer catching special moments on “film.”  Sean Kelley also filled in a much needed videographer, to put on disk those special rides some of which you can also see on his new web site at Dressage.tv

Antares Dressage would also like to thank the special volunteers that made the show so enjoyable for the competitors and spectators.  If you would like to learn more about dressage and would like to help at an upcoming show, please call Vicki or Sean Kelley and join us at one of the next Antares Dressage shows this fall scheduled in September and October.  See more the full show results at the web site http://www.dressage.to/show

Photos by Sean Kelley