2002 Wellington Dressage

Susan Dutta Dominates Wellington Dressage Freestyles - Page 3

Though Dutta had a head start on her kur with 'Fergie', the Grand Prix freestyle on Gumshoes was brand new. "I ran through it at 8 o'clock this morning for the first time," said Dutta, whose ride time was 2:40 in the afternoon. "That kur come off the press at 2:30 yesterday afternoon. We listened to it all night. Marlene drove all night to get me the final copy. She met me here at the ring at 7:45 this morning and we ran through it."

"There had been quite a bit of preparation in advance," said Whitaker, who has designed Dutta's kurs for four years. "Susie and I have worked together so long that she knew what she wanted for the choreography and that was established in advance."

"I had practiced the moves, I just didn't know the music," added Dutta, then admitted that in the ring, it did not go as planned. "That was not my total choreography. The third line of one-tempis and the second line of twos were not there. I put those in because I kept missing the ones. I just kept missing them and kept missing them and finally I said, 'okay, I give up, no ones today."

But now Dutta has a back-up plan, Whitaker pointed out. "Every good ride needs a back up plan if something goes wrong. She established hers right off the bat."