Monday, March 6, 2006

Leslie Morse and Tip Top 962 Win FEI Grand Prix Freestyle at the Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI***/CDIY

Leslie Morse of Beverly Hills, California, riding her Tip Top 962 earned a score of 76.175% to claim victory in the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle today at the Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI***/CDIY in Loxahatchee, Florida. The top 15 riders from the 37 that competed in the Grand Prix yesterday qualified to compete in the musical freestyle competition. Canada’s Ashley Holzer aboard her own Imperioso scored 73.900% for second place. Colombia’s Cesar Parra riding Galant Du Serein for Horse Unlimited earned 70.475% for third.

All three of the top-placed horses are stallions and both Holzer and Parra were riding their mounts from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Morse was a member of the 2005 Bronze Medal winning team at the 2005 CDIO in Aachen, Germany, with her stallion Kingston. Tip Top 962 is a 12-year-old black Swedish warmblood stallion that Morse has owned and ridden for three years.

Morse choreographed her own freestyle with a music track created by Karen Robinson. She had practiced it only once before debuting it at the Palm Beach Dressage Derby. Morse noted one of the most technically difficult aspects of the ride she created was the passage half-pass followed directly by a trot half-pass. “Basically I think the reason the trot and passage tour is challenging is because of all the transitions, which Tip Top does so beautifully,” Morse pointed out. “His rhythm is such that he can go from passage to extension to passage to trot. He has an amazing elasticity so I really try to show that off in my choreography.”