Monday, April 3, 2006

Diamante Farms Has Big Weekend Dressage at Equestrian Estates

You know you have an accommodating show management when due to the change in daylight savings time Saturday night, they decide to begin classes Sunday at 9 AM, instead of 8. No one minded signing off on their times in order to adjust to the “spring ahead” of one hour on the clock. There was no sign of the Dressage in Florida winter show season winding down with large entries and some big scores at Walter and Mary Anne McPhail’s Horse Park at Equestrian Estates, in Loxahatchee, Florida.

Michelle Gibson and Lex Barker dominated the Prix St Georges/Intermediaire division winning both classes with a 72.417% and 71.583%. Riding for Scott Zahner and Michael Denneny of Elite European Sport Horse Inc, the 37-year-old Olympian piloted the 17.2 hand chestnut Hanoverian by Longchamp out of a Werther mare, to a two time victory.

Gibson who has her training operation at the Kane’s Diamante Farms in Wellington, coached student Young Rider, Devon Kane competing in her first show of the season, packing a one-two punch win at Fourth Level 2 with her own Douwe, and her newer mount Welthyn.

And in the FEI Six-Year-Old Class for Young Horses, Diamante Farms’ young Oldenburg stallion Don Angelo topped the field with an impressive 76.8% earning him a strong qualifying score for the East Coast Selection Trials in Raleigh later this spring.

More coverage to come from Dressage at Equestrian Estates

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