DressageDaily: Laura Noyes Wins Devon Young Riders Kur and A Trip to Germany!

Tuesday October 3, 2006

Laura Noyes Wins Devon Young Riders Kur and A Trip to Germany!

American Region 8 Young Rider Laura Noyes was unaware that by having the ride of a life-time at 2006 Dressage at Devon, she would also win a trip to Germany to the FEI Young Riders World Cup Finals in Frankfurt, Germany.

Behind the scenes at Dressage at Devon, USEF High Performance Manager Gil Merrick was keeping track of the young riders scores day by day and calculated that it was a neck-to-neck race between Jennifer Sirrine and Laura Noyes.

Coming into Devon, Laura Noyes' average was 66.800% while Jennifer Sirrine led with an average of 68.184%. The rule to compete at the FEI Young Riders World Cup Finals says that the American rider with the highest average based on their best two Young Rider Freestyle scores is eligible to go to Frankfurt. Because Noyes won the YR freestyle with 70.300%, she pushed her average score to 69.05% and earned her the ticket to Frankfurt. Sirrine placed third with 69.250% and her average became 68.725%

Initially Caroline Roffmann was in the lead to go to Frankfurt with her horse Bulgari, but she had to withdraw from competing at the CDI-Y Devon -- the final qualifier for Frankfurt -- because her horse was not fit. The ticket was then up for grabs between either Noyes or Sirrine, but both girls were totally unaware of that until after the Freestyle class in order to keep the pressure off their shoulders. Noyes' fantastically controlled freestyle ride made her the winner of the class. Especially the steady and light contact with the horse's mouth was exemplary.

The 19-year old Laura Noyes of Falmouth, Maine, rides her own Trakehner bred Syncro, who is by Enrico Caruso out of the ATA recognized exceptional mare Sonset (Habicht x Magnet x Marsuk ox).

Noyes Noyes' Syncro didn't do Prix St Georges in January 2006 but made rapid progress with trainer Roberta and George Williams on the sideline. At the beginning of the 2006 show season Noyes was student at the University of Findlay and would regularly haul down her horse to George Williams' Gypsy Woods Farm in Richwood, Ohio, for training. In the winter, the combination then traveled to Florida where they were successful and made it on the Region 8 Young Riders team. In the spring, Noyes transferred to the Ohio Wesleyan university to be closer to Williams and continue training her horse. Noyes is the third Ohio Wesleyan student to ride at a high level of dressage. Joanne Chmiel, who was a NAYRC Bronze medal winner, went there and American Junior Rider Champion Noel Williams is now attending. Tthe administration and faculty are very excited and are working out a way to allow Noyes to continue her studies and go to Frankfurt. Laura was a straight A student last year and is majoring in micro biology.

Thanks to her fantastic performances at 2006 Dressage at Devon, Laura has now qualified to compete at the 2006 FEI Young Rider World Cup Finals at the CDI Frankfurt in Germany, in December 2006. She will meet up with young riders from Australia, Canada, and Europe to challenge in this "mini version" of a World Young Rider Championship.