Friday, October 27, 2006

Washington International Horse Show Invitational Dressage Championship

Courtney King and Idocus Win Grand Prix

Washington, D.C. – October 26, 2006 – Courtney King of New Milford, Connecticut, riding Idocus, a 16-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Christine McCarthy, won the Grand Prix tonight at the Washington International Horse Show (WIHS). The evening class, comprised of four contenders at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., is the first of two phases in the $25,000 WIHS Invitational Dressage Championship. Tomorrow night, the four competitors will return to contest the Grand Prix Musical Freestyle. Each class counts for 50% of the total score for the championship title, which will be awarded tomorrow night, with the winner receiving $10,000.

Officiating tonight were two international ("I") judges. Gary Rockwell of Wellington, Florida, judged at E and Peruvian Marian Cunningham of Middleburg, Virginia, presided at C. Rockwell awarded King and Idocus 68.750% and Cunningham marked the duo at 68.958% for the winning total score of 68.854%.

King was thrilled with her win. "It’s like waking up on Christmas morning and finding your present and then going back upstairs and finding another present!" King beamed.

King, 28, and Idocus last competed in an indoor arena five years ago at the Zwolle International Stallion Show in Germany. She was very pleased with her partner’s reaction to the close confines of the warm-up and the excitement of the atmosphere tonight, which included ladies sidesaddle, Western barrel racing, and terrier races. "He’s such a cool horse. He is so cool in the brain," King enthused. "He was looking around a little bit, but he’s just cool as a cucumber. He’ll get tighter in his body, which might affect a little bit of the quality of his gaits, but he’s really dependable. With him being a stallion and all these horses so close, he was so cool. He’s just a gem." In tonight’s performance, King said that she was most pleased with Idocus’s exuberant one-tempi changes.