Friday, October 27, 2006

Washington International Horse Show Invitational Dressage Championship

Laura Noyes and Syncro Get ready for FEI Young Riders World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany Riding a Demonstration of Their Musical Freestyle

As an added highlight, while the scores were tallied before the ribbon presentation in the dressage competition, Laura Noyes, 19, of Falmouth, Maine, rode a musical freestyle aboard her 12-year-old Trahkener gelding Syncro. Noyes and Syncro will represent the United States in December at the FEI Young Riders World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany, and the opportunity to ride her freestyle indoors was great experience as well as entertainment for the crowd. Noyes is a student at Ohio Wesleyan University and trains with George Williams in Ohio.

Following the ribbon presentation, while King and Holzer fielded questions from the news media, Williams, Dansby-Phelps, and Noyes participated in an autograph session, which lasted 90 minutes as they accommodated the line-up of fans.

Tonight’s Grand Prix winner King summed up the evening by noting that she’d like to see more competitions like the $25,000 WIHS Invitational Dressage Championship. "Everybody benefits. It’s great experience for the rider. It’s great exposure for the sponsors," King explained. "It’s great education for the dressage world to be able to see, not a class of 15 horses, but a very small dose of strong good dressage. We could use more of it."