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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Dressage in California - Del Mar National Horse Show Dressage CDI
Kathy Beal for DressageDaily - Photos by Christina Beal

Ravel Commands the Crowd’s Respect in the Grand Prix

Spectators and dressage enthusiasts really could not ask for more quality in a show than what they saw at Del Mar this year. This year’s show featured a number of top Grand Prix that have a good chance of representing the U.S. in the 2008 Olympics. One of those was Ravel, the ride of Steffen Peters and on Sunday afternoon, Peters rode the amazing Ravel in the Open Grand Prix in one of the outside arenas. It was almost a sacred moment as the large group of respectful dressage spectators watched in silence as the pair performed yet again a clean and beautiful test. There was no need for words. Ravel, as with Brentina, is now qualified for the Olympic Selection Trials. Both horses have their two scores, and those scores are in the 70 percent range, placing them in strong positions. Debbie McDonald and Brentina fulfilled their freestyle requirement during Saturday evening’s program. Peters is working on a freestyle for Ravel which he hopes to debut at the Flintridge Riding Club show in May in order to fulfill their freestyle requirement.

When asked if the rigorous qualifying season with several top horses has been tiring, Peters responded, “Definitely not, the season has been great. The difficult hurdles are ahead of us, at the Selection Trials and on after that.” Even if all three of Peters’ Grand Prix horses – Ravel, Prince and Lombardi 11 – qualify for the Selection Trials, a rider can only take two horses. Ravel has won each class with substantial scores, and Lombardi 11 has the most international experience. At this point, these two seem the likely choices.

Results for the Del Mar National Horse Show Dressage CDI
Results for the Del Mar National Dressage Show