2023 Spring Benefit CDI and Dressage Show
By: Kim Miller with photo by Terri Miller
Sunday, May 7, Temecula, California. Anna Buffini and Frh Davinia La Douce came to Temecula to find out what edges of excellence can be pushed after their top 10 finish in the FEI World Cup Finals in Omaha. In the Grand Prix Special today, their winning 70.872% established some new highs in their trot work — “probably the best we’ve ever done” — and some new training tasks to maximize their canter work.
“We are really experimenting here and some things paid off and some things didn’t,” said Anna. “I love it because now I know how much to push and I have things to take home and train and know what to ask for in the next text.” Scoring over 70 today, following their 72.609% in Friday’s CDI3* Grand Prix, gave Anna what she thinks may be her first GP win on her California home turf.
“I think that having a positive impact on people is just as important as getting a CDI win,” she shared. “I’ve been working at this since I was 11 and I’m so glad that the message I’m putting out there about hard work and being a genuinely kind, caring person is inspiring so many.” Summer plans are up in the air, with hopes to be tagged for a Nations Cup or Pan American Games team. Meantime, they’ll keep fine-tuning their performance from their San Diego base and working with coach Guenter Seidel.
Amelia Newcomb and Harvard, an 11-year-old KWPN by Charmeur, were 2nd on a 66.404%, followed by Daniela Groenke and Bardolina, a 12-year-old Oldenburg by Bordeaux, on a 64.979%. The Grand Prix Special was sponsored by Bailiwick House and judged by Stephen Clarke, Sarah Geikie, Maria Schwennesen, Jane Weatherwax and Brenda Minor Steffen Peters and El Torro B reinforced themselves as the pair to watch as they aced the CDI1* FEI Intermediaire I. This new duo was great yesterday when they won the CDI1* Prix St. Georges and they were simply spectacular today. They locked up the Small Tour victory with a 76.618% in this class sponsored by Louise Leatherdale.
Next Gen Stars
Josephine Hinnemann and Ellanor Boehning might be rivals if they weren’t such good friends. Ellanor and Sir Junior, 12-year-old Hanoverian by Sir Stauffenbuerg, won the CDI FEI Young Rider Team Test on Friday, and “JoJo” and Copa Cabana MRF, a 14-year-old Hanoverian by Contucci, won Saturday’s Individual Test and today’s Freestyle. In every case, they were close in their scores and united in projecting a strong core of talented young riders developing on the West Coast.
Both up and comers have the advantage of top coaching from California’s rich reserve of professionals. JoJo works with her mom, Natalie Hinnemann-Hamilton, her grandfather Johan Hinnemann and David Wightman and Kathleen Raine.
Ellanor has been working with Steffen Peters for the last few months, an experience the multi-Olympian seems to appreciate as much as Ellanor does. “I think for any rider at the Olympic level, it needs to be an obligation to help bring along the next generation,” Steffen commented. “When I see a beautiful test ridden by a young rider, it means as much to me as if Mopsie (Suppenkasper) and I won a class.
Markel Insurance Young Horse Finals
When the Young Riders closed out the CDI, the spotlight moved to the 5, 6 and 7-year-old Young Horse Finals, presented by Markel Insurance. USEF/US Dressage Young Horse coach Christine Traurig and DG Bar Ranch’s Willy Arts were among the luminaries gathered to ride, coach or just eyeball spectacular horses likely to fill the CDI pipeline in coming years.
David Blake and Rebecca Rigdon’s strong track record for young horse development added more accolades. David rode G.Q. and Lion Heart to the Markel Insurance 6-Year-Old and 7-Year-Old Championship, respectively, while Rebecca was 2nd in the 6-Year-Olds with MSJ for VIPS and 3rd in the 7-Year-Olds with Lionell VE.
G.Q.’s 83.800% from judges Anne Cizaldo and Sarah Geikie continued a steady ascent for the Danish Warmblood by Grand Galaxy Win. “Working through the training scale has been very smooth with him,” said David, even though they’ve only been together since G.Q. was imported last November. “He has a really willing attitude. He tries and tries, he has an amazing attitude and he has the looks, too!” The judges appreciated all three of his gaits, noting the great articulation in each and scope to spare.
Rebecca Rigdon was right behind her husband David in the Markel Insurance 6-Year-Old Final. She and MSJ for VIPS, an Oldenburg by Foundation, scored an 83.200%. Young horse master Willy Arts of DG Bar Ranch rode the Rock Forever mare Makanabria DG to a 3rd-ranking 81.000%.
David Blake’s winning partner in the FEI 7-Year-Old Finals, Lion Heart, is a half-brother to G.Q., through their sire Grand Galaxy Win. They share similar personalities and mannerisms in the barn, but under saddle seem dramatically unrelated, David shared. “Lion Heart” is much more sensitive, delicate horse, so I have to be much more sensitive and delicate in my riding. He’s one of those horses that was coming along, then all of a sudden, he just got it — he was an FEI horse.”
He credits coaching from Christine Traurig with helping achieve the level of sensitivity required from the saddle, especially in their pirouette work. “At a recent young horse clinic Laura Roberts put on for us, Christine told me to make sure he’s bending from behind, not just collecting and turn. So, that’s what I’m hearing in the ring during the pirouettes — Christine’s voice saying ‘haunch” Their 81.000% from Anne Cizaldo topped a strong field in the FEI 7-Year-Old finals. Tokyo Team silver medalist Sabine Schut-Kery and Gorgeous Latino were the Markel Insurance 6-Year-Old Finals at the Spring Benefit last year and won Saturday’s Preliminary class for the 7-Year-Old Finals. They were a close 2nd on a 79.80% for the Dutch Warmblood stallion sired by Glocks Toto Jr. Rebecca Rigdon and Lionell VE were not far off for 3rd on a 79.400% for the Dutch Warmblood by Negro.
In the Markel 5-Year-Old Final, For Edition, ridden by Alyssa Doverspike-Burkett, emerged the winner on an 80.600% from Anne Cizaldo and Sarah Geikie. The Westphalian youngers is by For Gold. Stephen Birchall and Nero were 2nd on a 75.600%, and Jackie Ahl-Eckhaus and News Man MVS were third on a 74.200%. Nero is a KWPN chestnut gelding by Desperado, and News Man MVS is a bay Dutch Warmblood, also by Desperado.
In the USEF 4-Year-Old Young Horse class, Oxford B took top honors with a 79.00% from Sarah Geikie. The KWPN is sired by Romanov and owned and ridden by amateur Anne Buchanan. Alyssa Doverspike Burkett and Furst Adventure were 2nd on a 74.800%
Development Opportunities
David Blake and Rebecca Rigdon have been happy DASC Spring Benefit participants since the show debuted in 2021. David noted. Not so long ago, the West Coast competition calendar was so spotty that it was often impossible to target national and international ambitions without substantial travel. “Rebecca and I made a commitment to attend every show in California,” David said. “We want to support them so we can keep them and, every time our horses show, they get better. It’s wonderful having enough shows so that we can wait one out if a young horse needs that, or compete in all of them and have a drop score to use.”
Top Caliber Everything
“I’m so proud to be able to offer an event of this quality for our West Coast riders,” reflected Regina Antonioli of Equestrian Concepts and the organizer of the DASC Spring Benefit. “The caliber of horses and riders is so outstanding.” The Dressage Association of Southern California is a non-profit entity. The Spring Benefit raises funds to support the region’s riders with travel grants for national and international competitions and for an emergency fund. Travel grant applicants must be members of DASC and the Emergency Funds are available to all. Recent grant recipients include USDF Region 7 Young Riders team and Ride On Therapeutic Horsemanship, a Center of Excellence in the US Para Dressage program.
