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News Articles
Courtney King-Dye Introduces Grandioso to International Competition
At the Wellington Classic Spring Challenge on Februrary 6-8, Courtney King-Dye rode HGF's Grandioso in his first international show and instantly put themselves on the map in the national rankings. The prior weekend, at the ESP Wellington Dressage Open Show, the pair did warm-up classes of Prix St. George and their first Intermediare 1, with scores above 68% in both classes. At the CDI in the Prix St. George, Grandioso's test had a few mistakes and he finished 6th in the class of 17 with a 66.2. He was more confident in the Intermediare 1 and the pair finished 2nd with a 68.2%. On Sunday, Courtney rode Grandioso to a compilation of classic Spanish orchestral pieces in his first Freestyle, and the pair won the class with over 72%, with artistic marks to 80%. Congratulations Courtney and Grandioso! National Intermediare 1 rankings have them for the moment in third place. We look forward now to the Palm Beach Derby, for Courtney and Grandioso as well as HGF's other riders and horses.
Grandioso and Courtney King-Dye Finish Fifth in USEF Dressage Festival of Champions
Nothing but rain for the Festival parade! This year's 2009 Festival of Champions at Gladstone will be remembered for the persistent bad weather and the controversial decision to cancel classes on the final day. The first day's cancellations must have been a bad omen for the weather report the rest of the weekend, and the unseasonably cold and dreary weather never seemed to let up. This, however, didn't dampen the performances of the riders in all of the championship classes, and especially the Intermediare 1 Championship which had strong leaders in the first two places and a very competitive group vying for the next few spots. Unfortunately, with the Freestyle was canceled, Grandioso and Courtney did not have a chance to repeat their strong performance from their first CDI in Wellington when they won the Freestyle with over 72%. Nevertheless, their Prix St. George and Inter 1 tests were impressive and competitive. Courtney drew the first ride of the championship and opened the class with 70.684% at the PSG on Friday. The Inter 1 on Saturday started very strong but troubles in the pirouettes brought the score down slightly to 69.789. The combination of the two scores gave the pair their closely contested ranking of Fifth Place out of 13 for the weekend. All of us at HGF are so proud of both of them for doing so well in the face of the best small tour competition in the country and we congratulate winners Katherine, Jan, and all the other riders on a great show, in spite of somewhat soggy conditions, and the excellent job they all did. It was a privilege to be counted among them!( . . . more photos to come from Gladstone when Mary Phelps returns from Aachen!)
Year End National Rankings and Awards
The PREs of HGF finished the 2009 season with high rankings in both the USDF Horse of the Year Awards as well as the USDF/USPRE All Breeds Awards. USDF Horse of the Year (Open Competition) Grandioso and Idilio finished in the top 20 Nationally at Prix St. George: Grandioso (ridden by Courtney King-Dye) 14th 68.684 Median Score Idilio (ridden by Maria Lithander) 19th 68.421 Median Score Grandioso finished 11th Nationally at Intermediare 1 68.947 Median Score Camaron (ridden by Ana Gilmour) finished the year ranked #38th at Third Level 66.410 Median Score USDF All Breeds Program for USPRE PREs Training Level Adelante (ridden by Maria Lithander) #1 70.435 Median Score Bolero (ridden by Ana Gilmour and Maria Lithander) #2 68.672 Median Score Third Level Camaron #1 Prix St. George Grandioso #1 Idilio #2 Intermediare 1 Grandioso #1 Congratulations to HGF riders Courtney, Maria and Ana for this national recognition.