Dressage
Day, Friday, April 8, 2005
Following
in Morven's footsteps, the Chatsworth CIC-W***, in Georgia, was deluged with rain,
reportedly more than two inches, on Thursday and Thursday night. This was the
same storm, or line of storms, that has played havoc with the Masters Golf Tournament
on it's first two days of play, in Augusta, GA. The normally quiet river one crosses
just before entering the Bouckaert 
property
was in full flood, covering all the sod fields, in a way that long time attendees
at North Georgia never before had seen.
The
organizers announced early Friday morning that Cross Country would be moved back
to Sunday,in order for the course to dry out, and that Show Jumping would be held
on Saturday.
The
CIC-W*** Dressage tests, which were judged by Karen Winn, President of the Ground
Jury, and by David Lee of Ireland, took place in an all weather arena in which
the footing was excellent. The footing for both the Intermediate and the Preliminary
arenas was likewise perfectly acceptable.
Kim
Severson and Linda Wachtmeister's Winsome Adante, the Individual Silver Medalist
and Team Bronze Medal duo from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, lead a field of
some 29 competitors in the CIC-W*** after the Dressage 
Phase,
on a score of 42.5. (Kim and Winsome Adante are pictured at the right above.)
Kim
said of Dan's test, " There's still room for improvement. Some parts
were all right and some were not. The extra flying change was not quite right.
He's still not quite in tune yet." Winsome Adante is headed for the Rolex-Kentucky
CIC****.
Australia's
Phillip Dutton, riding Bruce Duchessois' Hannigan, stands in second place, 2.5
faults adrift of the leaders on a score of 45.0.(Phillip and Hannigan are pictured
at the left above.) This placing was a mistake! Hannigan
was actually fourth on 46.9. It was Mrs. Annie Jones' The Foreman, the recent
winner of the Red Hills CIC-W***, who placed second on a score of 45.0. Apologies
to Mrs. Jone, to Mr. Duchessois, to Phillip Dutton and to our readers.
Darren Chiacchia and Dr. Timothy Holekamp's Windfall are just .3 of a fault behind
the Antipodean. Darren and Windfall were also members of the United States Equestrian
Federation's Bronze Medel Team at Athens. (Darren and Windfall are pictured
at the right below - note the river in the background.).)
Darren
commented on having the Show Jumping ahead of the Cross Country, 
"It's
much better! If you have three rails down in the Show Jumping, you know there
is no point of running them off their feet (on the Cross Country). You know it's
not the weekend to go for it."
Kim
disagreed mildly saying, "It's pressure either way. No matter what, it's
still the same pressure to answer all the questions."
Show
Jumping begins at 11:00 AM on Saturday, with the CIC-W*** competitors jumping
first. Rumor has it that the reason for the late start on Saturday is to give
everyone a chance to watch the wedding of Great Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla
Parker-Bowles, both of whom fox hunt with the Duke of Beaufort's. Others said
this was nonsense! - the late start is to give the show jumping arena time to
dry out. Your reporter prefers the more romantic approach.
*
* * * *
Karen
O'Connor, with Mr. Ripley, leads the Open Intermediate Section after the Dressage
Phase, which was judged by Jack leGoff, with a score of 26.3. Belgium's Carl Bouckaert,
the host at the Chatsworth CIC-W***, stands second riding The Boomer. Carl's daughter,
Nathalie Bouckaert-Pollard is in third position on Icarus, whose score is 28.3.
