Report by Katy Barglow
I went up to CDS Champs this year to show two of my horses, my 15 year old Lusitano gelding Escoteiro Interagro (Scout) at Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle, and my palomino 4 year old Westfalen gelding (German riding pony/warmblood cross) Dior IPH in the 4 year old futurity (training level and materiale). I have to say that Training level test three feels really short compared to the Grand Prix test, but I get a great kick of out showing my babies, especially those like Dior that I have had since foals or yearlings and who grew up at my house.
It was my first show with Dior, and he’s still growing into himself at four so I didn’t have big expectations heading in. We did a warm up Tr-3 test on Thur (I figured I’d better get him in the ring at least once before the championship classes). He was foot perfect (while he’s physically immature, this kiddo has the best brain), finishing tied for 3rd with a score around 69%. In the futurity we finished in the top 10 of a very competitive class scoring 68% in the test and 72.7% in the materiale. I was very pleased with the little guy and also had far too much fun dressing him up– we had a different outfit for each class, rocking a Barbie-pink coat for the warm up class, then a fabulous purple coat and pad for the futurity test. (For the materiale class I went blue, figuring his palomino coat would make us stand out plenty already…). Living the childhood dream dressing up my palomino Barbie pony! (Ok, he’s around 15.2 hands, but the idea stands).
Scout and I finished 3rd in all three of our classes, two Grand Prix Freestyles and one Grand Prix. The first day I didn’t plan my warmup right and we had a bit of a lackluster test with some mistakes, but we made up for it on day two and three. The CDS Grand Prix Freestyle class was held Sat night, as the entertainment for the wonderful catered dinner. My husband and son came up to watch me, and my barn (Wyvern Farm) had a table, but it really felt like not just my group but the whole crowd was rooting for us. We ride to music from the Broadway musical “Annie” and it tends to be a crowd pleaser since everyone sings along to “the sun will come out, tomorrow…” The audience whooped and cheered our double pirouettes and tempi changes, and clapped so hard during our final one-handed centerline in passage that it scares Scout and turned into an extended canter instead (should have kept both hands on the reins, Katy!). I’ve rarely had so much fun riding in a show (had a huge smile on my face throughout, which got bigger every time they cheered) and I am so glad CDS has resurrected the evening GP freestyle tradition. (I last rode in an evening one at CDS champs in 2005, several grand prix horses ago, and that was one of the last until this year). We finished 3rd, just a nose out of second, with a 67.4%. My typically unflappable Scout was rather spicy with all the clapping, so we did the honor round in piaffe (very nice quality piaffe I might add, though too much advancing 
), which both me and the audience found pretty entertaining.
Sunday morning (less than 12 hours after untacking from the Sat night freestyle) we went back in the ring for the Grand Prix. Alas, the brilliance of our piaffe from the prior night didn’t quite carry over, but it still scored some 7s, and I was quite happy with the passage, zig zag, and pirouettes. This was the biggest GP class of the weekend with over 10 riders, and I was quite happy to finish 3rd (though FEI 5 star judge Mike Osinki at C had us first, which would have been even better!). Scout’s placings earned us invitations to the USDF Dressage Finals at both Grand Prix and the freestyle, and while we are not going, it’s fun to be asked!
With only two horses of my own and one student riding, it was a fairly relaxed show. We and the Wyvern crew had a blast shopping, watching the other rides, eating too much Mexican food and too many margaritas, drinking coffee and wine in the barn, walking and grazing and snuggling and endlessly bathing our horses (with a white and a light palomino I spent a lot of time in the wash rack!) and driving everywhere a bit too fast in our rented golf cart with multiple people and our fabulous barn dog. It was a show to remember and I am so grateful to CDS East Bay Chapter for the grant money. I had really been on the fence about entering, and it was the receipt of this grant that pushed me to go ahead and send my entries in – and what I would have missed if I hadn’t gone!