Palm Trees and Ocean Air

Wow sorry, been a little neglectful with the blog!

I've decided I want to move to Florida!  I know what you're thinking, "yeah, yeah, you and everyone else girl", but let's think about this for a minute...

1) Gorgeous weather 90% of the time, who wouldn't love that right? AND
2) Dressage HEAVEN!  Some of the best horse shows, clincs, etc., in the world are held in Florida.

For example, this week (starting January 26th) begins the 2012 World Dressage Masters, yet another 2012 World Cup and Olympic Qualifier and North America's only World Dressage Masters CDI5*.  I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to have the chance to go to something like that since Missouri isn't exactly known for dressage shows what so ever.  Let's face it, I live in the world of cowboys and rodeos... no Grand Prix or World Qualifiers in my future if I stay around here.

At the WDM, Totilas is expecting to be showing with his current rider, Matthias Alexander Rath, after their spectacular showing in Aachens in July and the German team silver medal at the European Championships, I'm sure this duo will be a highly anticipated attraction to all those in attendance.  I love Totilas, he is an amazing athlete, but with Steffen Peters competing on Ravel again to defend his 2011 championship and score of 80.87% in the Grand Prix, and the 2011 European Dressage Championship gold medal winning team from Great Britain (Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester, I feel like this championship is going to be a bit of a thriller for those fans of Totilas during his only public appearance while in North America.  Personally, I'm hoping Steffen and Ravel can repeat their amazing performance from last year.  This pair also won the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle at the 2010 WDM in Palm Beach.

I couldn't find a video of the actual CDI5* Grand Prix test from 2011 of Steffen and Ravel but I did find their CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle which won them a score of 84.53% and the Grand Prix Freestyle division as well.