World Dressage Masters

They did it again!  81.383% in the Grand Prix and 83.700% in the Grand Prix Freestyle puts Steffen Peters and Ravel at the top of the 2012 World Dressage Masters in Palm Beach, FL!  I'm so glad they did it again, they are such an amazing team!  I found both videos from the Grand Prix (video 1) and Grand Prix Freestyle (video 2) should you like to watch their amazing tests :-)  Congratulations to Steffen and Ravel on another victory for the United States.

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.

Random Thought

So I was reading one of my Dressage Today magazines earlier today and there was an article about the men in dressage.  The article is Wanted: More Men in Dressage if you're curious.

I was then thinking about all the dressage shows, or any english shows I've been to for that matter, and I think I only remember competing with one guy and he was in the junior division.   I live in the midwest, a world of rodeo, roping and western riding.  Every guy I know who rides either ropes, rodeos, or just trail rides for fun.  I don't know any who actually ride english.  Here they even make fun of the men they do see competing in english events saying it's for "sissys" or it's a "wimpy" sport... little do they know!  I'm just making an assumption but I would venture to say in other countries there are many man who compete in english events.

Anyway, it's as though you go for years in lower level dressage competitions rarely seeing men at all and then one day you get to an upper level, national or international events and suddenly  they are dominating the competition (Steffen Peters, Guenter Seidel, John Williams, etc.)!  Now granted I understand some of these men do compete in eventing but still, a lot of them are still clearing out those "blue ribbons" in dressage.

What I wanna know, does the same apply to other parts of the country?  Are your dressage or english riding competitions dominated by women or do you compete equally against both genders?