2006 Dressage at Devon

Amanda Bailey and Faulkner Win USEF 4-year old Test

September 29, 2006

Amanda Bailey and her beautiful Hanoverian gelding Faulkner won the first class of 2006 Dressage at Devon, the USEF 4-year old test. Scoring 84.40 points for a very harmonious ride, Bailey topped the leader board and beat the 2006 National 4-year old young horse champion BW-Callista.

Judges MacDonald and Froemming were very pleased to see outstanding submission in their ride and scored it 9.0. The judges' duo especially liked the canter work. "It has great uphill tendency and spring," MacDonald said. With an 8.8 for canter and 8.6 for overall impression, Bailey and Faulkner won the class. Tami Glover and BW-Callista placed second with 83.200. The judges praised BW-Callista's light footed, elastic and well balanced trot.

For Amanda Bailey Dressage at Devon is a very special show that has been the key to her most recent successes as a dressage rider. At was at Devon that Bailey first saw her current trainer Tami Crawford ride and she was in awe by Crawford's riding skills. When she found out that Crawford was based only five hours from her home in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Bailey decided to get acquainted. It was the start of a very fruitful training partnership that eventually led Bailey to place third at the 2006 USEF/Markel National Young Horse Championships in Lexington, KY, earlier this month.

Though Bailey had scheduled to compete at Dressage at Devon, she was put on the wait list due to "overbooking" of the event. Fortunately a few withdrawals gave Bailey the opportunity to make the 20-hour drive from Arkansas to Pennsylvania. Initially, Amanda came to Devon to ride in the Materiale classes with Faulkner, but on this special Devon occasion she entered the performance division as well.

On Wednesday, the combination placed sixth in the 4 and 5-year old Stallion & Gelding Materiale, which was part of the breed division, but they really rose to occasion in the performance division on Thursday in the USEF 4-year old Test. Bailey's Faulkner is a Hanoverian gelding by Friendship. She bought him from Irene Hoeflich-Wiederhold after having seen four short video clips on Hoeflich's website. It is striking to note thatwith Faulkner Hoeflich not only "produced" a winner in the young horse test, but she also presented her own bred Hanoverian Selten HW (by Sandro Hit) to win the Reserve Grand Champion's title at Devon. That is Double Devon Success for them.

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