FEI Las Vegas World Cup Final - After the Show

E-Cards from Behind the Scenes and Those Who Were There

Wendy Insinger - horsesdaily reader - I had the privilege of chatting with Joep Bartels, founder of the Dressage World Cup to Music, Sunday night after the performance. He said, "This was the best World Cup in the history of the event." The two reasons he gave for this were the high quality of the rides and the high quality of the audience. He felt especially that Debbie MacDonald's freestyle had helped to bring the sport to a whole new level by providing real aritisitic competition for Anky! He also felt the crowd was very knowledgable and sensitive to the riders - clapping and involved, but ready to back off if the horse became disturbed by the enthusiasm. Both Joep and Gunther Alberding (the man who provided the background music for the regular Grand Prix rides) mentioned that the American crowd was not clouded by nationalism - it gave both Debbie and Gal standing ovations! Joep also said that this World Cup was "better than the Athens Olympics" because the audience was so much closer to the horses and riders. Rumor has it that the World Cup will return to Las Vegas in 2006.

Personally, I loved Edward Gal's kur and thought he should have won. His music was great and the horse was extremely expressive. Only Axel Steiner placed Lingh first. All the other judges had Anky in the number one spot. To me, Steiner was 110% correct and everyone I was with agreed to his placement. We all felt that if Lingh had been last to go, he would have won. A disappointment at this event was that Robert Dover and Sven Rothenberger used old, recycled freestyles that were orignially created for other mounts (Although, Robert's was apparently adjusted somewhat for Kennedy.). Most people I know loved his Olympic kur and had been looking forward to seeing it at the World Cup. It was made specifically for Kennedy by Anky's designers. All in all, this was watershed event for dressage musical freestyle. Great artisitic and technical performances by so many riders has moved our sport light years closer to shining in the global spotlight!