Adult Amateur (AA) Rebecca Lord and the 14-year-old Hanoverian Demetrius, by De Niro, were the penultimate combination down the center line in the Intermediate II AA Championship at the 10th anniversary edition of the US Dressage Finals, and their 67.304% proved unbeatable.

Photo – Adult Amateur Rebecca Lord and the 14-year-old Hanoverian Demetrius won the Intermediate II AA Championship. (SusanJStickle.com)

This win caps an extraordinary journey to the upper echelons of dressage sport for the now 58-year-old rider. Lord had a 31-year break from riding, but at age 49 felt compelled to take it up again and take an extended sabbatical from her career training as a medical intuitive.

Elated

“I’m elated,” said Lord, who also finished fourth on Don Amigo. “I work so hard to bring all the learning and knowledge and awareness together and help horses do fantastic job because they’re all capable of being fantastic. Today was a reflection of the road of progress that ‘Demi’ and I are on.”

The only blip in the test came from a miscommunication in the trot work, when the horse popped into canter.

“I didn’t support him enough in the passage, and I came in a little hot. It is exciting in there, and I was nervous,” admitted Lord, who takes Rescue Remedy to help keep her nerves in check.

On purchasing Demetrius in 2020, Lord said, “I meditate, and I had finished one day and I asked the universe to help me find my completion horse — one that would bring together all this work I’d done with my trainers Franziska [Seidl] and Alex [Robertson] with the five or six horses I already had. I looked on Facebook at horses for sale, which I never do, and a dear friend had posted this amazing looking horse.

Unique Quality

“If I hadn’t had all the other horses, I could never have had Demi as they have prepared me for him,” she continued. “His unique quality is the availability of his talent. There are plenty of beautiful horses, but it can be hard to get to the talent, and Demi gives it to you on a silver platter.”

Lord’s farm in Ocala, FL, is named Soul Passion Farm as that is how she feels horses have impacted her.

“I’m a quintuple A-type person and you have to be patient [with horses], so the learning curve has been Mount Everest,” added Lord, who gets up at 5 a.m. daily. “I’m not an Olympic rider, but now to reach some level of excellence, you have to be all in.”

She has four horses at the 2023 Finals.

Competition resumes on Friday, November 10, with nine championship titles up for grabs from Training Level to Grand Prix. Follow the action via the USDF Facebook page and the US Dressage Finals website, plus live online streaming on the USEF Network. To learn more about the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, view results and start lists, and read daily news releases, visit the official US Dressage Finals event website.