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Endel Ots and King’s Pleasure Takes First Step in the Markel/USEF Young Horse Seven-Year-Old Dressage National Championship
Saturday, August 27, 2022
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MARKEL/USEF NATIONAL YOUNG AND DEVELOPING HORSE CHAMPIONSHIPS | US DRESSAGE FESTIVAL OF CHAMPIONS
Fifteen combinations rode the first of two tests in the Markel/USEF Young Horse Seven-Year-Old Dressage National Championship. Endel Ots and King’s Pleasure won the FEI Seven-Year-Old Preliminary Test in a first step toward winning the inaugural championship. Ots (Wellington, Fla.) and Heidi Humphries’s 2015 KWPN stallion earned a score of 7.85.
Photo - Endel Ots and King's Pleasure (SusanJStickle.com)
“It was really good. I gave more gas in that ring than in the warmup, just saving it a little bit and then I really wanted to go for it and show everybody how great a mover he is,” said Ots. “He is such an honest, really with you horse. Being a stallion, he is a puppy dog. You can have a five-year-old lead him, but then he fights for you in the ring in a really nice way.”
Amanda Perkowski (Wellington, Fla.) and Sonata MF, Next Level Performance Center Inc.’s 2015 Hanoverian mare, were second with a score of 7.58. Olivia LaGoy-Weltz (Haymarket, Va.) and Fade to Black, Mary Anne McPhail’s 2015 Hanoverian mare, finished third with a score of 7.51.
Results
The Markel/USEF Young Horse Seven-Year-Old Dressage National Championship concludes Sunday with the FEI Seven-Year-Old Final Test.
From the Mixed Zone:
How long have you been riding this horse?
Ots: “I have had him for a year. The owner is Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite Equestrian, which I ride for. She had purchased him as a five, coming six-year-old, and she is such a wonderful owner because she wanted me to do the six-year-old [division] last year. I really wanted to, but I said, ‘You know, it is just not really ready yet. If you could just trust me and just give it a little bit of time. I really think seven-year-olds will be a good plan for him.’ She has been a dream. Honestly, everything that I have asked her to do for the horse, she has done.”
Competition continues Saturday at 8 a.m. CT in the Markel Arena with the USEF Four-Year-Old Test of the Markel/USEF Young Horse Four-Year-Old Dressage National Championship, while the Grand Prix Arena starts at 8:15 a.m. CT with the FEI Grand Prix Freestyle of the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship.
Watch the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions live stream this week on USEF Network.
