Kassie Barteau Zips to Florida from Illinois to Grab a Ribbon in Young Rider Competition at Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI

It was a long drive to the Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI for Kassie Barteau – 27 hours to be exact – but it was worth it. The young Barteau zipped into town for the Derby and promptly collected a blue ribbon in Young Rider competition on Friday riding GP Raymeister. The Barteau family owns KYB Dressage in Maple Park, Illinois and they arrived in town with five horses on the Monday before the Derby. "We rode them Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then started showing," Barteau said. She is in her last year of Young Riders and said she's aiming to compete at this year's North American Junior/Young Rider Championships with Raymeister, a nine-year-old Holsteiner stallion owned by Ginna Frantz. "He's a very nice and very sensitive horse. I've had him from Training Level and have brought him along to Young Rider and Thank God, he's not going anywhere," Barteau said. After this year, Barteau said she and Raymeister will aim for the Brentina Cup in 2010.

Barteau and Raymeister scored a 66.474 percent for their win in Friday's FEI Young Rider Team Test despite the fact that at one point in the test the stallion took off and bucked. "We got 2s and 3s for that, but then he recovered and the score went back up," Barteau said. "Other than that episode, he was very nice and forward and stayed with me."

Coming in behind Barteau in second place was Brittany Fraser with Furio and a score of 64.053. Third were Caroline Roffman and Rola with a score of 63.579. For her part, Barteau plans to collect as many ribbons as possible at the Derby and then load up and head home to Illinois. "We've got a lot of horses at home in training so we really can't be gone that long," she said. Some young riders probably wish Barteau would just stay home. 

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