Friday brought another warm and sunny day to HITS Chicago at Lamplight Equestrian Center where seven classes of the 2020 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions showcased a wide variety of horses and riders on their quest for national champion titles.

Four divisions concluded and named their national champions on Friday: The USEF Intermediaire I Dressage National Championship; Adequan®/USEF Young Adult ‘Brentina Cup’ Dressage National Championship; USEF Pony Rider Dressage National Championship; and the USEF Dressage Seat Medal Finals for 13 & Under.

Photo – Marcus Orlob and Spirit of Joy, 2020 (SusanJStickle.com)

Markel/USEF Young Horse Six-Year-Old Dressage National Championship
Thirteen horse-and-rider pairs completed their FEI Six-Year-Old Preliminary Test on Friday morning in front of the four-judge panel. Marcus Orlob (Annandale, N.J.) and Jeanette Pinard’s Westphalian, Spirit of Joy, turned in the final ride of the class, which was also the judges’ runaway favorite. The panel had nothing but praise for the powerful but obedient gelding, giving him scores that included a 9.5 for the trot and a 9.3 for canter and a final average score of 8.96.

“In the ride, I had a good feeling because he was really with me,” said Orlob. “When I heard the scores, I said, ‘Wow! That’s the highest scores I’ve ever gotten.’ I was very, very happy.

Jennifer Schrader-Williams (Olympia, Wash.) took second place with Joppe Partners, LLC’s Joppe K, a KWPN gelding. Pablo Gomez Molina (Wellington, Fla.) finished in third place with Cristina Danguillecourt & Yeguada De Ymas S. L.’s Spanish Sport Horse gelding Baltasar De Ymas.

From the Mixed Zone:

Tell us about your test.

Orlob: “To be honest, I’m very, very pleased with the horse because this is obviously, for young horses, a very beautiful but scary environment. And he’s sometimes a little bit afraid of shadows. But he handled it very well and I couldn’t be happier with him today.”

Tell us about the background with the horse?

Orlob: “I actually got him when he was four years old in Germany. And we imported him and I did last year here the five-year-old class. But he, he’s a very good horse, but the neck sometimes is very tricky. He’s very powerful and sometimes he gets a little bit too short. It was the killer last year in the five-year-old class, but now I get it better and better. I think this will be a very good FEI prospect.”

What about him made him stand out to you?

Orlob: “To be honest, first, the size. I’m pretty tall and I have long legs so I need something to cover me for the picture. I saw the video, my old boss sent me, and he has a special spark. Very powerful movement and when I saw him in the stall he immediately looked at me with bright eyes, and I was like, wow. Before I saw him go I thought, that’s probably the horse.”

Is there anything that you’re going to tweak on your second test?

Orlob: “To be honest I would like to get the same feeling. It will be hard because it was really an incredible feeling today. I hope I can pull it off a second time.”

Competition continues Saturday with classes in the Young & Developing Horse Arena beginning at 8 a.m. CDT and the Grand Prix Arena at 9 a.m. CDT.

Keep up with the 2020 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions on USA Dressage Facebook and Instagram featuring Instagram Stories. Use #USADressage and #FestivalofChampions.