A total of 18 horses worked their way down centreline in the Intermediare I/Grand Prix Freestyle test on Wednesday morning at the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru. All eyes were on the elite few expected to be in the podium battle for individual medals: Sarah Lockman of the US with First Apple, and Canadians Tina Irwin and Laurencio, Lindsay Kellock and Floratina, and Naima Moreira Laliberte riding Statesman. Even though the fourth team member, Jill Irving with Degas 12, had placed 12th in the Grand Prix Special, only three team members are allowed to participate in the freestyle. Unfortunately, the order of go was based on a draw format rather than by reverse order of standings, which lacked the excitement and drama of the top combinations going last, as is the case at WEG and the Olympics.
US rider Sarah Lockman was once again unbeatable, scoring 78.980 aboard the gorgeous nine-year-old stallion First Apple to clinch the gold medal. “I came into this just wanting to score the best I possibly could and to have a personal best,” said Lockman. “I put that pressure on myself no matter what competition it is. From the warmup through the halt-salute that horse was one hundred percent with me. I was so happy to see that we were rewarded for such a great performance.”
“He’s s super top competitor and he really loves his job,” added the rider from California, who said that her first ride was a 32-year-old one-eyed pony. “I told one of my first trainers ‘I’m going to be a horse trainer and I’m going to go to the Olympics.’ This is step one; I was able to represent my country here and I’m looking forward to what’s next.”
The first Canadian in the ring was Tina Irwin and Laurencio, who had a lovely steady test until the final few seconds when the 12-year-old gelding felt he needed to remind his rider to “just remember who’s boss.”
“I was super-happy with my ride until the very last centreline where my horse decided to give a preview to Tokyo with a bunch of one-tempis!” she said, laughing. “It cost me some marks for sure, but other than that he felt great.” Her music, composed by good friends Wendy Watson and Louis Manne of Zap Productions, had actually been designed for another horse, but ended up suiting Laurencio better. “I’m a musical person and I wanted it to be fun. I had actually used a little piece of ‘Life is Life’ at my last Pan Ams with my horse Winston. It is just such a great piece for the two-tempis that I wanted have that as my entry.” Her dramatic entrance with the twos to the halt elicited delighted applause from a usually respectfully silent audience, and their score of 77.780 would hold up for the silver medal.
Lindsay Kellock and Floratina were on their way to a flawless freestyle when the 11-year-old mare decided to express a rather strong opinion during the two-tempis by lashing out with a back hoof. “I’m a little disappointed; Floratina came out the last two days and gave it her all – two personal best rides here,” said Kellock. “I think today I was feeling Flora was just a little bit exhausted from the whole thing so she got a little opinionated in her changes, which is a new thing for us. But I’m still so happy with her.” The pair rode to music suggested to her by fellow dressage rider Jacquie Brooks and designed by Kurboom and scored 73.550, good for seventh place. Irwin will now hand the horse over to the owner, Chloe Gasiorowski, and concentrate on getting another horse, Sebastien, ready for the Tokyo Olympics.
The highly-anticipated Grand Prix Freestyle by Naima Moreira Laliberte and Statesman began beautifully and contained a lot of piaffe and passage to show off the elegant gelding’s strengths. Always breathtaking in the extended work, an overly-exuberant extended canter suddenly morphed into a near-runaway, but a quick recovery from Moreira Laliberte prevented possible disaster. Their score of 73.565 landed them in sixth place; however, before the miscommunication the pair was running a score in the high 75s and may have been in bronze medal position. Coach Ashley Holzer admitted that during the unplanned hand-gallop she was thinking, “This is amazing, this is amazing… she might leave the ring…oh my God she stopped, it’s good.”
The young rider experiencing her first major international games was pragmatic. “He bolted on me. He’s got that in him; I just didn’t think at this point in the competition he’d be feeling so fresh. Unfortunately it was very, very costly.” The pair’s music was composed especially for the horse by Naima’s boyfriend’s father, Jacques Trupin. Her next stop is a well-earned tour of Peru with her family.
Dressage Individual – Intermediate I / G.Prix Freestyle
1. First Apple, Sarah Lockman (USA) 78.980
2. Laurencio, Tina Irwin (CAN) 77.780
3. Handsome, Jennifer Baumert (USA) 75.755
4. Aquamarijn, Yvonne Domlosos De Muñiz (DOM) 75.430
5. Faro SQF, Nora Batchelder (USA) 73.630
6. Statesman, Naima Moreira-Laliberté 73.565
7. Floratina, Lindsay Kellock 73.550
8. Carthago Comando SN, João Paulo dos Santos (BRA) 72.685
9. Wettkonig, Vera Beatriz Protzen (ARG) 72.585
10. Bello Oriente, Christer Egerstron (CRC) 72.365
