DressageDaily: Kasper Dances with Guardian for the Placings

Kasper Dances with Guardian for the Placings

It has been a wild ride for Suzanne Dansby-Phelps and Kasper this season, with disappointing placings at both Gladstone and Devon. But in Conyers, Georgia, at the 2001 ABIC/USDF Region Three Finals the 16.3h eight-year-old KWPN gelding Kasper (Facet/Annet) redeemed himself, winning the I-1 Championship, (66.0) and placing second in the Prix St. George Championship (68.0).

In the Prix St. George, Dansby-Phelps made an error that cost her the championship by a quarter of a point behind John Zopatti and SG Guardian. But in the Intermediaire 1 they traded places, with Zopatti three quarters of a point behind her. They joked that they were making up for Devon, where both of their horses were spooky and unpredictable.

"Winning the I-1 was the Coup de Grace of our season," said Dansby-Phelps. It was her first return to a Regional Championships since 1995, when she won on Bijan.

Her goal now is to move Kasper up to Grand Prix as soon as he is confirmed in the movements, which she hopes will be next spring.

"He was explosive and inconsistent this weekend, but the rides were brilliant," she said, adding that he was especially spooky in one corner of the arena and that she thought the loud noises and commotion of the crowds made him nervous. "I don't think he was ridden out of doors before I bought him, and he's a little acrophobic. But the extra energy worked in our favor, too."

Dansby-Phelps was practically in her back yard, as her Dancing Horse Farm is just up the road from Conyers in the Buckhead district of Atlanta.

By Amber Heintzberger for DressageDaily.com

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On The Scene at the 2001 ABIC/USDF Region Three Finals - Including Results