2002 WEG Selection Trials at Gladstone Begin.

Blinks and Flim Flam Win First Grand Prix

It looked like the Sydney Olympic Dressage Team lined up for ribbons when Sue Blinks, Guenter Seidel, and Christine Traurig took prizes for first, second and third respectively, and 2000 team horse Rainier earned fourth with Betsy Steiner, in the Grand Prix on Saturday, June 1, 2002, at USET Headquarters in Gladstone, New Jersey. The class was the first of four in the USET Dressage Selection Trials for the 2002 World Equestrian Games and counts for 30% of the final score for the 13 riders in contention.

"I'm really pleased. He looks safe and he felt safe. He knows his job and he still likes his job," said Blinks, who won the class on Fritz Kundrun's 15-year-old Hanoverian gelding Flim Flam. The pair earned 71.920%. Blinks said that she had been working with Seidel to help her get Flim Flam 'stable'. "There's a certain confidence he has about him," she noted, adding that it comes with experience. "He knows when we're getting ready for something important. He goes with it instead of worrying where it's taking him." Blinks said that though the first two piaffe/passage movements were "not exciting" she felt her whole test was "in rhythm" and that Flim Flam was "stable" and had an "inner forward feeling." She added that she'd have to see the videotape to know if her feelings were correct but that, "He felt fresh overall. I had the feeling he was really with me."

Blinks trained with USET Dressage Coach Klaus Balkenhol this winter in Florida. She has competed in only three shows since last fall - Devon and two in Florida. "This is a horse that needs to be shown sparingly," she said, adding daily work is the key to Flim Flam. "Good management for him is to keep him happy and strong and liking his job."