Wednesday March 26, 2003

The Heidelberg Cup

Anne Gribbons and Aureate Win Grand Prix Special

Riding two horses, Anne Gribbons had a successful trip to Orlando. Aureate is in his very first Grand Prix year, always a hit and miss operation, says Gribbons. He’s been out three times at three shows; the first one I competed Hors Concours and he got a 65. At his second show last weekend in Wellington at the CDI he was just shy of 65%, having been difficult in the schooling ring and then relaxing at his first halt at “X”. “He was lovely,” said Gribbons. They placed fourth in the Grand Prix and third in the Special. This weekend Aureate decided to relax in the warm-up save his antics for the arena. “He schooled better than ever yesterday and then in the arena and was a turkey,” she said. “With a green horse you never know, and this is a lot of test. The large tour is a big step up from the small tour.”

So on Saturday, before the Grand Prix Special, Gribbons made sure that Aureate knew she meant business. She carried a whip in the warm-up, which she doesn’t usually do, and gave him a few strong half-halts to make sure that he was paying attention.

“Today he was very intelligent,” she said after their winning ride. “He’s a very talented, intelligent horse. There’s nothing he can’t do. He’s a little on the crazy side, so I console myself that most top horses are a little insane. The border between insanity and genius is a little thin,” she smiled. On Sunday the pair scored 69.208 for the second-highest scoring freestyle ride.

Gribbons is also riding Leoliet, who is a 10-year-old Dutch horse by Zeoliet, owned by Judy Bernier and ridden until now by Canadian Shannon Dueck. While Dueck has taken her Grand Prix horse to Europe to train, Leoliet is being ridden by Gribbons. Mrs. Bernier also owns Metallic, Robert Dover’s 1998 Olympic mount that Gribbons now rides, and sent Leoliet to Gribbons originally to find another rider for him.

Gribbons said that she hadn’t wanted to deal with a stallion, but Leoliet has been clocking around consistently for the past seven weeks that she has been riding him and for the moment she’s having fun. “We may stick together and go up the levels,” she said. “So far he’s well trained and Shannon should get all the credit for that. It’s delightful. It’s the first time I’ve ever got a horse that was ready to ride at that level.”

Gribbons’ student Lesley Eden, who was the NAYRC individual gold medal winner on Picasso in 2001, rode a young horse called Ferdonia 2 to win Training Level test 3 with 70.833%. Having recently recovered from a broken leg, Eden is now riding for Highlife Farm in Orlando. Picasso has also recovered from a small injury and Eden is hoping to move him up to Grand Prix.