Sunday, June 18, 2006

USEF Festival of Champions 2006

Rebecca Hart Wins USEF National Para-Equestrian Championship

Three was the magic number today at the USET Foundation Dressage Festival of Champions. Rebecca Hart won the USEF National Para-Equestrian Championship after she pulled off a hat-trick, winning all three classes three days in a row. Then, in the USEF Grand Prix Special, it was déjà vu with the top three riders in the same placings as Thursday, when they performed their Grand Prix. The third class that makes up the 2006 Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Grand Prix Championship will be the Freestyle, held tomorrow afternoon.

Rebecca Hart and Nordkap, for the third day in a row took home the top prize as well as the 2006 USEF National Para-Equestrian Championship title. Hart, of Erie, PA, performed her freestyle to music from Phantom of the Opera. Nordkap is a 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding owned by Hart. Their score today was 78.518% with a Championship score of 73.74%. Hart and Nordkap’s performance earned them the Margo O’Callaghan Memorial Trophy. Reserve champion was Barbara Grassmyer of Placerville, CA with a three-day score of 70.382% and an impressive score today of 75.923%. Her mount was Bally Shannon, one of two horses in the competition donated and on loan from therapy programs.

Freestyle is a favorite for this pair. “He likes his music, He gets a little bored with the IPEC test because it’s just straight lines and circles and straight lines. It is easier to keep his attention and his focus when he does his shoulder-ins to get him rebalanced…I was so proud of him, he’s such a cool horse, he’s such fun, he’s so honest. He’s just awesome.”

Hart agrees that the discipline of para-equestrian being added to the 2010 FEI Games is a huge win for the sport, but right now she’s got other things on her mind. “We’re definitely trying for Beijing, and I think we’re on the right road. I’d really like to do the able-bodied in twenty years or so but that is a ways down the road.”