LEXINGTON, Ky.--Laine Ashker on Lovedance leads the $60,000 USEA Advanced Final after dressage on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
Laine Ashker on Lovedance (Photo by Lindsay Berreth)Asker, who has ridden Lovedance since the mare was 4 and won the Maryland International CCI4*-S in June, leads over a field of 20 on a score of 28.1.
Isabelle Bosley on Conner scored 28.4 to place second after dressage, and Boyd Martin on Shanroe Cooley will head into cross-country Thursday in third place on a score of 31.3.
“I'm in a good mental place,” Ashker said. “It's not always been up with my horse. I think it’s probably more down than up with my horse, and I feel like now I've been able to sort of figure her out to the extent that I can go in and have a strong test. We left a lot of points on the table. I thought there were some green moments, but I think there's still a lot more to come with her.”
ASHKER splits her time between Grand Prix dressage and eventing.
“When we started warming up, she was quite tense. She worked out of it, and Phillip Dutton has been really pivotal in helping me with that stuff,” she said. “I went in there, and she performed. I got a little greedy in the walk because she tends to hold herself a bit in the walk, and then I pushed her a bit too much, so she jigged. So that was on me, and I was a little bit disappointed in that. But I'm trying to get to the point where even my crappy test can be pretty competitive, and I think we're getting to that point, and it’s only because I've messed up a million times! I feel like I'm in a good place, and I feel like I'm there.”
Ashker brought Lottie to the AEC as a prep run before her big fall goal of the US Open of Eventing at Morven Park.
“I thought it would be a good; it's a championship course, and boy, is it ever,” she said. “I walked it, and I'll be very nervous tomorrow! It's got really everything on there. It's got a few questions that I've not that I've actually done as an eventing competitor as well, like the bounce coming out of water.”
"We’re coming off a win from Maryland, and she felt absolutely amazing. I've been working on the fitness this summer,” she said. “We'll go to Plantation Field as another really great fitness round and challenge and then finish up hopefully at our first four-star long at the Open.”
“Every time I come out, it’s like starting all over again,” she said. “My horse felt amazing at Maryland, and I felt I could do it. And then here, I walked around the course, and I'm getting nervous, but I finally have the feeling that I had. I've got the horse on my side. There's a marriage. I've had this horse since she was a 4-year-old. She's now 10, and I'm starting to understand where I can push her. It's not a matter of if we can do it, but how quickly we can do it, and it feels really special to finally have that. I just feel like the trust has now really come full circle, and I think it's because I do everything on her. I think all those things build a really cool trusting relationship and so I’m eager. I’m not nauseous, I don't want to turn and run for the hills! Once I'm out there, I feel confident in the horse that I'm sat on and that is a really great feeling to have.”
