WELLINGTON, Fla.--Morgan Barbançon of France rode Habana Libre A to score 71.630% and win over 15 competitors in the Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI3* Grand Prix at the Global Dressage Festival on March 2.
Morgan Barbancon on Habana Libre 33 (Photo by Susan Stickle)As one of the first riders to go, Jan Ebeling took the early lead with a score of 69.109% on Jubi’s Tenacity.
Ebeling held the lead across the majority of the class but ultimately settled for the third place.
Barbançon was the third-to-last to compete and shot straight to the top after breaking the 70% mark.
“He is a truly lovely horse to ride because he is always willing to work,” said Barbançon. “There’s not a day I take him out of the stable and feel like he doesn’t want to work. He is the best horse I’ve ever ridden and has all the makings of a top horse; every time in the ring he gets better and better.”
“I thought our test today was quite good, but I still need to work on the piaffe for it to be more technically correct,” she said. “For me, the most important thing is to present my horses in the best way possible and have a nice, fault-free test. I don’t set goals for percentages, and I think if the score is the only thing you care about then you may not truly love the sport. I always feel that good scores will follow if I can make the horses their best.”
CODI HARRISON went last and finished in second place with a new personal best score of 70.413% on Katholt’s Bossco.
A total of 13 competed in the afternoon’s FEI World Cup Grand Prix with the top-three placings going to the United States, Canada, and South Korea.
As the penultimate competitor in the class, Anna Buffini made her trip to Wellington from San Diego, Calif., well worth it as she won with a score of 72.500% on FRH Davinia La Douce.
“It was worth the trip, man,” said Buffini. “It was always our plan to come out here but you never know how it’s going to go, so you have to do your best and leave it all out in the arena. It can be hard to make the trip and acclimate them in time for the first show, but she just nailed it today; I was so proud of her.
The coast-to-coast road trip was all part of Buffini’s bid to get a spot at the 2023 FEI World Cup Final, and she hopes her performance in the Friday Night Grand Prix Freestyle will be enough to get her there.
“The World Cup Finals race has been very difficult, so we have to do everything we can tomorrow, but the Freestyle is our favorite so if we can go out there and do what we’ve done the past few times in California, it could be very competitive,” Buffini said.
“Davinia's energy level here is fantastic," she said. "Her canter work was great today, which is something we’ve really worked on getting solid recently, her changes were right there and her pirouettes were tight. It’s always encouraging to know that there are things to work on but that we are starting out on a high score for us.”
Finishing second was Chris von Martels on Eclips, with a score of 70.174%, and Dong Seon Kim of South Korea was third on a score of 68.435% on Galleria’s Bohemian.
Amanda Perkowski won the Derby Qualifier Prix St. Georges on Atterupgards Belafonte with a score of 70.882% to narrowly edge out Denmark’s Alexander Yde Helgstrand. Helgstrand, who scored 70.538% on Zidan-DN., and Mackenzie Peerwas third with 65.097% on Zwingfly.
