BHF Para Riders Earn Top Placings at AGDF CPEDI3*!

This past weekend at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, the BHF girls wrapped up their 2nd round of competition with huge success.  Both Gigi and Laurietta were very consistent in their scores, taking top placings in all 3 of their classes.  Missy was very pleased with their performances and has great expectations for their next big qualifier at Tryon in April.

"Gigi had a great freestyle this past weekend scoring a 75??. The judges loved her music and choreography, and overall the mare was more settled this weekend but not quite as active as she was two weeks ago. Still, she has such a lovely walk the judges like her.
 
"Laurietta was reclassified and is now a grade one rider. This was her first weekend competing at they walk only and she scored well every day, finishing with a 72 in her freestyle. As she practices the test more her scores will go higher. They have a training session the end of February, and then it's onto Tryon for the test event in April!"

Laurietta & Missy at BHF South
Photo Credit Jill Henneberg and Direct Connect

Please follow along and support both these ladies through their FB pages.

Laurietta Oakleaf 
Margaret McIntosh, Elite Para Equestrian

The official press release from the weekend is below.
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Team USA Riders Dominate at Second Adequan® Global Dressage Festival 
Para-Equestrian CPEDI3* of 2018 
For Immediate Release
Alice Collins for Jennifer Wood Media, Inc.

Wellington, FL – January 21, 2018 – The second and final para-equestrian dressage show (CPEDI3*) of the 2018 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) concluded at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, Florida, with the USA’s riders winning every grade.

In the day’s most heavily subscribed class, the Grade I freestyle — the riders with the most severe impairments — Margaret ‘Gigi’ McIntosh improved on her second places over the previous two days to win the class with 75.287%.  The judge at M, Portugal’s Carlos Lopes, awarded McIntosh and her own Heros, a 14-year-old Danish warmblood by Blue Hors Hertug, over 79%.

He said: “The degree of difficulty was high, the horse was steady and responding to her aids with good activity and showing good medium walk, which has improved over this week. The music was also very good for her and it all fitted together. It was all fluent and I gave 8.5 for the music and choreography.”

Heros is unbeaten at Grade I under the USA’s Margaret McIntosh,
landing 75.2% in the freestyle class.

The mare was sourced by USEF Head of Para-Equestrian Coach Development and High Performance Consultant Michel Assouline’s wife Mette, and McIntosh also credits her trainer Missy Ransehousen for the giant strides taken with the horse.

“She loves the music; I think somewhere in a past life, she was an old disco diva,” said McIntosh, who suffered a broken neck in a fall in 1999, a year after riding round the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day CCI****, which left her partially paralyzed. “I am so lucky I have been able to get a lot of my function back, and to be able to continue with my riding has been priceless.”

Michel Assouline was delighted with the American riders’ progress between the boards.

FULL PRESS RELEASE FROM AGDF 

FULL RESULTS FOX VILLAGE