All three podium finishers in the Intermediate I Freestyle CDI3*, presented by Wellington Regional Medical Center, topped 72%, but it was Canada’s Diane Creech who emerged triumphant. She scored 72.925% on Louise Leatherdale’s Robbie W on the final day of week seven of the 2018 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, Florida.
Creech overtook the long-time leader Jennifer Baumert (USA), who was drawn first to go of the 14 starters and laid down 72.125% on Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Juliano’s Handsome, a 13-year-old Hochadel gelding. The USA’s Melissa Taylor, last to go, pulled out all the stops on Nicole Polaski’s Special D gelding Ansgar. Their 72.275% was enough to slot snugly into second place, handing victory to Creech.
“He was so great in the freestyle; he enjoys the music so much,” said Creech, who was riding to a compilation by Karen Robinson. “Robbie has the best character — he talks in his sleep — and he thinks every human he interacts with is a nice human. He lives in his own little happy bubble because nothing bad has ever happened to him. He’s so laid-back yet so consistent and really loves his job. Grandmothers could go out hacking on him. We call him Perfect Robbie; he’s so much fun to have.”
