Dressage at World Equestrian Center

World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) hosted its October US Equestrian (USEF)/U.S. Dressage Federation (USDF)-rated dressage show presented by Hampton Green Farms and Discover Dressage on October 19-20, 2024. The classes offered an early opportunity for qualification for the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Regional Championships in the fall of 2025.

Canadian Denielle Gallagher-Legriffon logged three wins on two De Massa horses: Come Back De Massa at grand prix level and Jeroboam De Massa at middle tour. Her best score of the weekend was 69.13%, achieved to lead Saturday’s Grand Prix on Come Back, Ellen Lazarus’ French-born 12-year-old buckskin Portuguese Sport Horse gelding by Galopin De La Font. The result handed them the big tour champion’s title for the Iberian Cup, which ran alongside the regular USDF-rated show.

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Gallagher-Legriffon’s other ride Jeroboam, also a Portuguese Sport Horse like Come Back, was victorious in two Intermediate A classes.

Iberian Cup

The Iberian Cup ran alongside the rated Hampton Green Farm WEC – Ocala October show and recognized champions with the highest-placed Spanish and Portuguese horses in young horse, small tour and big tour classes. The winners, whose final scores were a combination of their two performances, were:

FEI Five-Year-Olds

1. Sophia Schults on Idolo HGF (140.6)
2. Giovanna Pass on Qodivaski (138.4)

FEI Six-Year-Olds

1. Álvaro Gómez Pavon on Ozono D’Matacana (152.8)
2. Kerrigan Gluch on Soldado HGF (139.2)
3. Jorge Arauz on Incautó HC (135.8)

Small Tour

1. Amina Bursese on C Discreto (131.825)
2. Ana Siberio on Horquidea MVL (123.67)
3. Dee Loveless on Norte (118.738

Big Tour

1. Denielle Gallagher-Legriffon on Come Back De Massa (136.512)
2. Kerrigan Gluch on Mejorano HGF (132.637)
3. Amina Bursese on Fiti AL (132.364)

Steffens-Smienk Back in the Ring

Adam Steffens-Smienk traveled four hours to WEC – Ocala from his base of four years at Candoit Dressage in Jupiter, FL, where he trains with Canadian husband Sven Steffens-Smienk, with two horses to ride down centerline and two vastly differing objectives.

A man performing dressage on a grey horse.

“The most magnificent animal I’ve ever seen” is how Adam Steffens-Smienk described his double small tour winner, Candoit’s Bentayga, who was making her show debut. (Andrew Ryback Photography)

His double small tour victor, the powerful and impressive eight-year-old mare Candoit’s Bentayga — who was bred in Germany by Isabell Werth — was attending her first-ever show, and Steffens-Smienk did not know exactly what to expect from her. That was especially true as they have only been a partnership since April, and he had been too ill to ride for three months over the summer, so the pairing is in its infancy. The daughter of Belantis was sent to Steffens-Smienk to be sold in the spring, but once he sat on her, he quickly appreciated her enormous talent.

“I fell in love with ‘Bella,’ and so did Candoit Farm’s owner Wendy [Petrik], and we ended up buying her,” recalled Steffens-Smienk. “She’s the most magnificent animal I’ve ever seen. She’s 18 hands, has really long legs, she’s gray, which is my favorite color, and I prefer to ride mares. She’s a kind soul, so Wendy, who is an adult amateur, can ride her at home, and I get to ride her at shows.”

Candoit’s Bentayga scored just shy of 70% in both her Prix St. Georges tests on her show debut, posting 69.412% and 69.265%.

“She was a lot more tense in the ring than she normally is, but she kept it together and let me ride her to the best of my ability,” said Steffens-Smienk. “I had some pretty major mistakes — we broke to walk in one of the canter pirouettes — so there is a lot of room for improvement.”

Steffens-Smienk may not have registered any official scores with his other horse, but the competition still represented a huge win for 12-year-old Candoit’s Heron, by Glock’s Johnson. That was thanks, in part, to a calming, liquid titanium, noise-reducing face mask recommended by the rider’s friend, U.S. Olympian Kasey Perry-Glass.

“I was super nervous because Heron gets very anxious in the stall at shows,” he explained. “He spins and gets really difficult to manage, so our only goal this weekend was to figure out how to best manage him in the barn. We had a really good weekend with him. He was super quiet in the stall, and all the little things we tried worked out. We made sure he was always surrounded by other horses, and Kasey had me buy him the ‘Batman’ mask. We put that on him, and he stood quietly almost the whole weekend.”

Inside the white boards, a more relaxed Heron also found his groove and would have finished with 72% at grand prix had he not been entered Hors Concours (HC) and had Steffens-Smienk not gone off course, which triggered a mandatory 2% deduction.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have gone HC,” laughed Steffens-Smienk, who has had the ride on Heron since he was bought from Aaron Janicki in May 2023, “but this was our first grand prix together, and I have a lot to learn and polish on him. I am excited that we ripped the band-aid off and just did it, though. He’s a totally different kind of ride from Bella, and it took a long time to get to know him. We did a bit of Intermediate II this past year, but I was out all summer. My husband Sven kept him going, then I rehabbed myself on these two horses.”

Now that Steffens-Smienk is back riding again, he is training virtually with Debbie McDonald once a week with each of his horses while his husband Sven acts as daily eyes on the ground. With the support of the Petrik family, they have built up a team of quality horses to produce.

“We will be back at WEC for the November and December shows,” confirmed Steffens-Smienk. “We absolutely love showing here; it’s a real treat. Sven and I feel like we are on vacation. We come to every show we possibly can. I’m excited to continue to get miles in the ring for me at grand prix because this is only my second grand prix horse, and to give Bella more miles in the ring, too.”

The 2024 dressage schedule at WEC – Ocala continues with an international CDI3* show on November 14-17.

Results here.

~ with files from Jump Media