Burbank CA: Competition wrapped up today at the 55th Annual California Dressage Society and 2022 GAIG/USDF Region 7 Championships. Over 200 horses competed in four rings, over four days at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. More than seventy-five championship titles were awarded to Open, Amateur and Junior riders. One of the major dressage events in California, the combined championship is an immense undertaking with more than 100 volunteers and staff.
CDS President, Joan Williams was quick to thank all those who helped make the show, “…such a special event.” She continued, “The support from the sponsors and the dressage community at large has been overwhelming.” Williams went on to talk about the competitors. “This year was an incredibly special Championships. The quality of the horses as well as the riding has never been better.”
One rider, who exemplified this quality was 22-year-old Carla Schultz (Vacaville, CA). Riding, the flashy chestnut Qunique N, owned by Christiane Noelting, Shultz won every class entered on the 6-year-old, Hanoverian gelding. The pair never earned below a 73% in any test at Third Level, earning the CDS Third Level Horse of the Year title, the GAIG/USDF Region 7 Championship title. With their 76.305% in the Freestyle they captured both the CDS Third/Fourth Level Grand Championship and the overall Freestyle Championship for First-Fourth Level competitors.
When asked about her equine partner, Schultz exclaimed, “He’s simply the best.” She was proud to say that she started the horse and has done all the riding from Training Level ‘till now.” She added about the Freestyles, “He’s a happy horse, it’s so fun to ride him and dance with him.”
The overall High-Score Amateur award went to another Third Level rider, Elizabeth Gundry Jenkins (Riverside, CA) riding her own, Oldenburg gelding, No Doubt. Other Special award winners included: Anne Brooks Warner (Santa Cruz, CA) who rode Timi Del Conte Sobrato’s Hanoverian gelding, Chris-Craft to the First/Second Level Grand Championship title, after a 73.050 % victory in the Second Level Freestyle; Young Rider, Delaney Lardie, won her equitation class and earned top five finishes in all her classes, to win the Robert Walker High-Score Thoroughbred award on her own chestnut gelding, Regalo; Madison Rae Wagner (Buellton, CA) took home the Tambu Perpetual Trophy for the Highest scoring Stallion on Bobbie McGee’s PRE stallion, Nativo I Rey; and Ashlyn Elizabeth Dodge (Hanford, CA) on the Cal-Bred Winner and highest scoring Futurity horse, DG Bar’s 5-year-old Maebria DG, also picked up the Cantata Memorial Perpetual Trophy for the highest scoring mare (74.728%)
Congratulations to all the participants on a truly great show. For full results of all the classes and winners, go to our website at www.california-dressage.org.
