Felix Vogg and Colero. Photo by Shannon Binkman Photography.
The top of the leaderboard was Felix Vogg’s for the taking as he and Colero danced around the dressage arena at the 2019 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by MARS Equestrian.
On a morning when nerves unraveled dressage powerhouses, Jürgen Vogg’s 10-year-old Westphalian (Captain Fire X Bonia, Bormio xx) oozed relaxation, and that earned him a score of 28 — a new CCI5*-L personal best.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z stepped into second place on a score of 30.9. Bobbles in the flying changes interrupted what was a beautiful test for the 11-year-old KWPN gelding (Zapatero VDL X Zonne- Trend, by French Buffet xx) owned by The Deniro Syndicate, who posted a score of 30.9.
Buck Davidson and Park Trader. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Buck Davidson piloted the first of his three rides, Park Trader, a 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Master Imp x Ballyhast Polly, by Highland King) owned by Carl and Cassie Segal, into the current top three bang on their personal best at the level (32.1, Burghley 2018).
Hallie Coon and Celien take fourth in their Kentucky debut. The 12-year-old KWPN (Tenerife VDL x R Quicksilver, by Hamelt), who is owned by Hallie and Helen Coon, earned a score of 32.7.
Allie Sacksen and Sparrow’s Nio. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Allie Sacksen was all smiles with her own Sparrow’s Nio after their test. She and the 16-year-old Connemara/Thoroughbred (Grange Finn Sparrow x JB) delivered a personal best of 36.8 in their third Kentucky appearance.
It was a tense morning for many horses in the Kentucky atmosphere, and we saw it across leaderboard as our first session scored 2.57 points higher than expected. Martin Plewa (GER), who is sitting at E, has been the most generous judge thus far while, Mark Weissbecker (USA) at M has been consistently lower through the morning session.
So far the three judges have had a 3.63% average difference of opinion across the scores. They most agreed on Allie Sacken and Sparrow’s Nio where they were only 2.11% apart, and they disagreed the most on Liz Halliday-Sharp, who earned a 73.27% from Martin, 65.58% from Christina Klingspor (SWE) at C, and 68.46% from Mark.
EN’s data analyst Maggie Deatrick is crunching the numbers throughout dressage, so be sure to follow her analysis this afternoon on Twitter.
Remember you can watch all the action live on on USEF Network with a free fan membership; click here for details on how to sign up. Follow along with all of EN’s coverage in our Ultimate Guide to the event. Stay tuned for much more from #LRK3DE. Go Eventing.
Dressage starts back at 1 p.m. with Joe Meyer and Johnny Royale, one of the off-track Thoroughbreds competing this weekend. You can read more about the OTTBs of Kentucky here.
You can catch up on the morning session with minute-by-minute updates from Tilly Berendt in our Open Thread, presented by Smartpak.
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