Friday saw the second day of dressage action at EQUITANA Melbourne, with the CDI-Y Young Rider and CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle taking place in the Grand Pavilion Indoor Arena in the evening.
It took a personal best CDI Freestyle score of 75.4% for the combination of David McKinnon and Estupendo (Ziësto x Scandic) to claim the win in the World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle, with all five judges placing them first. The 15-year-old KWPN gelding, owned by Viv Lipshut, is going from strength to strength, with Thursday’s 68.891% the best of his three CDI Grand Prix test scores to date.
It was Dave’s second highest ever CDI Grand Prix Freestyle result, only just short of the 76.485% he achieved with Carol Oatley’s Forlan at Boneo last year.
Thursday’s Grand Prix winners Mary Hanna and Ivanhoe (Desperado x Jazz) were second on 73.695%, ahead of Robbie McKinnon and D’Esperanza (Desperados x Sandro Hit) in third on 71.060%. Rozzie Ryan and Bronze Boy R (Byalee Brair) finished fourth on 68.295%, while Caroline Wagner rounded out the top five with Ibicus (Apache x Mondriaan) on 68.095%.
Maddison Vallender wins CDI-Y Young Rider Freestyle
In the CDI-Y Young Rider Freestyle, it was Maddison Vallender and Rubinell (Blue Hors Romanov) who claimed the win on 71.8%.
Second place went to Jessica Dertell and KWPN stallion Kilimanjaro (Bordeaux) on 70.455%, and then Tia Rose McKenzie placed third riding Franzisco RW (Franziskus) on 68.350%.
Full results from the dressage EQUITANA Melbourne can be found here.
