Ben Ebeling is planning a campaign across the pond after last weekend’s personal best that brought him a win in the grand prix freestyle CDIO3* at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival with a commanding 78.41%. British Olympic judge Stephen Clarke awarded Ben and Indeed, Vantage Equestrian Group II LLC’s 14-year-old mare by Hofrat, over 80%.
“I knew that coming into this week, I had some difficult competition in this individual final, and I wanted to crank up the difficulty with Indeed,” said California-based Ben, 23, who rode to a freestyle put together by Karen Robinson, initially for his other horse Illuster Van De Kampert. “This is the first time that she [Indeed] had ridden through it. It’s been a long season, but it means a lot to end it off with a win. And I have to thank my coaches; my dad [Jan] and Christoph Koschel.
“I’m really hoping to take Indeed to Europe, do a couple of competitions out there, and continue developing her. She continues to get better every week, and it’s really fun to see.”
Fellow USA rider Katie Duerrhammer clinched second, riding Quartett to 75.09%, with Germany’s Michael Klimke third on Harmony’s Sanrino RHP with 73.78%.
Michael was riding Harmony’s Sanrino RHP, a 13-year-old stallion by San Remo, in his first-ever freestyle at the level. This was only their third big tour CDI together.
“This was Sanrino’s first time doing three classes [at one show] and today the horse gave everything,” said Michael.
Jan Ebeling thinks the Future Challenge classes are “a wonderful idea”.
In the Future Challenge classes at the Global Dressage Festival, Jan Ebeling, Ben’s father, took full advantage of the final qualifying opportunity in the prix st georges series, topping the class with 71.911% on Zitat. Both Jan and second-placed Jaime Dancer, who scored 71.519% on Supremont, earned places in the grand final this week.
These classes aim to identify up-and-coming young FEI horses. “I love this series,” said Jan. “It’s such a wonderful idea. It’s really something that I hope will catch on in this country because these types of classes are so big in Europe. It’s an awesome class. We need to promote the young horses just like we need to promote our up-and-coming riders.”
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