Half-Percheron Bags a Triple of Big Tour Titles at USDF Region 4 Championship, Lauren Chumley Takes Three in Region 1

By Alice Collins for Jump Media/USDF

October 14, 2024 – Lexington, KY – The final two 2024 Great American Insurance Group (GAIG)/United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Regional Championship shows took place October 10-13, with the Region 1 Championships at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA, and the Region 4 Championships at The National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis, MO. Both competitions were qualifiers for the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®, which will be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, on November 7-10, 2024.

“Unbelievable, speechless, and flying on cloud nine” was triple Regional Champion Sara Stone’s first reaction to the trio of Adult Amateur (AA) sashes she garnered at the Region 4 Championships. Her horse Gotham is a half-Percheron, half-Dutch 13-year-old American Warmblood that she bought cheaply from his breeder, Indian Hills Stables, to get back into horses after having children, intending to sell him to generate the funds to buy a “true dressage horse.”

Sara Stone’s triple winner Gotham, a part-draft horse, has surpassed all expectations and opened multiple doors for his AA rider. Photo by Hannah Draughan Photography.

Having signed the purchase paperwork on Gotham’s third birthday, the past 10 years have taken Stone and “Grizz” on a very different path. They topped the Intermediate II on Thursday with 68.235%, then headed the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle over the weekend with 65.598% and 68.588%.

“It’s an underdog story, and I bought him for basically nothing,” said an emotional Stone, who works full time in commercial insurance. “By the time we got to second level, I could see that he was something really special, and I finally took the blinders off and stopped lying to myself when he was about six and admitted he was the one.”

Gotham has furnished Stone with a whole host of first-time experiences, including when they won the Fourth Level title at Finals in 2018.

“He’s opened so many doors for me,” said Stone. “He’s my very first grand prix horse. Before Grizz, I’d never shown past fourth level. I had never ridden a freestyle. He’s my first CDI horse. He’s my first everything, and he became my horse of a lifetime. He’s so relaxed he puts the most minimal amount of effort into life, and you have to coax it out of him, but he’s been easy to train because he’s a cool cucumber. I can’t say enough nice things about him.”

Stone trains with her great friend Heather McCarthy, who designed her freestyle floorplan. McCarthy’s assistant trainer Brittany Burson put together Stone’s music using tunes from the disco and funk group KC and the Sunshine Band and Earth, Wind & Fire.

Anne Cizadlo rode Furstenson MR, by Fürstenball, to plus-74% championship titles at Open Training and First Level. Photo by Hannah Draughan Photography.

Stone, from Union, IL, diverted from her usual Region 2 Championships due to a wedding clashing with her home region’s show dates, so she stabled with Region 4 trainer Anne Cizadlo, who herself topped the Open Training and First Level championship classes. She rode Furstenson MR, Carol Daly’s eight-year-old by Fürstenball, to two plus-74% victories.

Kathryn Fleming-Kuhn had a cracking show, riding each of her three horses to a USDF title and picking up a second on Vholt — all with scores over 70%. Her own Vholt, a six-year-old gelding by Vitalis, topped the deck in both the Open Second Level and Third Level Championships, the latter with 73%.

Fleming-Kuhn produced two quality tests on her own eight-year-old Franzsis HSR (by Franziskus x Sandro Hit) to lead the Open Prix St. Georges with 70.735% and take reserve champion in the Intermediate I with 71.912%, beaten only by Fleming-Kuhn’s other ride, Wilona HSR, a 10-year-old chestnut mare by Wild Dance. It was the slimmest of winning margins, with Wilona squeaking ahead by 0.073 percentage points, on 71.985%.

Kathryn Fleming-Kuhn piloted the Franziskus son Franzsis HSR, whom she bought as a two-week-old foal, to a small tour open championship win and a reserve finish with two scores north of 70%. Photo by Hannah Draughan Photography.

Fleming-Kuhn is based alongside her husband, Martin Kuhn, at Star West Dressage in New Berlin, IL. Both Franzsis and Vholt won Regional titles in 2023, both horses are U.S.-bred, and both were bought at two weeks old. Franzsis is a product of Anita Nardine’s breeding program at Hidden Springs Ranch, while Vholt was bred by Mo Swanson.

Two AA riders came away with a pair of championship titles apiece. Patti Blackmore produced a double on her own 15.1-hand five-year-old Ombre’ Rose, a gray KWPN mare by Ampere. At Training Level they netted 71% — the only plus-70% of the class — and then secured their First Level win with 70.486% in a field of 33 starters.

Claire Gamlin rode Tessa Ingrassia’s 17-year-old Lingh x Ferro gelding Chideon VCG to the Second and Third Level accolades. The Second Level class, which they won with 67.262%, had 26 starters. At Third Level, their 68.875% was enough to nose ahead of the field and secure their second sash.

Region 1: Chumley’s Limitless Energy

Lauren Chumley took seven horses to the Region 1 Championships and rode a jaw-dropping 24 tests over four days. Her tireless efforts were rewarded with three winner’s sashes, two reserve champion finishes, and clutches of wins and placings in the ancillary classes.

Leeloo Dallas delivered two of the wins at Intermediate I with 68.456% and 69.363% in the Freestyle, and finished runner-up in the Prix St. Georges to another Lauren — Lauren Sprieser — who topped the class on C Cadeau with 71.691%. Sprieser and C Cadeau, an eight-year-old by Blue Hors St. Schufro, also won the Fourth Level Open with 72.546%.

Lauren Chumley and the eight-year-old Leeloo Dallas take two open small tour championship titles and a reserve ribbon. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

Chumley’s double with Leeloo Dallas, who was bred by Racheal McKinney and is sired by the Ravel son Gaspard De La Nuit DG and out of a Negro dam, became a triple triumph when Santa Barbara DASH won the Intermediate II Open with 64.044%.

“Leeloo is pretty special,” said Chumley, who bought Leeloo from a video when she was a yearling and with whom she is the reigning Prix St. Georges Open Finals Champion. “My coach, Michael Bragdell, and I decided to keep her at small tour for another year to give her more confidence in the work. I could have pushed for grand prix this year as she is so trainable, but I didn’t want to rush her.

“Frankly, I need the mileage in the ring, too. I’ve always been a young horse rider, and on a three-year-old, it’s not always the most refined riding. So now it’s time to polish and make it special with Leeloo. Michael has really helped transform me from a dressage cowboy these past few years,” added Chumley, who rode to a techno freestyle mix put together by Kristen Knudsen.

Chumley opted for short warm-ups with the mare at Regionals — a rewarding and useful tactic when she was so time-pressed. She was up by 5 a.m. to braid her horses before starting each day’s back-to-back riding schedule.

Her second winner, Santa Barbara DASH, a daughter of the San Remo son San City, was originally purchased as an eventer but far prefers dressage.

“Her show halter actually says ‘Future event horse champion’ because she was the four-year-old eventing champion, and that’s hilarious to me because she was a terrible eventer,” laughed Chumley, who is based in Pittstown, NJ, and still mixes eventing with dressage. “The better she got at dressage, the worse she got at jumping, so we just stopped doing it. She’s one of my favorite horses. She’s won a lot at small tour, and we did the developing grand prix last year when she was 10. She’s a war horse; she’s tough and smart, and although not the most physically talented, she’ll go further than we ever thought because of her faultless work ethic.”

Chumley’s working student Taiwan Parrish has taken over the reins on her “difficult old horse” Saracchi, and the relationship has paid dividends. At Regionals, the 19-year-old gelding delivered a win for the young rider at Intermediate I with 65.196%, and a reserve finish at Prix St. Georges.

“Saracchi is a bat-crazy Sandro Hit gelding I got for $1 — he’s honestly a nut — but Tai is doing great with him and did his first CDI a couple of weeks ago,” said Chumley, who is planning to take seven horses on the 12-hour trip to Finals in November and will drive them herself.

The five-year-old Henry, by For Final, produced one of Jeremy Steinberg’s two sashes, topping the Open Second Level with 73.988%. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

Popular clinician Jeremy Steinberg rode his own five-year-old KWPN gelding Henry, by the For Romance I son For Final, to the top of the leaderboard in the Open Second Level Championship. Their 73.988% was good enough to edge out Steinberg’s friend and student Allison Cyprus, who rode her own five-year-old Sir Sinclair mare, Oceana ISF, to the reserve spot with 72.202%. In the First Level class, the tussle went the other way, with Cyprus and Oceana heading up the class on a massive 75.972% and Steinberg and Henry filling reserve with 74.792% in a class of 26 starters.

Steinberg’s other mount, Lucy Tidd’s 11-year-old Danish-bred Glock’s Johnson gelding Budweiser, provided the rider’s second championship victory gallop. Budweiser notched up a 70.063%, the only plus-70% in the Third Level Open class.

AA Beth Parsons Bird swept the board at Third Level with her nine-year-old Hanoverian, Falkor. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

AA Denise Steele was a double winner on Bon Chance 8, a 14-year-old mare by Belissimo M owned by her husband Kenneth. She won the Prix St. Georges with 68.456% and the Intermediate I with 69.412%. Fellow AA rider Beth Parsons Bird also landed a Regionals double. She claimed both Third Level tests on Falkor (by Fantastic x Don Schufro) winning the straight class with 68.813% and the Freestyle with 70.688%. She also won five non-championship classes between Falkor and her other horse, T-Rock. Bird is the daughter of Lucy Parsons, who is the owner/trainer at Fair Day Farm in Southern Pines, NC.

The 2024 US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan® is a national, head-to-head competition that showcases competitors in Adult Amateur and Open divisions. Classes run at Training Level through Grand Prix, plus freestyle to music divisions and sections for Junior/Young Riders at Training Level through Intermediate I Level. There is more than $125,000 in prize money up for grabs over the four days. Learn more at www.usdf.org/usdressagefinals/index.asp.

Founded in 1973, the United States Dressage Federation is a nonprofit membership organization dedication to education, recognition of achievement, and promotion of dressage. For more information about USDF membership or programs, visit www.usdf.org, e-mail [email protected], or call (859) 971-2277.