Cindy Stys : Dressage selection trials gladstone

Stephen Colbert Responds To Dressage Pep Rally Video

Cindy Stys — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:41:00 GMT

Check out Stephen Colbert’s response to Gladstone dressage fans’ excitement over his proclamation that dressage is the “Sport of the Summer”

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/415570/june-19-2012/mitt-romney-s-champion-horse---stephen-s-dressage-contribution

Dressage Pep Rally– Stephen Colbert - payback time

Cindy Stys — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:48:00 GMT

Yesterday I had the opportunity to witness a dynamite dressage competition at the coveted US Equestrian Team in Gladstone, NJ. While any final day of an Olympic Selection Final is always exciting, with the horse (Rafalca) co-owned by Ann Romney (Mitt Romney’s wife) ranked in 3^rd position and after political satirist Stephen Colbert’s video mocking the sport was bound to be a historical day for dressage. I was going to leave before the award ceremony but when they started to distribute large foam hands like ball game fans wave (used by Colbert in the video) I decided to stick around. After the riders made their victory gallop spectators chanted R-A-F-A-L-C-A waving the red hands with “Dressage is #1” as the 3rd placed combination remained in the arena. To add fuel to the fire, Budweiser beer bottles were being passed around to the spectators as they swarmed behind Rafalca ridden by Jan Ebeling with Ann Romney trying to get beside her jigging horse. All in all, it was a a great rebuttal by USEF and dressage fans to the video spoof of Colbert who declared dressage "the sport of the summer". Stay tuned to our blogs for more on that!

I was definitely pumped up afterwards and it was great to see Ann Romney up close and in person. She is surely like the rest of us equestrian enthusiasts happily jumping up & down for her mare’s spot on the London Olympic Team.

Ann Romney in London Team jacket watching the Award Ceremony

Rafalca & rider Jan Ebeling in the limelight

OG Dressage Selection Trial Standings Gladstone NJ

Cindy Stys — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:42:00 GMT

What great weather ! Riders & horses were all in form. Kathleen Raine's horse provided some animation as he spooked in front of the VIP tents. Fortunately it was after their test! Should be a very good turnout tomorrow since it's the final day. Some curiosity seekers may also come out thanks to Stephen Colbert's video spoof on Ann Romney's mare, Rafalca, who had her best score of the Trials so far with Jan Ebeling aboard who appeared to be over the moon afterwards. Ya, I bet! Eastern PA's Todd Flettrich is close behind by only a fraction of a percentage. And then there's Tina Konyot on Calecto V. She is one of the more artistic riders coming from a circus family spanning 5 generations. She rode brilliantly with the highest score of the day. When I first started with the USEF back in 1998, Tina was touring Europe with her then mount, Justice and was one of our 'regular customers' entering into many foreign CDIs. So nice to see her doing this well. Check out her website and photos of her growing up living & breathing horses. http://www.tinakonyotdressage.com/HTML/about.htm

Overall Standings after the Grand Prix - Friday morning June 15, 2012

Peters, Steffen - Legolas

Konyot, Tina - Calecto

Ebeling, Jan - Rafalca

Flettrich, Todd - Otto

Lyle, Adrienne - Wizard

Blitz, Heather - Paragon

Seidel, Guenter - Fandango

St Jacques, Pierre - Lucky Tiger

Blinks, Susan - Robin Hood

Harding, Shawna Come On III

Raine, Kathleen Breanna

Koford, Jim Rhett

Sammis, Lauren Sagacious HF