Friday afternoon August 31st – Single Horse Championships
After two full days of dressage, the final competitor, out of a field of 82 (representing 24 countries), just finished their test. The weather today was sunny and cool with everyone needing a jacket.
At the end of the day the USA drivers finished with Nifty Hamilton in 12th place overall. (Nifty is a member of Team USA)
Donna Crookston ended up in 28th place after dressage. (Donna is a member of Team USA)
Jacob Arnold (Member of Team USA) finished in 45th place.
Thank you for Leslie Berndl for providing photos in insights.
Individual competitor for the USA, Vernon Helmuth finished in 37th place.
The USA team is standing in 6th place out of 19 country teams, with Austria 1st, the Netherlands 2nd and Poland 3rd.
Also competing are two competitors for Canada and at the end of today Kelly Bruder-Houtappels finished in 8th place and her teammate, Pierre Guillemette, finished in 77th place.
Wednesday Afternoon, August 29th
Wednesday, the US Para-driving team drove their dressage test in the first of the three phases of competition for the FEI Para-driving World Championship. The expected rain held off as Diane Kastama, the first to go for the American team drove her leased horse, Oosterwijk’s Kasper to a score or 67.36 in the beautifully manicured grass arena.
Second to go for the USA was Tracy Bowman driving her own Taylamore Laurabelle. Bowman, in her first appearance internationally, earned a 61.84, the best score of the day for the US Team.
Bob Giles, driving his leased horse First Lady, went late in the day under increasingly rainy skies. He received a 61.95 from the panel of 5 judges.
Scores at the conclusion of the dressage phase have the Netherlands out front with a 77.47, followed by Germany at 96.44, and Great Brittan (123.15) and the USA(123.79) with nearly identical scores contending for the Bronze Medal in the team competition. The Para teams now have two days to prepare for the marathon phase that will take place on Saturday September 1st.