Wellington, Fla. – Feb. 11, 2022 – Friday afternoon competition at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) Week 5 concluded with the FEI CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle. Eleven horse-and-rider pairs took to the International Arena to contend for the top spot, but in the end it was Charlotte Jorst and Kastel’s Nintendo who went two-for-two and took the win with an impressive score of 79.075%.
Danish-born rider and founder of Kastel Denmark, Charlotte Jorst sailed to victory once again today on her own 19-year-old KWPN stallion Kastel’s Nintendo. The pair has competed in numerous Nations Cups over the years, and they were part of the gold-medal winning Team USA at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup in Wellington. In 2021, the pair also won the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle of the AGDF during Week 12.
Yesterday the duo received a 72.579% in the CDI-W Short Grand Prix for the blue ribbon, and came back even more focused on performing their best with their musical “Pirates of the Caribbean” themed freestyle. Both a high degree of difficulty and a harmonious, consistent test helped Jorst and Kastel’s Nintendo earn the top placing.
Coming in second place was Spain’s Juan Matute with his father’s 16-year-old Hanoverian gelding, Quantico. Matute and his mount scored an impressive 78.050% with his upbeat musical freestyle. Matute climbed the leaderboard from third place in Thursday’s qualifying test with a 70.447%. Thursday was Matute’s first time competing in Wellington since his stroke in 2020 that he has made an impressive recovery from. Matute remarked that he’s come back “Not just 100%, but 1000%.”
Rounding out the top three was Anna Buffini on her own FRH Davinia La Douce, a 15-year-old Hanoverian mare. The multi-talented Buffini was the vocalist in her freestyle music. Despite the pair being relatively new to each other, Buffini and Davinia have already boasted a successful competition record, including coming in third in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special CDI3* at the AGDF Week 10 and third in the Grand Prix Freestyle CDI-W at AGDF 5 in 2021.
Competition in AGDF Week 5 will resume Saturday, Feb. 12, with the FEI Junior Rider Individual Test at 9 a.m.
FROM THE WINNERS CIRCLE
Charlotte Jorst – CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle winner
On the test:
“When I came back from Aachen I almost had an eighty [percent], so I decided I would try to fix some things in that freestyle to try to improve that score today. I was hoping nothing would go wrong and nothing did! I was even able to improve on a few things so it just felt great. I still think I could make my pirouettes a little smaller but it felt really really great.”
On the music:
“It’s Pirates of the Caribbean music. It’s funny because I tried so many times to make a freestyle of my favorite songs, but it never really works when you put it all together. This music just felt big enough for him. It really suits him, he just lifts coming up that centerline. You could just feel he was so happy about it. For the first time I nailed it with the music.”
On her partnership with Kastel’s Nintendo:
“It’s helping me all the time because I know exactly what I have in there. He just wants to give and give. He’s just so willing. I trust him 100%, he trusts me 100%. I don’t feel like I have to warm up so much anymore. It’s like twenty minutes before I go in the ring, so he’s out here for about twenty five minutes and it really works for him.”
On her future plans:
“I hope that I get a wildcard for the FEI World Cup Finals. I’m going to do the five star in two weeks, I’m going to do the [Palm Beach] Derby for the next World Cup qualifier. We’ll see where that takes me, if it takes me to Europe or not, I’m just having so much fun and so is he.”
On Thursday’s Short Grand Prix:
“The Short Grand Prix prepared me so well for this test. Yesterday there was the walk to the canter zig-zag, and it was the same in my freestyle so it prepared us really well.”
Results: CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle
Place / Rider / Country / Horse / Owner / Score
1. Charlotte Jorst / USA / Kastel’s Nintendo / Kastel Denmark / 79.075%
2. Juan Matute Guimón / ESP / Quantico / Juan Matute Azpitarte / 78.050%
3. Anna Buffini / USA / FRH Davinia La Douce / Anna Buffini / 77.605%
4. Brittany Fraser / CAN / All In / Marc-Andre Beaulieu & Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu / 77.045%
5. Yvonne Losos de Muñiz / DOM / Aquamarijn / Yvonne Losos de Muñiz & Sylvia Ines Muñiz Losos / 75.925%
6. Ashley Holzer / USA / Havanna 145 / Diane Fellows / 75.695%
7. Hope Cooper / USA / Hot Chocolate W / Mary Mansfield / 72.725%
8. Paula Matute Guimón / ESP / Delagronge / Paula Matute Guimón / 71.630%
9. Jan Ebeling / USA / Status Royal Old / Ann Romney / 71.605%
10. Amina Bursese / USA / Fiti AL / Amina Bursese / 67.685%
11. Evi Strasser / CAN / Disney Tyme / Evi Strasser / 69.175%
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