Belinda Trussell & Anton Take CDI-W Grand Prix at Global Dressage Festival

Canada's Belinda Trussell, in her first competition of the Olympic season, has made a strong start in the pursuit of being named a double Olympian. 

Paired with her Pan Am and World Equestrian Games mount Anton, Trussell scored a narrow victory in the Grand Prix at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI-W held in Wellington, Florida.

The Florida season is particularly busy with this being an Olympic year, and the Grand Prix class saw 50 horse/rider combinations from no less than 16 countries present before the judges.

The placings ended up being incredibly close, with the top 6 being within .76% of each other.

Trussell, who was the final rider of the day, managed to score 1 tenth of a percentage higher than second place Arlene “Tuny” Page & Woodstock to finish with 72.860.

During the press conference, Trussell couldn’t hide her delight with Anton’s performance. "Really happy, really happy. I was surprised to win, it was a huge class and a wonderful field. Anton felt great, he was really good, really focused, he was with me. I call him a professional, he's so comfortable at the level, and he's so happy to do his work. We went out there and we did our job together, and to come out with a blue ribbon was amazing."

Her 2014 World Equestrian Games teammates Karen Pavicic and Don Daiquiri were the next highest Canadian due, earning a career personal best of 70.840% to earn a top 10 finish (9th).

Next on deck is the Grand Prix Freestyle taking place Friday night where Canadians include:
Jaqueline Brooks & D Niro
Brittany Fraser & All In
Belinda Trussell & Anton

Watch the livestream here.

Canada’s Megan Lane & Caravella as well as Karen Pavicic and Don Daiquiri will be contesting the Grand Prix Speciale on Saturday to hunt for further valuable qualifiying scores in their pursuits to represent Canada at the Rio Olympics this summer.

We will provide an update on the unofficial leaderboard following the Grand Prix Speciale.

Although Equine Canada continues to keep the criteria top secret, we know that it requires athletes to submit four (4) scores achieved within the period of January 1, 2016 to July 1, 2016  of which:

• A minimum of two (2) scores must be from the Grand Prix
• At least one (1) score must be from the Grand Prix Speciale.