THERMAL, Calif. — Benjamin Ebeling’s name will soon become one of the very first to be etched into the US Equestrian Open trophy. In an exciting conclusion to the inaugural, yearlong US Equestrian Open Dressage Series, the 26-year-old earned the win in the US Equestrian Dressage Final on Saturday, November 15, at Desert International Horse Park.
“This is really exciting,” said Ebeling. “[This series] is really top sport…I just feel like getting to be on this trophy with competitors such as Christian Kukuk and Boyd Martin, it’s a dream come true. To be on a trophy with the best of best is pretty cool.”
Benjamin Ebeling
With 12 elite riders contesting the finale CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle under the lights in Thermal, Calif., topping the podium ultimately required Ebeling and his winning mount, Bellena, to produce a personal best score of 79.930%. That score earned Ebeling both a place in the history books and the lion’s share of the event’s $200,000 prize money.
Taking home second place was Germany’s Felicitas Hendricks who rode Drombusch OLD to a score of 78.260%. Finishing in third place with a score of 77.830% was the US Equestrian Open Dressage Series leader, and Friday night’s CDI5* Grand Prix winner, Anna Marek aboard Fayvel.
“Every time I ask this horse to come through for me, she always pulls through in the clutch,” said Ebeling of Bellena, a 15-year-old Hanoverian mare owned by Ann Romney and Vantage Equestrian Group LLC. “She’s just an incredible competitor, and I’m really so lucky to have her by my side and underneath me. We’ve been working together for about a year now, and I just feel like we’re developing this synergistic, symbiotic bond that we’re working as one. I’m really proud of her. I really don’t feel like a rider is anything without a horse, and so, thank you Bell!”
While the freestyle that Ebeling performed on Saturday night is one that he previously also competed on a different mount, he has found it to be just the right fit for Bellena.
“This freestyle really highlights [Bellena] as a sort of a diva mare and really a strong, powerful woman with artists such as Beyonce, Gwen Stefani and Rihanna,” Ebeling said. “Honestly, I don’t think that anybody does it better than a mare…I do feel like it’s a new freestyle for Bellena, but it feels like home for me.”
Ebeling continued, “I do believe it was her best test to date, but today, my left pirouette coming into the piaffe pirouette, I honestly have never felt anything like that. It was just a perfect mix of harmony, energy and everything that you could hope for in dressage, just perfect symbiosis. So yeah, it was pretty cool to feel underneath me!”
For full results of the CDI5* Grand Prix Freestyle, held as the US Equestrian Open Dressage Final, click here. To learn more about the US Equestrian Open, visit www.usequestrianopen.org.