Dressage Festival Announces Expanded CPEDI Para Equestrian Tour

Dressage Adequan Global Dressage Festival Announces Expanded CPEDI Para Equestrian Tour

Dressage: The 2016 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) is fast approaching, and organizers are pleased to announce some exciting news for this year’s competition. Thanks to presenting sponsors Mission Control, Mane Stream, courtesy of Rowan O’Riley, Adequan®, and Nutrena, AGDF will host an expanded CPEDI 3* Para-Equestrian Dressage Tour this season.

Para-Equestrian Dressage will kick off the circuit in January with a $10,000 CPEDI on January 7-10. Competitors will also have the opportunity to show in a $10,000 CPEDI Team Event on January 21-24. Held at the world-renowned Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL, AGDF will host its 2016 competition on January 14 through April 2. The Adequan® Global Dressage Festival is the world’s largest international and national dressage circuit featuring seven CDIs, including four CDI-Ws, one 4* and one 5*, the only non-championship CDIO Nations’ Cup in the Western Hemisphere, as well as weekly U.S. National events.

“The Adequan® Global Dressage Festival is very excited to host an expanded tour for the para-equestrian riders in 2016,” stated Thomas Baur, Director of Sport for AGDF. “Wellington is home to some of the best equestrian competition in the world, and we hope to continue to grow the sport and welcome more great competitors each year. This year is especially important as riders prepare for the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We look forward to hosting the world’s top horses and riders as they build up to those important championships.”

Mission Control, an advertising company owned by Ed Peavy and Rebecca Reno, is one of the four presenting sponsors of CPEDI competition at this year’s AGDF. In 2015, Mission Control presented two small tour CDI shows, and for 2016, Rebecca Reno has been a driving force in expanding the CPEDIs. The couple began sponsoring the sport in support of their daughter, Annie, who is a Grade III Para-Dressage rider.

Annie Peavy was recently named reserve champion in the CPEDI 3* High Performance division at the 2015 USEF Para-Equestrian Dressage National Championships. She and champion Rebecca Hart, along with many other top Para-Dressage competitors, look forward to competing in Wellington this winter as they prepare for the 2016 Paralympic Games. Peavy trains with Heather Blitz, who is a well-known competitor on the AGDF circuit each season.

“We were really fortunate to have a lot of support in expanding the competition this year,” Reno said of the initiative. “I am friends with another sponsor who stepped up to the plate and agreed to sponsor as well, and we are incredibly thankful and appreciative that she did that. I see all of these riders at shows, and they are not just our daughter’s competitors, they are our friends. We firmly believe that they are incredibly strong athletes that deserve the opportunity to compete at the great show grounds (at PBIEC). We go to Europe, and it is tough to compete as well as we need to. As AGDF expands and we get more Europeans interested in coming over here to compete, the better off we are going to be.”

“I thought the competition was wonderful last year, and we look forward to continuing to work with AGDF,” Reno noted. “It is a world-class show facility. We were in Europe for nine weeks this summer, and no one does it as well as them.”

Reno explained that after completing at the national championship in Katy, TX, the horses and riders are excited to travel to Wellington to compete this winter.

Reno stated, “They are just a strong group. They are really tough athletes who work hard, both the horses and the riders. I know they are equally committed to showing in Wellington this winter. If you want to make it to Rio, the proving ground is AGDF. I know they are all looking forward to the season.”

The Adequan® Global Dressage Festival’s CPEDI 3* Para-Equestrian Dressage athletes kick-off the show season with their first international competition of the year on January 7-10, 2016. This show will include FEI Para-Equestrian Dressage athletes in Grades Ia, Ib, II, III, and IV. For more information on competition at the 2016 AGDF, please visit www.globaldressagefestival.com.

Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.