Sunday, August 25, 2024 |

As a testament to the quality of dressage breeding in America, all six top competitors in this year’s 4-year-old division were U.S.-bred horses. Willy Arts was again at the top of the 4-year-old class leaderboard with his homebred Pharaoh DG (Koning DG x Parcival), a 2020-born Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by DG Bar Ranch. As Pharaoh’s breeder and trainer, Arts was there from the horse’s promising beginnings through his early dressage successes.

Photo – Willy Arts and Pharaoh DG. (©Leslie Potter/US Equestrian)

“With some horses you can see from birth that they have everything they need, and that was the case with him as a foal and as a yearling,” said Arts. “As a two-year-old he was presented for licensing at the KWPN and received 90 points for conformation and movement, and when he had to take the performance test he received 88 points for the riding test.”

The striking dark chestnut stallion was able to fully convince the judges with 90.800% in the first and 85.200% in the second test and even received a grade of 10 in the perspective evaluation of the first test.

Perfect 10

“I’ve never gotten a 10 in my life, so it was a surprise in some ways,” Arts said. “I wasn’t expecting it, but at the same time I appreciated it because it summed it all up. A 10 is the highest. I think the judges recognized the horse’s ability and the process, so I appreciated that.”

In addition to his undeniable beauty and impressive gaits, Arts describes Pharaoh as having the temperament and character necessary to be successful as a competition horse and breeding stallion.

“I would say he’s a very cool, hot horse,” Arts said. “Cool in everything else, just calm. But when he’s working, he doesn’t know what fatigue is. When you’re on him, you’ve got a lot to work with. That’s a really special quality. And his feet, his legs – he’s very strong and well built. I think his best quality is his natural balance, his posture. Instead of having to put the horse together, you have a horse that just carries itself. And you can sit there and go.”

Charell Garcia (Middletown, NY) rode MW Virtuous (Valverda x Sp. Pr. Rheparter), a 2020-born Oldenburg stallion owned by Jennifer Vanover, to the reserve champion title for four-year-olds.

Simply unbelievable

“I was really excited about how he was this week,” Garcia said. “This is his third show and his first big show. He had so much energy all week and he was just incredible. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The heat got to him a bit today, I could tell, but he’s such a good boy and he’s always the same at home and at the show, I can count on him so much. I think he can do it. I’m super, super happy and proud of him.”

Michele Bondy (Wilsonville, Oregon) and Sonnenberg’s Paris (Vivino x Fine Time), a 2020 KWPN gelding owned by Sonnenberg Farm, LLC, finished third overall. Bondy has known “Paris” since he was a foal and has been his rider and trainer throughout his career to date.

“Paris is just lovely. He’s quite a silly, silly little boy, but he’s very emotional,” said Bondy. “When he came into the first test, he was always very reliable, but you could see he was a little nervous. He stayed with me during the test, but I was a little hesitant to really push. Today he just felt incredible. He was so good. He’s so willing. He’s so happy. You say, ‘Oh, you’re so good.’ He says, ‘Yeah, that’s so wonderful.’ He’s just a good boy. All in all, he’s a super horse. But I feel like today he was just a lot more rideable, like I could really push and he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it. Let’s do it.'”

Information about the competition:

The 2024 FOC will be held August 19-25 at the HITS Chicago Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, Illinois. Competitions will be held in two arenas and broadcast on the USEF Network. Bookmark the FOC events page on USEF.org for the latest coverage of this year’s show.

Ring plan | Starting order and results

Livestream of the Festival of Champions 2024

The US Dressage Festival of Champions will be streamed live on the USEF Network. US Equestrian members, subscribers and fans can watch all classes live. Not a member yet? Open a free fan account now!