U.S. Dressage Olympian Sabine Schut-Kery Finds Many Opportunities In Wellington BY JENNIFER WOOD
There is nothing simple about making a 3,000-mile trek from Napa, California, to Wellington, Florida, every winter with horses, but for Tokyo Olympic Games team silver medalist Sabine Schut-Kery, it’s a trip she does gladly for the opportunity it affords her to progress in the international sport of dressage. Sabine is one of the world’s best dressage athletes, and she has regularly attended competitions during South Florida’s winter season, from its early beginnings at the White Fences Equestrian Center in Loxahatchee, to recent years at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (AGDF). Sabine, who is 53 years old, first came to Wellington in 2000, two years after she made the move from her home country of Germany to Proud Meadows in Texas. She brought with her two Friesian stallions,Tinus PM and Jorrit PM, and a career of not only classical dressage, but training and performances in a traveling horse theater in Germany, similar to the Cavalia show in the United States. She continued these special exhibitions in the U.S., including shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City, but despite having traveled the world, she was still awed by the equestrian scene in Wellington. “I was blown away,” Sabine recalled.
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Sabine Schut-Kery with Sanceo during the AGDF and the Nations Cup at AGDF. PHOTO BY SUSAN J. STICKLE
“I had never seen anything like Wellington. It was quite special. It does get better and better. I think the community is growing so much more and improving.” When asked about her favorite memory of Wellington, a big smile lit up her face as she recounted when she brought Jorrit PM, the Friesian stallion that was the first horse she owned, to compete in the Grand Prix Freestyle when dressage was held at the Winter Equestrian Festival show grounds in
2001. At the same event, she also won the Prix St. Georges with Tinus PM. “It’s just a neat story for myself, personally, because I bought him when he was just a green three-year-old back then in Germany, I was competing at Second Level,” she recalled. “I bought him, and I remember my dream was, ‘Oh my God, if I could ever ride Third Level.’And here I am winning the Grand Prix Freestyle in Wellington with a Friesian against the warmbloods!” While Sabine did not come every winter since 2000, she made a point to make the trip when she could to advance her competition career. When her top horse and Olympic partner Sanceo was ready for international competition in 2014, she decided to attend AGDF each winter to give him the experience and exposure that the circuit brings. “The concentration of the opportunity to compete, that is why I come. I don’t think that’s the case anywhere else in the world,” she explained. “You have the opportunity and the option of showing on an almost weekly basis for all the horses you’re bringing: your students, clients, young horses and your top horses. The atmosphere is one of the biggest in the country, as well. It’s so concentrated and a bigger stage. It’s