<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ashker was already the first athlete to compete in the US Equestrian Open across both eventing and dressage. The Maryland International CCI4*-S has added another first. She is now the only athlete to have won a qualifier in both disciplines.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It took 16 horses and more than 100 FEI eventing starts to get here. Four of those horses made it to CCI5*. None of them won at the top level. <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">Lovedance</strong> did it in his first season.</p>
<div style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Win</div>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cross country time was always going to separate the field at Maryland and as we expected, nobody made the time. <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">Ema Klugman</strong> &amp; <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">Chiraz</strong> came closest, picking up 14.8 penalties to finish second. <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">Lovedance</strong> added 19.2, but a 29.7 dressage score and a clear show jumping round were enough to hold off the chasers. It marks Ashker's third international eventing win, all of which have come with Lovedance.</p>
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<div style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 6px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Laine Ashker &amp; Lovedance's International Eventing Wins</div>
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<td style="padding: 9px 14px; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.6);">Date</td>
<td style="padding: 9px 14px; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.6);">Event</td>
<td style="padding: 9px 14px; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.6);">Level</td>
<td style="padding: 9px 14px; font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgba(255,255,255,0.6); text-align: right;" width="60">Score</td>
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<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">Nov 2022</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; color: #001c54; vertical-align: middle;">Lexington VA</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">CCI2*-L</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;">27.7</td>
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<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">Nov 2023</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; color: #001c54; vertical-align: middle;">Lexington VA</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">CCI3*-S</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;">46.4</td>
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<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">Jun 2026</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; color: #001c54; vertical-align: middle;">Maryland International</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 13px; color: #374172; vertical-align: middle;">CCI4*-S</td>
<td style="padding: 11px 14px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle;">52.1</td>
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<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; margin-top: 10px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">International wins only. Every one has come with Lovedance.</div>
<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; margin-top: 10px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><img src="https://usef-admin.fly.dev/assets/cffc7ec1-2e6e-4987-8af0-022cb01a6b58.png?width=694&amp;height=837" alt="Screenshot 2026 06 30 113521"></div>
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<div style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Two Horses, Two Disciplines</div>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ashker is the only athlete to have competed in the US Equestrian Open across both eventing and dressage, a status she <a style="color: #c8102e; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.usequestrianopen.org/stories/laine-ashker-becomes-the-us-equestrian-opens-first-dual-discipline-athlete">earned at Bouckaert in March</a>.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On the dressage side, every international win of her career has come with&nbsp;<strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">Zeppelin</strong>, including a <a style="color: #c8102e; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.usequestrianopen.org/stories/lainey-wins-and-micaela-is-on-the-bubble">personal-best 73.015% Grand Prix Freestyle</a> at the Mid-Atlantic Dressage Festival in May 2025 where they secured a US Equestrian Open qualifier win.<br><br>Her 12th place (66.260%) at the US Equestrian Open of Dressage CDI5* Final last November made her a 5* athlete in both dressage and eventing.</p>
<div style="margin: 28px 0; padding: 28px 24px; background: #f7f8fc; border-top: 3px solid #c8102e; border-bottom: 3px solid #c8102e; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<div style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.4; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 14px;">&ldquo;To have two world-class horses in two different disciplines is pretty freaking amazing.&nbsp;Whenever I have a Debbie Downer day, I think about where I was five years ago. I had a prelim horse and horses doing Prix St-Georges. Now to have this is pretty unreal.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.18em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #c8102e;">Laine Ashker on competing at the US Equestrian Open in two disciplines</div>
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<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><em>"Five years ago, I would have never dreamed it," </em>she added. <em>"If you'd asked seventeen-year-old me if I'd have horses doing this, I would have looked at you sideways."</em></p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><em><img src="https://usef-admin.fly.dev/assets/0e26b061-b7f6-4638-8eed-40a9bd73c5fb.jpg?width=null&amp;height=null" alt="Img L1998">Laine Ashker &amp; Zeppelin&nbsp;at the US Equestrian Open Final of Dressage in November 2025.</em></p>
<div style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What Dressage Gives Back</div>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ashker has spoken before about how one discipline feeds the other. At Kentucky earlier this year, she pointed to the eventing dressage test itself and what it feels like compared to riding Zeppelin.</p>
<div style="margin: 28px 0; padding: 24px 20px 20px 24px; border-left: 4px solid #c8102e; background: #f7f8fc; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.35; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 16px;">&ldquo;It puts the eventing test into perspective. It&rsquo;s a pretty simple test. But I&rsquo;m doing it on a very fit event horse for whom this is their Grand Prix. It helps me break it down and I don&rsquo;t get nearly as nervous.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.18em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #c8102e;">Laine Ashker at kentucky 2026</div>
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<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The bigger carryover, she said, is in the show jumping. <em>"I've learned how to rate and balance the canter a lot better than I have in the past, from a dressage standpoint. I'm very grateful for the dressage work helping me with that."</em></p>
<div style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A Belief She Didn't Have Before</div>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Maryland win has done something to Ashker's outlook. She is talking about five-star debuts and LA contention with a smile on her face now.&nbsp;</p>
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<div style="font-size: 22px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.35; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 16px;">&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a belief in myself now that I can do it. Wherever the stars take us, maybe a first five-star in the next couple of years, or a win at the US Open, or maybe, if we&rsquo;re lucky, contenders for LA. I&rsquo;m telling you this with a smile on my face.&rdquo;</div>
<div style="font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.18em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #c8102e;">Laine Ashker on what comes next</div>
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<div style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Eyes on Both Opens</div>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At ten years old, Lovedance, the US Equestrian Open Final of Eventing at Morven Park in October is a likely path to do their first 4*L and it seems that Ashker has big plans for the rest of the season. <em>"I'm very humbled and very grateful,"</em> she said, <em>"and looking forward to hopefully competing in both US Opens on both my horses."</em></p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 28px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lovedance has eventing covered. Zeppelin keeps adding to his unbeaten run in dressage. The only discipline left is show jumping. Greya might want to keep an eye on the entry list.</p>
<div style="margin: 20px 0 28px; border: 1px solid #dde1ea; border-radius: 2px; overflow: hidden;">
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<td style="padding: 14px; border-right: 1px solid #dde1ea; border-bottom: 1px solid #dde1ea; background: #ffffff; vertical-align: top;" width="50%">
<div style="font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b7280; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maryland Final Score</div>
<div style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 800; color: #c8102e; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">52.1</div>
<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lovedance's winning total. A clear show jumping round and 19.2 time penalties on cross country did the rest.</div>
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<td style="padding: 14px; border-bottom: 1px solid #dde1ea; background: #ffffff; vertical-align: top;" width="50%">
<div style="font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b7280; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Series Standing</div>
<div style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Joint 17th</div>
<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">40 points from one Qualifier. Five open scoring slots remain.</div>
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<td style="padding: 14px; border-right: 1px solid #dde1ea; background: #f7f8fc; vertical-align: top;" width="50%">
<div style="font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b7280; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lovedance's Wins</div>
<div style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3</div>
<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Every international win of Ashker's eventing career has come with this one horse.</div>
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<td style="padding: 14px; background: #f7f8fc; vertical-align: top;" width="50%">
<div style="font-size: 9px; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.14em; text-transform: uppercase; color: #6b7280; margin-bottom: 5px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Zeppelin's Wins</div>
<div style="font-size: 26px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">6</div>
<div style="font-size: 11px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Every international dressage win of Ashker's career has come with this horse.</div>
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Laine Ashker with both Zeppelin and Lovedance

Maryland Win Makes Laine Ashker the US Open's First Dual-Discipline Winner

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Laine Ashker & Lovedance on the Open Weekly Graphic

The Open Weekly: Ashker Wins at Maryland & Jacobs at Traverse City

Caroline Pamukcu & King's Especiale cross-country

5 Things to Follow at Maryland International

<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Across 25 qualifiers this year, the top dressage horses and riders competing in the US ride for points and a spot at the $200,000 US Equestrian Open of Dressage Final, held this November at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California. Every combination rides the same Grand Prix test, then choreographs those same movements to music in the Grand Prix Freestyle, where it can start to look a lot like dancing. If you have ever watched and wondered what the announcer means by "piaffe," or why one trot looks nothing like the next, this guide will clear it up.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Basics</h2>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dressage has its own language, and most of it describes one of two things: gaits or movements.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">gait</strong> is how the horse is traveling. There are three: walk, trot and canter. Each has its own rhythm and footfall, from the four-beat walk to the rolling three-beat canter. Speed within a gait can change too, which we'll get into in a minute.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">movement</strong> is a specific, trained exercise the horse performs inside a gait. A half pass is a movement. So is a pirouette. The Grand Prix test is a fixed sequence of these, ridden in a set order, each one scored on its own. In the Freestyle, riders have a prescribed list of movements they must ride, but they can choreograph them however they like.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One more word you will hear constantly: <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">the hindquarters.</strong> The back end. The engine. Almost everything good in dressage starts there.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Collection</h2>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">If there is one idea that separates Grand Prix dressage from a horse trotting around in a field, it is <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">collection</strong>.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a horse becomes more trained, it learns to carry more of its weight on its hind legs. The hind joints bend, the back end lowers, and the front end lifts and lightens. Instead of relying on the rider for support, the horse learns to hold itself in what is called <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">self-carriage</strong>. This way of going dramatically improves the quality of the gait and makes the horse more adjustable and responsive to subtle cues. Collection is behind every difficult movement in the sport. A horse cannot trot on the spot or skip across the arena in tempi changes without it.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Collected vs. Extended</h2>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Here is where newcomers, and plenty of regulars too, get tangled up. Collection, the state above, is not the same thing as the collected gaits, even though they share the word.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Picture the hindquarters as a coiled spring. Collection is the act of compressing it: the horse bends its hind joints and shifts its weight back to load the spring. What the rider does with that loaded spring decides the gait.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In a <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">collected trot or canter</strong>, the rider keeps the spring compressed and lets the energy go up. The steps get higher, shorter and bouncier. The horse covers less ground, with more lift.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In an <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">extended trot or canter</strong>, the rider releases that same spring forward. The frame lengthens and the legs reach for maximum ground cover, while the weight stays back over the hindquarters, where the engine lives.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The key: a real extension is collection released forward, not the horse simply running faster. Without collection first, the extension falls apart one of two ways. The horse gets quick and flat and falls onto its forehand, or it flings its front legs out for show while the hind legs trail behind doing none of the work. The flashy reach always comes from the rear-wheel drive.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There are gears in between, too. "Medium" trot, for example, sits between collected and extended, though that version of the gait isn't seen at the highest level.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Half-Halt</h2>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So how does a rider ask a 1,000-pound prey animal to shift its weight backwards and load that spring? A tiny little crucially important tool called a <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">half-halt</strong>.</p>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A half-halt is a quick, near-invisible rebalancing. For a moment the rider's seat, leg and hand ask the horse to shift its weight back and gather itself, without actually slowing down. If you have ever driven a manual car, it is the friction point: the moment you let the clutch up just enough to engage the gear and feel the power connect, before you actually accelerate. You collect the energy instead of letting it spill forward. Watch a top rider and you will rarely catch it happening. You only see the result: a perfectly executed movement.</p>
<h2 style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 28px 0 12px 0; padding-bottom: 6px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eef0f5; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Movements</h2>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 18px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Load the spring, balance it with the half-halt, and the horse can do the cool, flashy things that make a Grand Prix test so fascinating to watch. Here are the ones you will see most.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Half Pass</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The horse travels forward and sideways at once, crossing the arena on a diagonal while bent in the direction it is going. The legs cross over, the body stays roughly parallel to the long side, and it should look smooth and uphill. Not to be confused with the leg yield, a more basic version taught early on, where the horse moves sideways while bent away from the direction of travel. The half pass is the grown-up cousin: more bend, more collection, more expression.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Zig-Zag</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This one happens only at the canter. String several half passes together, switching direction, and you get the zig-zag. The horse half-passes one way, throws in a flying change, then half-passes the other, repeating in a counted, symmetrical pattern down the centerline. It looks like a skier carving linked turns through a slalom, and it tests balance and obedience as much as sideways reach.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Flying Change</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">At the canter, one front leg always leads. A flying change is the horse swapping which leg leads in mid-air, in the split second all four feet are off the ground. A clean single change looks effortless. It is also the building block for the showpiece below.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tempi Changes</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now do those changes in a row, on a set count. Every fourth stride is a four-tempi, every third a three, every second a two, and every single stride a <strong style="color: #001c54; font-weight: bold;">one-tempi</strong>, or "ones." At the Grand Prix level the test calls for fifteen one-tempis in a row. The ones are the crowd favorite. Done well, a line of them looks like the horse is skipping across the arena. And set to music? They will put a smile on your face.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Piaffe</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A trot on the spot. The horse trots with full cadence and elevation while staying more or less in one place. This is collection taken to the limit: nearly all the weight loaded onto the hindquarters, the spring fully compressed and held rather than released. One of the hardest things a horse can be asked to do, and a centerpiece of the Grand Prix.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Passage</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A trot in slow motion. The horse moves forward, but with huge elevation and a long, floating moment of suspension where it seems to hang in the air between steps, kind of like the airwalk or slickback dance move. If piaffe is the spring held in place, passage is that same power rolled forward into something that looks weightless.</p>
<h3 style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; color: #001c54; margin: 22px 0 8px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pirouette</h3>
<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0 0 14px 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A turn on the spot. In a canter pirouette, the horse keeps cantering while its hind legs stay almost planted and the front end circles around them, through a full 360 degrees. Think of a figure skater pulling into a spin, the hindquarters as the axis. It takes serious collection to hold a clean canter rhythm while turning that tight.</p>
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<p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.72; color: #1a1a2e; margin: 0; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That is what the horses are doing. What it is worth is another question. Next time we will get into how the judges turn all of this into a number: the marks out of ten, the movements that count double, the collective marks, and what "degree of difficulty" really means once the music starts.</p>
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<div style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.3; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maryland and the Numbers Game</div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bellissimo and Pamukcu hunt points as the top of the table tightens.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.3; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">USA Second in Rotterdam</div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Little and La Contessa go clear twice to anchor a jump-off finish.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: 800; line-height: 1.3; color: #001c54; margin-bottom: 4px; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Holzer Leads into the Break</div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; color: #6b7280; line-height: 1.4; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Six points cover the top five, with two qualifiers still to run.</div>
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Marcos Orlob and Jane in extended trot in a dressage test

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