Youth Corner: My First CDI

Youth Corner My First CDI by Maribeth Hebert

I am a USDF bronze medalist, FEI junior rider, and VP of Dressage for the GDCTA Youth Committee. This past month I competed in my first CDI (Concours de Dressage International) on my gelding, Florieux (Flori), and the Global showgrounds in Wellington, Florida. I got Flori last October through the dressage4kids horse dotation program.

This was my first ever CDI and Flori’s first in the United States. Each year Global puts on 12 shows from the first of January to the end of April including the Nations Cup, the Palm Beach Derby, and the Florida International Youth Dressage Championships (FIYDC), which is the event I competed in this season. FIYDC is held each year during the Palm Beach Derby to allow the top youth riders in Florida to compete and get to know one another. We made the decision to compete in a CDI since Flori already had his passport and it was my second season at FEI Juniors. Going into this CDI my hope was to get a good experience in the larger atmosphere riding for international judges before hopefully competing at NAYC this fall as a member of the Region 3 JR team. Due to Covid- 19, the classes were smaller but never did I imagine I would win my first FEI Junior CDI!

Riding in a CDI is truly an experience like no other. The atmosphere is much larger and you are constantly surrounded by some of America’s best riders. The main international arena surrounded by spectator tables and beautiful flowers and judge’s boxes. In a CDI you can ride in front of three to five judges that are 1* to 5***** judges depending on the class and level of CDI. Flori and I ended up scoring up to a 66% average and even earned a 69% from one judge on our freestyle. We definitely had a lot of nerves throughout the weekend but our scores constantly improved each day even with a couple of errors on the judge’s part. At the end of the weekend, Flori and I ended up FEI Junior Champion for the CDI, FIYDC, and FEI Junior High point for FIYDC. If you are ever considering entering a CDI, do it! It is totally worth the experience, especially in Florida. Just do not go into it with any expectation of placing or winning. Go in for the experience and set small personal goals for yourself such as scoring a 63% or even just a clean test! I am so excited to be competing in another CDI at Tryon, where the World Equestrian Games (WEG) was held in 2018, April 22nd- 25th of this year.