The 2023 Washington International Horse Show (WIHS), presented by MARS Equestrian™ heated up on Thursday, October 26, at Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, MD, where daytime junior hunter competition gave way to the first evening session, featuring the opening international jumper classes during MARS Barn Night. It was newcomer Rene Dittmer (GER) who ruled the day, racing to the win in the $78,000 Welcome Stake, and then dashing to victory in the $40,000 International Jumper Accumulator class.
FEI Level 4 Course Designer Bernardo Costa Cabral (POR), assisted by Nick Granat (USA), designed the challenging track for the 23 starters representing eight countries in the Welcome. Nine managed to jump fault-free to advance to the jump-off.
“I was very happy with my first round,” said Dittmer. “Corsica did everything how I wanted it. I was first thinking I should go inside to the last line, but the time wasn’t so short today, so it all worked out fine.”
Jad Dana (LBN) was the first to tackle the short course aboard Caro W, an 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Castelan II x Aragorn) owned by Peter Howard and Laure Sudreau, and set the time to beat in a speedy 31.42 seconds. Just two horses later, Dittmer shaved almost two seconds off the time with Corsica X, stopping the clock in 29.58 seconds. Four rides after that, Shane Sweetnam (IRL) gave it a shot with his sensational partner James Kann Cruz, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Kannan x Cruising) owned by Gizmo Partners LLC, but couldn’t quite catch the time, finishing in 30.61 seconds. In the end, it would be Dittmer leading the victory gallop. Sweetnam finished in second, and Dana claimed third.
“Corsica is a naturally fast horse and usually when I catch everything quite well, I have a good chance to be in the top three, and today it was enough for the win,” described Dittmer of his ride with the 10-year-old Holsteiner mare (Connor x Corofino II). “She really knows where the top rail is. She’s so smart. In a class like today, I was a little deep to the one vertical in the middle, but she’s so smart to get out of the way. To be honest, she can be a bit mareish in the stable, like a lady, but in the course she’s just on it.”
