By Charlene Strickland

August 10, 2003: Clear skies for the Intermediare I Freestyle in Santo Domingo--and a clear win for Canadian Leslie Reid. She and Mark accumulated a 5-point lead from the first two competitions, so everyone assumed she'd take individual gold. "He warmed up very well and gave me confidence," she said of her bay gelding. "I can tell by the first two or three movements how it's going to be. When I asked for something, he just said, 'Yes,' and it was great."

Photo by Charlene Strickland

Reid was last to go of the 15 freestyle competitors on Sunday. The first ride was at 3 PM, so churchgoers could attend a festive afternoon in the countryside west of the city. The Palmarejito equestrian venue is one of the Pan-Am sports with free admission.

Midway through the competition, the arena was surrounded by 1000 spectators. The audience was polite during the rides, yet their murmurs and excited comments, along with their parasols and the lively business of refreshment vendors, escalated the noise level.

Placings shifted behind Reid, mainly due to riders' nerves. The electric atmosphere of the show arena affected several horses, such as Lucky Tiger of the U.S. Pierre St. Jacques said, "He just swelled up when I came up the hill, and he saw all the people. He settled down when he was comfortable, like in the trot work."

As the "hometown hero" for the Dominican Republic, Losos felt the pressure of the expectant crowd. She admitted to nerves in front of the audience, saying of her Inatana las Marismas, "Both of us did the best we could." She had some mistakes, and was fifth in the freestyle (score) to end up in bronze position. Pujals took the silver for Mexico.
Photo by: Cealy Tetley

Bernadette Pujals kept her cool on Vincent. She was in third place going in, less than 1 point behind Ivonne Losos de Muniz. Her excellent freestyle with the chestnut stallion scored 72.8, and moved her to second. "I was not nervous today," she said. "The first half [of the test] went well, and I was ready to go for it."