Bent Jensen And
Rockefeller Win USDF Freestyle TOC At 3rd Annual Zada Enterprises LLC Dressage
At The National At The 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mary
Hilton for Phelps Media Group, Inc.
WELLINGTON, FL – December 5, 2004 – Bent Jensen, 49, of Wellington,
FL, aboard his stallion Rockefeller won the United States Dressage Federation
(USDF) Test of Choice (TOC) at the 3rd Annual Zada Enterprises LLC Dressage
At The National today. Jensen earned a score of 68.750% riding a Fourth Level
Musical Freestyle. Second place went to Johnny Robb aboard Mr. Boombastic who
earned 61.667% for her test, also at Fourth Level. Third place was awarded to
Hadley Tolliver riding Daveed who was awarded 58.611% for her Third Level ride
to music.
Jensen’s
music was a compilation of old-time rock’n’roll tunes re-vamped
instrumentally to feature a banjo throughout. The music fit the six-year-old
chestnut stallion’s gaits perfectly. Jensen created the choreography and
was pleased with his horse’s performance today. “I was happy with
his suspension in the trot work and the half-pirouettes on the centerline –
that’s very hard to do,” Jensen commented. Jensen was debuting this
new freestyle, which he re-styled from the one he and Rockefeller had been performing
earlier in the season. “He likes doing the freestyle. He pumps up when
he hears the music,” Jensen said.
Lis Christenson created the music for Jensen’s kur. She is based in Jensen’s
native country, Denmark, and worked with him long-distance as well as whenever
he visited Denmark. She also creates the music for another Danish Olympian,
Lars Petersen. Jensen, who became a U.S. citizen two years ago, was a member
of Denmark’s 1992 Barcelona Olympic Team. Rockefeller is a six-year-old
Danish breeding stallion that Jensen purchased as a six-month-old foal in Denmark.
“I don’t know how to buy foals, so I went by the pedigree,”
Jensen said. Rockefeller is by Rubenstein out of a Donnerhall mare. He recently
received his lifetime approval from the GOV (German Oldenburg Verband) and is
also approved by the International Sport Horse Registry (ISR). Jensen will show
him in Florida this winter, then move him to a farm in Maryland in April where
he will stand at stud for three months.
During the winter in Florida, Jensen will continue to show Rockefeller at Fourth
Level and plans to move up to Prix St. Georges by the end of the season. He
is certain the stallion will develop to Grand Prix. “Absolutely,”
said Jensen. “He has already started piaffe and passage.” Is Jensen
aiming for a spot on a U.S. Team? “I would love to! I’m working
towards that,” he said. Jensen and Rockefeller competed in Dressage At
The National last year at First and Second Level. Jensen described the stallion’s
attributes that have bolstered his quick progress up the levels. “He has
an amazing mind, he wants to work, and he learns very quickly,” Jensen
said.
Rockefeller is wrapping up his 2004 season with a bundle of honors –
he won all three of his Fourth Level classes at Devon, earning in the seventy-percentile
at each outing and also earned the High Score at Fourth Level at the show; he
is the 2004 USDF Reserve Champion Horse of the Year at Second Level; and was
the USDF Region 3 Reserve Champion at Second and Third Level. Jensen is especially
proud of Rockefeller’s USDF Championship in the Musical Awards. “That’s
very important and hard to earn,” he said. Jensen is so pleased with Rockefeller
that he recently purchased his full brother, a three-year-old black stallion
named Rushcutter. Jensen is just beginning to train the young horse. “He’s
learning just as fast as Rockefeller, “ he said. Jensen has showed at
all three of the Zada Enterprises LLC Dressage At The National competitions
in Wellington. “It’s one of my favorite shows,” he said.
For more information about the 121st National Horse Show & Family Festival,
write to National Horse Show, PO Box 386, Greenvale, NY 11548. E-mail: NationalHS@aol.com;
Phone: (516) 484-1865; Fax: (516) 484-1982. Web: www.nhs.org.
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