She explains how she listens to the horse and keeps his mind busy. “Sometimes with stallions you have to tire the brain, which means that you have to tire the body, unfortunately. You hate to have to do that, but sometimes they don’t let you go any other way because they are bouncing off the walls there. You have to get to the other side of that before you put them away.” She’s pleased because at the championship at
Lamplight, Cerro gained exposure as a stallion and the show is part of his education. “It’s not just physical. Horses have to experience things. Jogs can get exciting, and also award ceremonies,” she warns.
WHAT LIES AHEAD About her championship this year, Lisa is proud of her nine-year-old having his name as first winner on the perpetual trophy. She says, “He just showed everybody his age and his development. That’s what I’m so proud of. This puts us on the map for the big championships—he’s proven himself.” For Cerro, Lisa’s plan is clear. “My whole plan right now is about the World Equestrian Games in France. That’s my goal. It’s everything along the way until then.” This goal will lead them to train in Germany the summer of 2013, along with showing in some CDIs there. “Then we’ll come
back, have some down time, and start showing at the qualifiers in January 2014.” As she describes her long-term plan, she also remarks, “He’s young. We’ll have him around for a while.”
She sees the future of U.S.
dressage as relying on correctly trained young horses. “We need to be able to bring up our own young horses. This is where it’s going to start.” Along with superior horses, U.S. dressage requires master trainers, who can train the trainers who work with riders and horses. “We need trainers who can get on horses,” says Lisa. “I have Ernst because he can get on and do things; he can show me. It’s not just a verbal eye on the ground. That’s huge when you’re teaching things like piaffe and passage.” Finally, Lisa challenges our trainers. “If we get a group
of new, young horses that people can train and if we can raise that level of training up, then combined with good horses we can do what Carl Hester did for Great Britain this year [leading his team to a gold medal].”
About Lisa & Cerro In 2001, Lisa was the first non-European rider to earn a ranking as
a top ten FEI World Dressage rider, placing fifth. Riding for the U.S., Lisa, 45, has won a team silver medal (2002 World Equestrian Games) and team bronze medal (2004 Olympic Games). She trained in Europe for twelve years and rode for Gestut Vorwerk from 1997 to 2004. In Germany Lisa earned her Bereiter certificate and also the
Reitlehrer (licensed riding instructor). She trains with Ernst Hoyos, who was with the Spanish Riding School for 30 years. She has also trained with Nicole Uphoff, Klaus Balkenhol and Herbert Rehbein. Lisa is now based in Wellington, Florida. In September 2010 she began riding Pikko del Cerro HU, bred and
owned by Anne Sparks of Horses Unlimited. Cerro was foaled in New Mexico in 2003, and he won the 2009 Markel/USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championships, 6-Year-Old, with his previous trainer, Mikala Gunderson. In 2011 Lisa introduced Cerro in Prix St. Georges and Intermediare
Lisa Wilcox and Pikko del Cerro HU in piaffe.
I. The scores they earned placed them on the USEF Developing Horse/Rider Long List, and they were invited to compete at the USEF National Intermediare I Championships at Gladstone. They also qualified for and won the 2011 Developing Horse National Championship at Lamplight. And to cap 2011, Lisa rode Cerro at the American Hanoverian Society East Coast Stallion Licensing at Hilltop Farm, where he was champion and became an Elite Hanoverian Stallion. In their first Developing Horse Grand Prix test (Wellington Classic Dressage II, March 2012), Lisa rode Cerro to a score
of 69.875. That score put them at the top of the short list to qualify for that championship, and they stayed in first place all through 2012, finally winning the national championship at Lamplight.
Warmbloods Today 27
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