‘Brand New Horses’ Made On IEA Endurance Day

By on Jun 4, 2017 11:30 am -

Corinna Garcia and Gun Slinger. Photo by Miranda Akins/Photography In Stride.

Endurance day for the Indiana Eventing Association Three-Day Event was met with blue skies, white and red flags and happy horses. The 10-minute box was full of volunteers helping out their “team,” and everyone was all smiles throughout the day despite a bit of heat.

In the Training Three-Day, everyone completed and 8 out of 10 riders finished double clear. There was some fantastic riding from everyone in the Training as they booked around a really fun course.
Corinna Garcia and Gun Slinger still have a hold on first, delivering the fastest ride of the day and taking every fence with ease. They remain on their dressage score of a 31.0 going into the show jumping. Kathy Baar and Quick Car are keeping up however, finishing cross county with a 31.4 and sitting second right behind Corinna.

Natasha Erschen and FE Gran Torino. Photo by Miranda Akins/Photography In Stride.

There was a change up with the third place slot, as Mary McSweeney and Indian Summer had picked up 41.6 time faults throughout endurance day. Natasha Erschen and FE Gran Torino moved up from fourth after a double clear round.
There isn’t much breathing room for anyone in the top five going into show jumping. One rail or a bit of time could move things around. It will be a nail biter for sure!

Whitney Morris and Carry Me Home. Photo by Miranda Akins/Photography In Stride.

In the Novice Three-Day there was a big shake up after there were a handful of riders with stops and time. All but three of the 20 Novice combinations completed endurance day and half of those finished double clear.
Whitney Morris and Carry Me Home moved up from third to take the lead spot after a beautiful clean round. They are currently leading on a 29.5 going into show jumping.
Moving up from fourth to take the second place slot was Jessica Smith and Mia. They delivered a great double clear round which moved them up significantly. They’ll be riding on a 30.9 headed into show jumping.
Taking a leap up the leaderboard from sixth to third was Barbra Lyons-Sprouse and Wishful Thinking. They’ll be riding on a 31.9 going into show jumping.

Jessica Smith and Mia​. Photo by Miranda Akins/Photography In Stride.

The Novice will be another nail biter with only seven points separating the top 10. There were very few clean rounds in show jumping for the horse trials yesterday with only four out of 18 riders going clean in the Open Training, so it will be interesting to see how the three-day riders do over a tough course.
There were big smiles and excited riders coming off cross country yesterday with newly minted endurance horses who had a blast. I heard in passing on my way to the ten-minute box, “I feel like I have a brand new horse now!”
It’s so exciting to see the progress and confidence so many riders and horses have gained over this experience. A long-format event is a MUST for any rider! Good luck to all riders in the final phase. Have fun and keep the colored sticks up!
IEA H.T. & Classic 3DE [Website] [Entry Status/Ride Times/Live Scores]