Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM took the CCI3* lead this morning at the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event, scoring 41.6 to just edge Lauren Kieffer and Meadowbrook’s Scarlett’s score of 42.0 at the conclusion of dressage. It’s familiar territory for “Reggie” to be sitting in, as he’s twice finished in the top five at the CCI3* in this event, placing second in 2008 and fourth in 2012.
“He’s so relaxed, and I was a little worried myself that maybe I was too relaxed,” Buck told EN after the test. “But he just does his professional test every time. It doesn’t matter where he is — he could be at Kentucky, he could be here, he could be in the middle of 1-95 for that matter, and he just does the same test every time.” (Watch video of the test here.)
Reggie re-routed to Jersey Fresh after early trouble on cross country last month at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, where Buck said he got the 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding to a bad spot coming to the big table at fence 7b, the jump out of the Frog Pond.
Phillip Dutton and I’m Sew Ready. Photo by Jenni Autry.
“I jumped into the first water, and I turned, and when I went to go to the table, it was so wrong. It wasn’t like I could just lean back and kick,” Buck said. “It was completely my fault, and there’s absolutely no reason to jump Reggie around a course with 20 penalties at this point in his career, especially with that weather.”
Buck said he wasn’t worried about Reggie physically after Kentucky, but he decided it would be a good time to get him checked out at New Bolton Center by Dr. Eric Parente, who performed the horse’s wind surgery. “Dr. Parente passed him with flying colors. We did blood work, and the blood work was awesome,” Buck said. “We just need to put a pair of glasses on the rider and we’ll be fine.”
Carl and Cassie Segal, Reggie’s owners and Buck’s longtime supporters, live right down the road from Jersey Fresh, and with this being their hometown event, Buck said it made sense to re-route the horse here. “He’s a competitor, and he loves his job. That’s not how he wants to finish an event. He’s fit and well, and we’re here to try to win.”
Matt Brown and BCF Belicoso. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Buck confirmed that he did apply for the Pan American Games with Reggie, but he said he does not expect the horse to be named to the team. “It gives the selectors options. At the end of the day, we want (the U.S.) to win, and we want to send the best horses that are at the two-star level. If you don’t apply and it turns out they could really use an experienced horse, then you can’t help your team.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s cross country, Buck said he loves what course designer John Williams and his crew have done with the course. “It’s so different, and it’s so much more open now. It’s not easy, but it definitely has a better feel to it. It doesn’t feel so busy now,” Buck said.
We’ll have a full preview of the cross country course coming your way next. The grounds crew has been diligently aerating the ground all morning, as the Allentown area hasn’t seen much rain in the last week. Tomorrow’s forecast is still looking dry, but punching the ground has made a huge difference in the footing, and it should be good going for the horses.
Cecily Brown all smiles after her husband Matt Brown’s test with BCF Belicoso. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Looking at the other influential tests from this morning, Phillip Dutton and I’m Sew Ready scored 42.4 to move into third place. That bests their dressage score of 43.1 from Carolina International, where Phillip and “Jackson,” an 11-year-old Dutch gelding owned by John and Kristine Norton, went on to win the CIC3*. This weekend is the horse’s first crack at a CCI3*.
While BCF Belicoso is the greenest of Matt Brown’s three CCI3* rides, he delivered the nicest test of the bunch this morning to move into equal sixth place on a score of 46.3. All of Matt’s horses have superhero personas, and Matt wore a Captain America shirt underneath his show clothes for the test this morning with Belicoso, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the Blossom Creek Foundation.
Be sure to keep checking back to the EN homepage for all the latest news from Jersey Fresh and Badminton Horse Trials, where Samantha Clark is providing excellent coverage from England. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy, exciting day with cross country running for both events. Go Eventing!
#MMBHT: Website, Order of Go, Live Scores, Schedule, Course Preview, FEI TV, EN’s Coverage, Twitter, @samanthalclark
