As a quick note before we get to Chelan’s final post from Rebecca Farm, in the advanced division, Amy Tryon and Leyland jumped from fourth to first with just one rail in the show jumping. Overnight leaders Buck Davidson and Titanium dropped to third with three rails and Bonner Carpenter stayed in second on Impeccable with two rails. This was a big win for Amy and it’s great to see her back in super form.
Link: Advanced results
The strong performances this weekend from Mandiba and Leyland (and all the short listers) are good news for the US. As of now, I’m sticking with my ‘put a gun to my head’ WEG team prediction of Woodburn, Reggie, Neville, Mandiba, Leyland, and Comet.
One thing of note in the USEA recap is that Karen mentioned she tried jumping Mandiba after the jog for the first time today and it worked well. Phillip does this regularly, and it might be the beginning of a new trend because it seemed to work so well for Mandiba.
Now I’ll stop writing and let Chelan Kozak tell you all the show jumping from Rebecca Farm. I’d like to extend a huge thanks to Chelan for the great reports this weekend; they have been fantastic. Be sure to check out Chelan’s site and tell her thanks the next time you see her at an event. You can have my job anytime you want it Chelan.
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From Chelan:
To add briefly to yesterday’s post, I chatted with Kelly and Debbie about their falls. Debbie feels like she didn’t do a good job and should have stayed on. She is physically fine, and as we all know, competitive eventers are mostly too hard on themselves. Speaking of hard on herself, Kelly has broken a bone in her elbow. She went for a long one to the table and paid a price. For those of you that might not know, Kelly WON the CIC3* here with an impressive weekend just last year. So, let’s give her the ‘eventing is humbling’ award. Is it me or are we all suckers for punishment?!?
The jog had one casualty, as John mentioned. Heather and her horse certainly stood out on day one and two. Here’s hoping that they get the chance to go another day.
Show jumping as usual took it’s toll. The 3 star course here at RFarm is never a give away, and this year was no exception. Only four jumped with no jump penalties. The triple combination was the most knocked down of any of the fences. Two riders suffered from unfortunate ‘brain fart’ moments. Martha McDowell got seriously lost between one and two, and Tiana Coudray missed fence 10 for an E. My other ‘one to watch’ Beth Temkin had a bunch of rails. I don’t know the horse, but it has won at horse trials level, so one can assume has jumped well on the third day before. Beth had a few awkward moments. Still, they are a lovely pair. It makes for a long drive home, but I bet they will be back and get it sorted out.
The absolute stand outs today were Jill, Kristy, Buck and Karen. Buck’s horse is positively breathtaking, obviously Buck knows what he is doing, but what a pleasure to watch such a fantastic horse in action. Karen did a solid clear round. I know she was pissed about her rails at Rolex, as she is normally a great SJ rider. Funny side bar–coming into I think #8, a bottom rail got knocked down. I found out later from Karen that his shoe came off there and knocked the rail down. Then during the prize giving Mandiba got excited and reared. I guess the egg timer ran out on the ‘good boy’…
Meanwhile, in the ADV HT division, the course was the same but obviously smaller. If you can call 4 feet small! Anyhow, Amy won on Leyland, although she had one rail. Again, good to see that pair back in action. Maley Coombs ended up totally, completely soaked in the liverpool. The battery on my video camera was dying so I had turned it off for a second, so missed that action. That may sound cruel, but if I got my white breeches nasty and wet in front of thousands of people, by God I’d want it on video.
I am enjoying a G and T as we speak, (with paid for ice from R Farms ice chests, I may add) We are not driving tonight, so what the Heck! A personal note on the subject of alcohol to Steph R-B, Max Corcoran has a 6 pack of Okanagan Springs beer flying home to the ‘Burg for you. God knows what the ‘transport fees’ might be, but that’s for you to work out!
This year was so special with all of the riders flying out to play. Overall a pretty positive weekend, and I had a blast doing the daily reports…
