Photo of Mara Dean and Nicki Henly not at Red Hills, but you get the idea. Photocred Rock an Racehorses
*The word around the barns is that, despite 10 rider falls and 6 MR's, the incidents were generally mild, and having talked to several people I have not heard of any serious injuries to riders or horses. Again, please note the 'word around the barns' part of this statement.
The WC course got great reviews, and it sounded like the CIC2* course was challenging, a statement that is supported by the calculations below. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with the event.
I heard about a lot of falls on the flat, and one rider who fell off and ended up landing jogging next to his horse. The mood from riders this evening seems very positive, and one rider explained to me that approximately half of the fences on the XC course were frangible.
(1) Mara Dean and Nicki Henley continues to lead the CIC3*-W after cross country, after having the second fastest 3* XC time and adding 9.2 points to their score. The rest of the top 5 (Tru Luck, Nevada Bay, Merloch, Arthur) remains nearly unchanged, with Will Coleman and Nevada Bay jumping up from 8th on the fastest 3* round of the day, and Karen and Mandiba dropping to 6th with 30.8 time penalties.
(2) As usual, making the time was extremely tough around the terrain of Red Hills. Out of 128 starters, there were only 4 rides without time penalties today, and three of those were by Will Coleman in the CIC*, which he leads on All The Buzz by 7.9 points. Sometimes the fact that almost no one makes the time is an indicator of too tightly wheeling a course, but at Red Hills, the terrain causes so many challenges, from riders having to take extra rebalancing to horses being challenged in terms of fitness, that even a generously wheeled course could lead to these results.
(3) ENK apparently lasts for at least two days, as Hannah and St. Barths maintained their lead in the CIC2*.
(4) The CIC3* (non W) started the weekend with 4 horses and is now a 2 horse race. Tara Ziegler and Buckingham Place lead Elissa Estes and Medici by the respectable horse trials score of 36.5 points.
(5) In the advanced, Laine Ashker and Anthony Patch jumped from 3rd to first as overnight leader My Boy Bobby withdrew and Ashley Adams and Vaunted did not complete the course.
(6) Looking ahead to the CIC3*-W show jumping, Mara and Nicki Henley have a 7.2 point lead over Phillip and Tru Luck going into tomorrow. The Red Hills show jumping is always a challenge due to the fact that it is on a hill with the most elevation change that I have ever seen in a show jumping course.
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BY THE NUMBERS:
-78% of all starters completed the courses at Red Hills
-60% of the starters had clean (finished with no jumping penalties) rounds
-4 double clears
-10 RF's
-6 MR's
-Completion percentage: 90% CIC*, 52% CIC2*, 76% CIC3*W, 57% A, 73% OI, 92% P
-Clean ride percentage: 71% CIC*, 36% CIC2*, 62% CIC3*W, 42% A, 65% OI, 71% P
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Just for the facts, the live scoring is updated every 3 minutes not seconds. And since I'm sitting right here doing that job of scoring I know these things. The website has been up all day. Maybe the browser on a person's computer is having issues. We have seen that happen in the past.