Lauren Kieffer and Czechmate Lead Intermediate at Ocala

Lauren Kieffer and Czechmate. Photo by Jenni Autry. Lauren Kieffer and Czechmate. Photo by Jenni Autry.

Let’s all breathe a collective sigh of relief, EN — the 2015 eventing season has officially begun! Those who made the trip to Florida to beat the cold are enjoying what looks to be some lovely weather at Florida Horse Park for the first Ocala Horse Properties event of the year.

We already gave Buck Davidson a nod for his 13 entries this weekend, but Lauren Kieffer is continuing her leading lady status so far this weekend, sitting atop the Open Intermediate with the Ramsay family’s Czechmate. This horse had a successful first run at the Advanced level at Plantation Field last fall and will be legging up to get some more experience this season with Lauren in the irons.

Lauren and Czechmate scored a 27.7 in the dressage to sit in second, and then skipped around cross country with 6.4 time to take the lead overnight. Marilyn Little is hot on Lauren’s tail, though, taking second and third positions with RF Scandalous and RF Overdressed, respectively. Both of these horses are relatively new rides for Marilyn, and it looks like their partnerships are off to a solid start in 2015.

Bailey Moran and Loughnatousa Caislean put in one of their most relaxed tests to date, according to Bailey, to score a 32.3 in the dressage. This pair will take fourth place into show jumping tomorrow, and Bailey couldn’t say enough good things about “Leo” on her Facebook this morning.

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Jennie Brannigan and Debbie Rosen’s The Alchemyst round out the top five in the Open Intermediate, sitting on a 37.3 overnight. Jennie took on “Al” after his last competition with Debbie at last year’s AECs with the intention of finding him his new rider. Attention young riders, contact Jennie Brannigan if you’re interested!

Photo via The Horse Pesterer on Facebook.

Photo via The Horse Pesterer on Facebook.

We will update this post with more scores once cross country completes for the Preliminary divisions later today. In the meantime, check out the fence above and tell us why we don’t have a Bud Light stand at the end of cross country with jumps like that? Thanks to The Horse Pesterer for posting a photo, we love it!

Ocala Horse Properties Winter I H.T. [Website] [Ride Times] [Live Scores]

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