Cornelia Dorr cheesin’ with Chinch.
Both the CCI2* and CCI3* completed the dressage phase today at the 2017 Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event.
Tamie Smith leads the three-star aboard Kevin Baumgardner’s Wembley on a score of 45.9, followed by Buck Davidson and Park Trader in second place with 50.2 points, and Phillip Dutton and Mr. Candyman round out the top three with a dressage result of 52.9.
Young Rider Cornelia Dorr and her own Louis M have earned the top spot in the CCI2* on 45.8. Second place goes to Boyd Martin with Kyra on 50.2, and third place belongs to Colleen Rutledge with UNO on 50.9.
Read on to hear what a few of our top riders had to say about the day:
Tamie Smith on getting the ride on Wembley: “We found him on a shopping trip in England. We went with Joe Meyer and bought it from Tim Price for Kevin (Baumgardener). Just this year Kevin and Gretchen and I were looking at what horses could be ready for Kentucky for me to compete next year, and so they offered to have me take over the ride. I’m really fortunate they’re one of my biggest supporters. They own two of my other horses in a syndicate, so I won the jackpot meeting them.”
Tamie Smith on her team: “I have a few different people, but on the flat I work with Niki Clarke who I’ve ridden with forever – well over ten years. She helps me on the flat. I’ve been struggling. (Wembley) wouldn’t be the easiest on the flat, and I called her after our last competition and I was like, ‘I’m just struggling,’ and she came over and whipped me into shape. I’m really grateful to have her. I show jump with Susie Hutchinson and Phillip comes out and teaches us quite a bit on the cross-country, so it’s a good team!”
Tamie Smith on the cross country, newly designed by Captain Mark Phillips: “It’s very gallopy and open. There’s some technical questions, which I think with all the galloping might get the horses a little surprised because they’re just going along gallop fence after gallop fence. Mark has done a great job with keeping the course as open as possible, and it looks really great. I’m excited that I brought him here for his first three-star.”
Buck Davidson on “Kobe’s” airs above the ground today: “He was actually quite good. We had one major moment where he was maybe a bit excited and in the extended canter I put a little too much right leg I guess, and he told me! He jumped in the air, played around for a second, but then he went right back to work.”
Buck Davidson on what happened in Kentucky: “In Kentucky, he was not at all himself. He didn’t play around. That horse is the bravest horse I’ve ever ridden and I couldn’t get him to go in the warm up. He jumped and came back down on the fourth fence, so we did some blood work and the blood work wasn’t great, so he had a little bug.”
Buck Davidson on this weekend’s weather forecast: “We’re supposed to have a lot of rain and that will be good because the ground is quite hard. I hear we are getting a lot of rain, but this place can handle it. It’s very sandy here and it will only help.”
Cornelia Dorr on what it’s like to ride a dressage superstar like Louis M: “It’s like Christmas every day. He obviously is quite experienced with his other girl Pia in Germany, so he is teaching me how to ride like a German and what it should properly feel like. I’m very grateful.”
Cornelia Dorr on being a working student and her future plans: “I went to Sharon for a summer when I was 15 just being a working student and seeing if I could actually work that hard, and I loved it. I fell in love with her way of teaching, and her philosophies and her farm. So I sort of tucked it away when I went back to school and said I’d like to go back there one day. Out of high school I decided, with the support of my parents, to take a gap year and pursue this and continue the learning curve, so I did go back to Sharon’s and I’ve been there for about a year now. I’m hoping to extend it for a second year full time and push college off for another bit, but that’s still up in the air.”
Cornelia Dorr on competing in her first CCI2*: “I’m really excited it just gets more and more fun!”
Colleen Rutledge on UNO: “She’s just a class little mare. She doesn’t have extravagant gaits, but what she does is show up and give you 110% every single day. She is a workman. If I could have 10 horses with her work ethic, I’d have an incredible string. She’s got an incredible mind. Close to one of the smartest horses I’ve ever sat one, which is both good and bad.”
Colleen Rutledge on the highlight of today’s test: “I have been working on her halts. I was so proud of her on the halt on the centerline before our rein back because she did exactly what I asked her to do. She came in and she halted, and just stood. For some of the other creatures that I’ve ridden in my career that’s just such a novelty. The whole halt – immobility idea.”
Jersey Fresh Links: Website, Dressage Ride Times, Schedule, Live Scores, Millie Humphrey’s College Fund, EN’s Coverage, EN’s Twitter, EN’s Instagram
