Mark your calendars everyone, for next Friday, January 20th at 7pm, as eventers, show jumpers, and polo players alike will be heading down to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center for the 2012 PRO Derby Cross Event.
Teams are composed of three event riders, a show jumper, and a polo player. Team Captains must have represented their country in international competition. The other two event riders must have competed at the two-star level or above.
Scoring is based on time taken to complete a course, with faults converted into seconds. For example, a rail or a stop would be four seconds added to the final time. Polo riders have the opportunity to decrease the team’s time by ten seconds if they successfully execute a challenge fence.
The Derby Cross was held last year in March at the same location, and was a great success. Besides just being a fun and interesting thing for the horses and riders to take part in, the value of holding a competition melding riders of three disciplines really cannot be underestimated. Horse sport is horse sport no matter the discipline, and the more we can attract riders, owners, sponsors, and spectators to our sport from other disciplines, and vice versa, the better off everyone will be.
Here are the teams for this year’s Derby Cross:
Team FarmVet/Cavalor
Buck Davidson
Bruce Davidson
Will Faudree
Aaron Vale
Kris Kampsen
Team Guardian Horse Bedding
Karen O’Connor
Clark Montgomery
Marilyn Little – Meredith
Benjamin Meredith
John Gobin
Team Windsor
Leslie Law
Sinead Halpin
Sharon White
Scott Smith
Luis Escobar
Team Omega Alpha
Jessica Phoenix
Selena O’Hanlon
Rebecca Howard
Erynn Ballard
Martin Estrada
Team SmartPak
Phillip Dutton
Boyd Martin
Jennie Brannigan
Jeffery Welles
Nic Roldan
Team Devoucoux
Hannah Burnett
Shannon Lilley
Jon Holling
SJ TBA
Doug Barnes
Here’s a video from last year’s event:
Many thanks to CatchRide for the video
If you’re not too far from Wellington, it really would be worth your while to make the trip over next Friday. And as further incentive, General Admission is free! Click here for more information.
Go Derby Cross.
