Area III FTW, courtesy of Sara Ike
The Flying Kyle Carters of Area III had a great day of show jumping, adding just 1.8 penalties to their cross-country score to move up from second and take the team gold in the Young Riders CH-Y**. Today was an almost exact repeat performance of young riders last year, when Area III moved up from third to win the two-star in the show jumping. Area V nearly had a sweep of the team golds, but the Area V & IX team slid to second with three rails down. Canada brought home two bronze team medals today with a third place finish for Team Canada in the 2* combined with Team Ontario’s bronze in the 1*.
Team 2* Results:
1. Area III +1.8 168.6
2. Area V & Area IX +12 178.2
3. Team Canada +25 233.2
There were big movements in the individual competition show jumping as well. Dynamic Image and Devon Brown of Area III had a one rail margin by the time they entered the arena, but they didn’t need it and jumped a double clear to maintain the gold. Jacob Fletcher and Falcon Splash from Area V moved all the way up from 7th after the cross-country to win silver. Jacob and Falcon Splash just missed the medals in 2010, when they finished 5th in the young riders 2*, and it’s great to see them take home silver today. Sarah Kamensky and Urlanmore Beauty jumped six places to win the bronze.
Individual 2* Results:
1. Devon Brown and Dynamic Image +0 50.5
2. Jacob Fletcher and Falcon Splash +0 57.2
3. Sarah Kamensky and Urlanmore Beauty +0 58.4
4. Rowdie Jo Adams and No Money Down +4 58.5
5. Libby Head and Sir Rockstar +0 59.7
6. Joelle Baskerville and Malibu +8 62.4
7. Arden Wildasin and Totally Awesome Bosco +0 62.4
The 2nd through 5th finishers were separated by just 2.5 points. I hope all the riders define their weekend by much more than whether or not they went home with a medal, because ultimately that was determined by such an incredibly close margin–a few seconds on the cross country, an inch in the show jumping. Go eventing.