Andromaque looked absolutely copybook around Hugh Lochore’s Advanced cross country course at Southern Pines and jumped clear with 6.8 time to retain the lead in the USEA Adequan Gold Cup Pro Tour Series Division. Having not had the most auspicious start with a fall on DHI Colour Candy at fence 8, Pawlow made it all look easy for Will, moving up into 2nd place with a speedy clear round and for the rest of the day the worst he had to endure was some light-hearted ribbing about his muddy breeches!
Pawlow making the second water look like a walk in the park.
Susan Beebee’s Wolf galloped round well within himself, he’s the sort of horse that makes you think he’d give you all the confidence in the world, he’s so scopey and bold, jumping everything out of stride and Susan has a great rapport with him.
Susan Beebee and Wolf move up into third place with a solid clear; you can find all the scores here.
Phillip Dutton withdrew Fernhill Eagle before the start of cross country but moved up into fourth place overnight with a quick clear on Annie Jones’ Fernhill Fugitive. He took a short cut through the trees after this roll top out of the water to the table (of course!) almost mowing down surprised spectator Bobby Costello who was standing right in his path but luckily escaped without incident, not sure if he went especially close to him on purpose to see how fast he could run!
Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me are looking right on form cross country. They were fantastic at Rolex last year until they were pulled up right near the end and I’m expecting them to be a real threat there this year. Becky told me that last year she felt that Teddy felt a tiny bit tired towards the end of the course in Kentucky, and this year after taking him south to work on his dressage and show-jumping over the winter she’s really stepped up his fitness, and told me she can certainly notice the difference. She said that he was almost unrideable for the first couple of fences but luckily he’s such a good horse and always looks to go through the flags, “even if I’m looking at his forehead sideways!” She also admitted that perhaps without Comet she’s missing having another horse at the upper level and so has unconsciously stepped up Teddy’s work schedule more than she realised, and she smiled, “I was so lucky with Comet, and with Hogan – you just had to look at them to get them fit!” As she said though, Can’t Fire Me settled down and went really well, looking for his routes through the more complicated combinations and felt spot on. He’ll go to The Fork next, and then on to Rolex.
Leslie Chelstrom and Cecilia were one of many to knock the flag down at the corner but still had a nice round and finish the day in 6th place
Jan Byyny has the measure of Inmidair and rides him beautifully through the second water for a clear round and lies seventh overnight. Jan has been nothing but consistent this spring and I look forward to watching her at Rolex this Spring also.
I’m so thrilled that Jimmie Schramm had such a great round on Bellamy, both their first Advanced. I bumped into Jimmie a couple of times walking the course and she was telling me that she was feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement, that she definitely acknowledged it as a huge step up in her riding career, and she couldn’t have give him a better ride today. Well done Jimmie and Bellamy!
Boyd was the perfect trailblazer on Trading Aces – this horse gets better and better as they build a partnership together, and I spoke to Boyd about him afterwards, “I’m enjoying riding this guy. He’s got as much quality as I’ve ever had in a horse and I think he’ll be green at Rolex, but a little bit like Otis last year, you’ll see how brilliant he is there, and we’re still getting to know each other.” Last autumn at Plantation we had spoken about fitness and Boyd had said that was one of his concerns with the horse, “We’re still five weeks out so I’ll take him to Pennsylvania next week and I’ll swim him two times before The Fork and I’ll also get two gallops up Nelson’s Hill. I think I’m in good shape. Phillip (Dutton) rode him around a cross country (Pine Top) when I got knocked out the other day and it was really cool because he then came and gave me a few cross country lessons on him and told me a few changes I neeeded to make, my technique of riding him, and I was really, really pleased with him today because he was really locked onto the complicated combinations and such.” Boyd was yet another rider to praise Hugh Lochore’s track, “It’s better – much more flowing and galloping. This event had a reputation of being hard on the horses because of the galloping up and down but the new design has taken that out, and this is the first Southern Pines that I haven’t fallen off at in three years so I’m very pleased!”
The superhorse Neville Bardos was entered in the Advanced division and I asked Boyd why he hadn’t made an appearance, “Neville pulled up a little bit stiff after one of the gallops and we scanned the suspensory and initially it looked fine so I kept pressing on, and then last week it looked like they saw a bit of a strain on the ultrasound so I decided to pull him out of Kentucky and rest him up. We’ve sent him to Dr Revenoff, a vet in Kentucky who’s got a fancy new laser machine, there’s only two in the country, one in Kentucky and one in Southern California and they’re having great results in rehabilitating leg injuries so I’m lucky that we got him in there and we’ll see how it goes. It’s quite depressing because I was really on a mission this year with him, but as I said to the syndicate although the future at the moment is a bit cloudy with him, the good thing is he’s only 13, and for event horses that’s not terribly old and I wouldn’t mind just resting him for quite a long time and just letting his whole body rejuvenate. Last year, and a little bit this year we’ve been pushing on him and trying to get him here and there, and I think I’d just like to give him a good break and ease up and let him freshen up again. His heart’s in it, he wants to do it but he’s got mileage, but he’s been around a bit.” Wishing Neville a happy, restful recovery and we look forward to seeing him back when he’s ready xx
Caitlin Silliman and Catch A Star looked fantastic, travelling easily.
Donner looked really good for Will Coleman who gave him a sympathetic ride for a clear round
I am hoping to catch up with Emily Beshear later to chat; she looked great at the water, just turned away to circle before the roll top coming out , which is separately numbered, but was awarded 20 penalties, and also picked up 20 penalties somewhere else on course, not sure where yet. Emily did tweet that she’d experimented today with letting the handbrake off a little with mixed results, but I’ll try and report back in the morning.
Allie Knowles and Last Call looked impressive
Eventing Nation’s Kate Samuels and Nyls Du Terroir looked lovely the whole way round
This was just a warm up for Badminton for Shiraz who barely glanced at the fences! Now if only we can wrap Colleen in bubble wrap as she is the one walking around with a bruised ankle having literally kicked herself in the foot – doh! Of all the things that can go wrong and prevent one from competing at the world’s greatest three day event that would be rather unfunny!
Sharon White’s Wundermaske is a very exciting prospect for the future. Bouncing through the water for fun, Sharon confirmed later that he absolutely loves the job, and is a joy to ride. She’ll aim him at Jersey Fresh if everything goes to plan with the idea of perhaps going to Europe in the Autumn, but nothing is set in stone.
The heavy rain didn’t stick around and actually just improved the footing for the advanced horses that went around lunchtime. Intermediate show-jumping starts at 9am Sunday morning, followed by the Advanced. As always, many many thanks to the tireless volunteers and organisers, grooms, helpers, connections, horses and riders, and thank you of course for reading. Go Southern Pines and Go Eventing!
