Lauren Nicholson and Larcot Z. Photo by Sally Spickard.
U.S. Olympian Lauren Nicholson calls herself a “bridesmaid” when referring to her record at the 4*-L level. She’d competed in 32 CCI3*s/CCI4*-Ls prior to this weekend at MARS Bromont CCI. She’d finished on the podium five times, including several second-place finishes (one of which came at Bromont with Landmark’s Monte Carlo in 2019). After she came off cross country yesterday on Ms. Jacqueline Mars’ Larcot Z, she was frankly a bit frustrated about the 14.8 time penalties she’d picked up that dropped her out of the top three ahead of show jumping. She was practical: the horse, a ride she acquired just two years ago after he was previously ridden by Reagan Lafleur and Will Coleman, was still gaining strength and education, and he’d not yet run a full 4*-L cross country course. It takes time to be able to get to the point where you can go for the win, but all the same, Lauren’s a competitor. “I had resigned myself to being second again,” she said wryly this afternoon.
And yet, it would be Lauren’s turn to taste victory at the level for the first time. It was a challenging day to show jump. Brody Robertson (USA) laid out a track that featured numerous related distances. “Everything was off of turns, and then it wasn’t,” Jessie Phoenix had described earlier. “I would say the last eight fences were kind of all related, actually,” Lauren concurred. “You know, he kind of took you from one line to the next, and you didn’t get a lot of time. You had to be thinking about the next line or you weren’t going to be in time for it.”
Lauren Nicholson and Larcot Z.
The result? Lauren delivered the only double clear in the division (actually, across both the 4*-S and 4*-L, which jumped the same course) to finish the weekend atop the board on a score of 41.9.
“I’ve always preferred producing my own [horses], because I do always feel it’s really hard to pick up other people’s rides,” Lauren said of taking the reins on “Larco” when he’d already been campaigned through the 3* level. “A lot of us professionals talk about it a lot — even when we get a new horse, even if you get on great and have some great results, it really takes two years before you feel like you know them and that you know what they’re going to be like, and they feel like yours. And that’s if you get on really well. It can take a bit longer.”
Lauren Nicholson and Larcot Z. Photo by Sally Spickard.
“I always feel like if I get something that’s already been started, it’s my responsibility to a little bit take my time and tick each box so I make sure there’s not a missing piece before I get to the level and I’m like, ‘Oh, whoops, I needed that,'” she continued. Hence, her pragmatism after cross country yesterday and her initial acceptance that perhaps a win wasn’t in the cards, despite the fact that she’d started the weekend in the lead after dressage. “And sometimes you create baggage if you do that. It’s sometimes hard to be patient — but [you need to] kind of take your time ticking them along until you tick all those boxes and then feel confident enough to pull the trigger and that you know it’s going to work.”
It becomes a very sweet birthday weekend for Lauren, who celebrated her birthday earlier in the weekend and also had the chance to ride her horses in front of Ms. Mars, who was in attendance all weekend, sitting front and center to take in the show.
“It’s funny. I’ve been trying to win a four-long for a very long time,” she mused. “This is actually my first. I’ve been second at a lot of things. And honestly, after yesterday, I’d a little bit resigned myself to, like, if it went well, I’d be a bridesmaid again. I was like, ‘Probably gonna be second again!'”
What Happened to the Overnight Leader?
Ema Klugman and Chiraz. Photo by Sally Spickard.
The opportunity to take the win was opened up to the field earlier in the day after overnight leader Ema Klugman withdrew RF Redfern ahead of the final trot-up in the morning. Later, Ema reported that “Fern” had sustained a hoof bruise and that it was in her best interest to let her sit out the jumping. Ema still, however, had a chance to take her own first 4*-L win with her other ride, Chiraz, who had been second after cross country.
But literal minutes before the 4*-L division was due to start jumping, everything changed. The live scores refreshed and showed Ema was disqualified. We’d seen her walking her course just before, so the change had been handed down at the last possible second.
EN and the press team at Bromont attempted to obtain an official statement from the Technical Delegate on site, which was declined due to the fact that, according to the TD, the FEI needed to be the one handing down the official information. We later confirmed via Ema’s statement on social media that the disqualification had been handed down due to improper administration of vitamins intravenously. The vitamins used were not prohibited, however it is now, as of January 2025, not FEI legal to administer them through IV; they must be given orally. The rules on this can be found in the FEI Veterinary Regulations here and in a USEF-issued summary here.
“We gave Chiraz vitamins last night and the Ground Jury told me right before I got on today that they are not allowed to be given IV,” Ema wrote. “They are not prohibited and may be given orally. It’s a new rule that just came out this year, and we didn’t know about it.”
Of course, there is always a responsibility on competitors, veterinarians, officials, grooms, and other stakeholders to know the rules and stay current on changes, which happen frequently and are admittedly not always the easiest to find. Understandably, though, there are more than a few questions that have arisen out of this incident and the handling of it. There is a fair lack of clarity surrounding the issue and the timing of the disqualification, too. In a reply to a comment on social media, Ema also indicated that an FEI vet steward had given clearance to use the vitamins as such when her team checked.
EN will be reaching out to the FEI to obtain a formal statement on the incident; and I, personally, have a few thoughts swirling in my head that need some time to organize themselves into something coherent, and I also don’t want to detract from the success that other riders had by going off on a big, opinion-based tangent here. I’ll save those thoughts for a different piece.
“It’s awful for [this win] to happen a little bit through ‘default’ for poor Ema,” Lauren had said earlier. “No one wishes that, and I wish she could have jumped both her horses. That’s how I would prefer the sport to go. But, you know, hopefully this weekend is just a little blip for her and she’ll go on to win the next one.”
A Preview of Future Talent
Hayley Frielick and Sportsfield Lumiere. Photo by Sally Spickard.
The other top finishers in our 4* divisions really give us a glimpse into the next generation of exciting, true-blue event horses that are rising through the ranks. In the 4*-L, New Zealand’s Hayley Frielick and Sportsfield Lumiere moved up to take home second place overall, lowering one silly rail and finishing on a score of 48.2. “Johnny” is a horse Hayley’s been quite high on since she imported him from Ireland thanks to her eagle-eyed source of horses, Martha Tomlinson. But it’s been a learning curve, as to this point Hayley’s ridden primarily Thoroughbreds. Bringing a warmblood along to fitness for this level has given Hayley more tools in her toolbox to call upon when it comes to preparing a horse for the top.
“It’s been a huge learning curve,” Hayley said. “Even comparing the two I had here this weekend — the little nippy Thoroughbred [Dunedin Black Watch] and this big, rangy, slower warmblood — it’s a completely different ride. Learning their quirks, what works for them fitness-wise — it’s been a lot to take in. But he’s been the most phenomenal horse to learn with. Even the prep events do so much for the Thoroughbred that that’s kind of all he needs. For the warmblood, we actually map out a real program — you see a much bigger difference with them. With a Thoroughbred, he’s barely blowing when he comes in off a gallop. But Johnny from last year to this year — he’s like a different horse.”
Hayley Frielick and Sportsfield Lumiere. Photo by Sally Spickard.
The partnership between Hayley and the 10-year-old Irish gelding by Orestus VDL was quite serendipitous. Martha had clued Hayley in that this might be a horse worth trying, and so Hayley went to try him at Sportsfield. She describes herself as on the indecisive side, and initially this horse was not the one she wanted to go home with — but Martha took the decision into her own hands and put the horse on a plane to the U.S. “You need this one,” she told Hayley, who she met in Australia at Hayley’s first 5* at Adelaide back in 2017. They’ve remained close friends and business partners ever since, with Martha flying in to help Hayley at her biggest events.
That take-control moment on Martha’s part has paid off in a big way, and Hayley’s excited to see what the future holds. “[Martha] knew what I needed before I did,” she laughed.
Sophia Middlebrook and Prontissimo.
Sophia Middlebrook rose up the rankings to take home third in the 4*-L with Christa Schmidt’s Prontissimo, finishing the weekend on a score of 57.5 in their first try at the level. After a less than ideal prep that included a broken collarbone in February for Sophia, getting this big result under her belt is a big relief.
“I didn’t really have the prep I had originally set out to do,” Sophia said. “We basically ran Tryon in the Short, and then came here. Those were our only two real events in prep, so I’m thrilled with being able to pull out this result with him. It’s kind of a testament to the horse. He’s just such a gift in the jumping phases. He makes up for your mistakes, and he’s so safe and easy out there—as easy as a four-star can be. He makes it feel that way.”
Sophia credits Christa for her ongoing support with this horse and others. For her, Christa’s made this all possible. Initially, Prontissimo was intended for Christa to ride. “[She] has been the most amazing support system I could ask for,” Sophia explained. “[She] brought him over from England about four years ago for herself. He’d done a few Prelims there, but when he came over, he was just green and gangly and all over the place. She let me produce him after that, which has been the most incredible gift. He’s been the perfect horse to do a lot of these firsts on.”
Jessie Phoenix and Freedom GS. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Looking to the 4*-S, it was the Canadian anthem that played in the prize-giving as three-time Olympian Jessie Phoenix cemented the win on her Paris partner, Freedom GS, who is owned by Charlotte Schickedanz. Jessie is en route to CHIO Aachen for the first time next month thanks to the support of a High Performance Grant from Equestrian Canada as the federation looks ahead to the looming FEI World Championships at Aachen in 2026. Jessie and Freedom GS finished the weekend on a score of 48.7.
“I was so proud of her in show jumping,” Jessie said afterward. “Bromont is such a huge fitness test. There is nothing like Bromont anywhere in the world. So for her to come in and just show all of her heart and jump as well as she did. We had one little mistake. I just got a little close to the Liverpool and maybe a touch flat, but the rest of the course, she just was a superstar.”
Jessie, elaborating further when I asked what made Brody’s course so challenging, said she thought it was a great test. “It was so interesting the way he set it this year,” she said. “Everything was off of turns, and then it wasn’t. And so when he gives you those beautiful turns to set the horses up and then slaps a straight line at you with the shapes that he had — like an oxer to open them up, and then a shorter four to the liverpool behind the vertical — it’s just a very technical question, especially after the horses have ran on the terrain that they did yesterday. So I thought it was really well set up and really proved to be a nail biter in the show jumping phases today.”
Jessie plans to get in a couple of gallops and potentially some show jumping practice at Angelstone before she and Freedom GS fly to Germany via Toronto. CHIO Aachen kicks off the eventing portion of its 10-day festival on July 4.
Lauren Nicholson and Landmark’s Jungle Gold. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Lauren Nicholson also enjoyed a successful finish with Ms. Mars’ Landmark’s Jungle Gold, taking second in the 4*-S on a score of 58.2. Kimmy Cecere and OS Hermitage capped off a solid weekend to finish third on a score of 63.3.
Kimmy Cecere and OS Hermitage. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Before I go, just a quick update on Ariel Grald, who had a heavy fall with Ted 22 in the 2*-L on cross country yesterday. She made a post on social media reporting that she had broken some ribs and was recovering in the hospital while being monitored as a precaution for internal injury. We had previously reported that Ted 22 was uninjured. We’re wishing Ariel lots of love and a speedy recovery.
And that’s a wrap on MARS Bromont for this spring! Don’t forget to get those entries in for the August edition of Bromont, which will feature 1*-S through 4*-S competition, as well as National levels. And definitely mark those calendars for 2026, when the park will celebrate its 50th anniversary dating back to the 1976 Olympics, during which Bromont hosted equestrian sports.
I’ll have more thoughts your way in the coming week, but in the meantime, do right by your horses, treat them well, and enjoy the highs when they reward your efforts. They give us the world, and it’s our duty to provide that right back to them.
Go Eventing.
MARS Bromont CCI (Canada): [Website] [Scores] [Live Stream Replays] [EN’s Coverage]
