Barbara Werther and Stafford Place won the Training Amateur division
With tightly packed divisions at all levels, show jumping means pressure time at the AECs. One rail is always costly and two rails can drop you 20 places or more. I hope that the riders who don’t have the kind of day they planned look at their weekend in context, remembering what an incredible achievement it is to even qualify for the AECs and considering that not achieving a placing goal is much more about there being so many competitors than a reflection of their performance. There are a ton of riders here not getting ribbons who rode great all weekend.
Prelim Horse: In contrast to the cross-country, the show jumping proved incredibly influential in the prelim horse division. The top two pairs coming into the day pulled multiple rails, moving Leslie Law and What Law into the winning position with a double-clear. What Law “Joey” was produced by Leslie’s wife and favorite EN guest blogger, Lesley. Leslie was kind wise enough to give his wife all of the credit when I spoke with him after the show jumping. Leslie impressively finished two more horses in the top 10 of the division with Billy Wiz in 5th and Domestic Dispute in 8th. Kerry Torrey and Kung Fu Panda finished second and Lauren Kieffer was third with Czechmate. To give you a feel for the influence of the show jumping, Leah Khorsandian and Pamiro W jumped from 16th into the ribbons on their double-clear.
Training Amateur: The first blue ribbon of the 2012 American Eventing Championships was awarded to the Training Amateur champion, Barbara Werther, and her own Stafford Place. They moved all the way up from 5th with a double-clear round today. Jenna Sack and Replika finished on their dressage score and moved from 11th to 2nd over the two days of jumping.
Prelim Junior/Young Rider: Today’s cliche of choice so is “the show jumping proved influential.” The top two Prelim Junior/Young Rider pairs had rails in the show jumping to move Jenny Caras and Fernhill Stowaway of Georgia up for the home state win. Jenny was the only competitor in this division to ride two horses, so she had a bit of an edge entering the arena on her second ride. Her first horse of the day, Fernhill Fortitude, finished in 8th. I still have a smile on my face from my interview with Jenny–she was funny, charismatic, and humble all at once and a shining example of what this sport is all about.
Training Horse: The Training Horse division was the first of the day to have the overnight leader finish with the win. In fact, the top 8 pairs after the dressage finished on their dressage score and the top 12 final pairs all finished on their dressage score. Doug Payne and Lysander had the best dressage score and won the most boring jumping division to watch in terms of results. Lauren Kieffer and Landmark’s Legendary Romance finished in second.
Prelim Amateur: The show jumping shook up the leader board once again in the Prelim Amateur division. Tiffany Lunney jumped from 4th to win with Patent Pending. The pair, from Colorado, moved up from 6th after the dressage by finishing on their dressage score. Lynne Partridge and Zoe of Texas finished in second and Kelly Green with Corleone from Hawaii rounded out a geographically diverse top three. For the record, Kelly trains and competes here in the mainland states.
My apologies to Tiffany for missing her first two jumps
The Advanced show jumping runs next with Training Juniors competing in the second show jumping arena and the novice cross-country continuing here at Chattahoochee Hills. Clouds are forming in the Georgia skies–fingers crossed the rain holds off until this evening. Go Cavs, Cats, and Wolverines, and go eventing.
