An Eventer’s Take on the 2013 USHJA Hunter Derby Finals

Tory Burch and Emily Williams. Thanks to ivegotyourpicture.com for the photo!

It was a beautiful evening in Lexington, Ky., Saturday night for the 2013 USHJA Hunter Derby Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park. The top 30 competitors from the Classic round, which was held on Friday, competed for top prize money in the Tier I division, and nine additional others faced off in Tier II, which is restricted to riders not on the top 20 list for lifetime money earned.

The final round was the handy round — a course designed to show off the horse’s handiness in the hunt field. The jumps were natural-looking, including a simulated stacked-log fence and a four-board plank vertical. Riders had to trot a small log about beginner novice-sized. There were four high option fences, where riders could choose between a low side at about 3’9″ or the high side at about 4’3″. Each high option would add one point to the total score. Riders were also awarded a subjective handy score, up to 10 points, for using tight inside turns and maintaining a good gallop.

My handy award of the night goes to Kelley Farmer and On Q, who attempted a very daring rollback turn from the trot jump to a massive high-option oxer. Unfortunately it didn’t work — the horse knocked the oxer pretty badly — but I still admire her guts to give it a try. No one else did the entire night.

Compared to last year, I thought this year’s course was a bit soft and boring. The results won’t show that, though — there were plenty of low scores, as many horses knocked a rail, which is pretty much a “no score” in the hunter world. The final fence on the course, where most riders chose the high option, was a very large, wide oxer off a shallow bending turn. Many riders ended up at the fence on an angle, making it wider, with a very weak canter. Lopey canter + big wide angled oxer = rail down. Those riders who sat down a bit and RODE at it had a clean jump over it.

Other than the big, wide oxers, this course lacked the ability to showcase a horse well. Last year’s course had several daring inside turn options and a nice long gallop to the last fence where riders could really open their horses up. This year’s inside turns were really just “plain” turns for any normal show jumping round; it wasn’t really all that handy, from a spectator’s perspective. And you want to see opportunities for the horse to explode off the ground and give a really nice jump, not flail in the air over an oxer after yet another weak distance. Riders didn’t really take chances on the course — outside of Kelley Farmer and On Q — mostly because a clean, conservative round was good enough to overcome others’ mistakes.

Overnight leader Scott Stewart and Garfield had a disappointing round to end the evening; the horse swam through the two-stride in-and-out, causing the whole audience to gasp. Liza Boyd and Brunello had a very nice round to take the win; their ride was clean, and the horse showed good scope in the first part of the course. I also really enjoyed Argentum’s round, ridden by Kelsie Brittan; the gray horse used his knees well and tried hard for his junior rider. The pair ended up third overall in Tier I and won the Tier II championship.

http://youtu.be/wzfGmWWlPzA
Liza Boyd and Brunello’s winning round