Andromaque and Will Faudree at Richland. Photo by Jenni Autry.
With all eyes on Red Hills, let’s not forget the two horse trials that were held in the Carolinas this weekend: Southern Pines Horse Trials in Southern Pines, North Carolina and the Full Gallop Farm March International Horse Trials in Aiken, South Carolina.
At Southern Pines, locally based rider Will Faudree won first and second in the Open Preliminary. The lovely Andromaque, owned by Jennifer Mosing, was out for the first time since The Fork last April (though they did do a dressage test at Pine Top in early February this year). Given her experience, it’s no surprise the now 14-year-old mare, affectionately known as Missie, made easy work of the courses and finished with a 31.1 to win.
In second place was Missie’s stablemate Socialite, an English Thoroughbred mare known in the barn as “Blueberry” and also owned by Jennifer. She recently won the CIC1* at Pine Top. Two clear rounds at Southern Pines moved her up from 11th place after dressage. Both of these mares are entered at the Carolina International two weeks from now, with Missie in the CIC3* and Blueberry in the CIC1*.
The Preliminary Rider division winners at Southern Pines were Heidi Siegmund and her Oldenburg mare High Sierra (division A) and Elena Hengel and her Irish Sport Horse gelding Say I Do (division B), in just their second event together. Both pairs produced good jumping rounds with just a few time penalties to secure their victories.
Southern Pines H.T. [Website] [Entry Status] [Scores]
Full Gallop had two Intermediate divisions with 21 total riders. It was definitely not a dressage show as clear jumping rounds made all the difference on the leaderboard. Sarah Cousins and Westerly started in seventh place after dressage in Intermediate-A. A double-clear show jumping round moved them up to third.
The live scores show the optimum time for cross country as being 6:05 and Sarah and Westerly’s time elapsed was 6:06 though they are listed as double-clear. One second wouldn’t have made a difference, however. They finished on a recorded 42.0 to move into the top spot.
Sarah (aka Sally) is very experienced herself as multiple time USEA Lady Rider of the Year, and Westerly is an experienced three-star horse, having competed Advanced for the first time in 2007 with rider Charles Plumb before partnering with Sally in 2010. Sally and “Wes” have attended all four Full Gallop horse trials that have been held this winter. They them all at the Intermediate level and have now won three of them.
Kirsten Buffamoyer and her Thoroughbred Jim also moved up the leaderboard in Intermediate-B with clear rounds. They started in eighth and added two time penalties to their score to move from sixth after show jumping to second after the final phase of cross country. This pair was third at the Pine Top CIC1* just a couple weeks ago.
Tiffani Loudon-Meetze had 13.2 time penalties on cross country to drop from second to third with Hap. This is a 16-hand Thoroughbred gelding that Tiffani has produced all the way from his first Novice level event in 2011. He moved up to Intermediate at this same event last year.
In the Intermediate-B division, Peter Barry and Long Island T practically ran away with the win. They led after dressage with a very good score of 22, ten points ahead of the competition. They were clear in show jumping so had some breathing room across the country. Taking it easy on course, they pulled in 9.6 time penalties for a final score of 31.6 and the win.
Peter and Long Island T, an Oldenburg gelding previously ridden by Colleen Loach and now owned by Peter, have had a good start to the year. They won the Preliminary at Full Gallop in January and were actually leading the CIC1* at Pine Top in February before a frustrating Technical Elimination due to jumping the wrong B element at a combination on cross country.
Kelly Sult-Ransom and Prince Cavanagh, a Thoroughbred Kelly has produced through the levels, vaulted up the leaderboard from ninth place after dressage to ultimately finish second in division B. They were double-clear in both phases, timing the cross country just right, coming in four second under time.
Erin Renfroe and De Cordova are consistent winners at the Intermediate level and fresh off a win at Pine Top. At Full Gallop, they were tied for third after dressage, and although they were double-clear in show jumping, one too many seconds on cross country kept them out of second place. They finished third, just .1 penalties behind Kelly and Prince Cavanagh.
There were also two Preliminary divisions at Full Gallop, and it was Amy Ruth Borun and Casarino and Kerry Torrey and Zumba (who has won two events already this year) that were the winners in division A and B respectively. Time once again was critical on cross country as there were very few double-clear rounds.
Full Gallop Farm March I H.T. [Website] [Entry Status][ Scores]
