Becky, Boyd, and Jan

Boyd’s show jumping round with Faye Wolf’s Ying Yang Yo was one of those rides with a few good rubs where it could have been disastrous or perfect depending on how much the rails wanted to stay in the cups.  Thomas rattled four rails but they all stayed in place for a double-clear round.  That put all of the pressure on first placed Jan Byyny and Inmidair, who led Boyd by just a point.  Inmidair clattered through the second fence, making a mess of the jump and losing the chance of winning Fair Hill.   At that point a lot of riders might have gotten frustrated, given up, and had a bad ride for the rest of the round.  But Jan buckled down and rode the remaining jumps really well, just having one more rail the rest of the way.  Jan mentioned yesterday that re-learning how to speak was harder than anything she has ever done on horseback and I have to imagine that her incredible toughness helped her to put her show jumping round back on track today after that second fence.  

Jan and Inmidair finished in 3rd place, which is perhaps disappointing considering where they started the day but it is a wonderful result overall and puts Jan right back in the upper echelon of US eventing.  Jan won the sportsmanship award for the CCI3* division and I can only imagine that it was a landslide unanimous vote.  In the press conference following the show jumping, Jan was asked what she planned to do next year.  She had just two words in response: the Olympics. 
 
There were just 9 double-clear rides around Sally Ike’s show jumping course and just two of those came for the final 10 riders–Boyd and Phillip Dutton with Nina Gardner’s William Penn.  Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me pulled one rail and moved up one spot to second.

The CCI3* division turned into a series of comeback stories this weekend.  Ying Yang Yo’s return from retirement and Jan’s return from the fall and ensuing stroke that nearly killed her have been extensively covered.  But, a very important result for the US and another comeback story is Twizzel’s 4th place finish with Will Coleman.  That pair has had back luck this year with an unlucky fall at Rolex and then having to withdraw from Burghley right before the dressage.  They secured a necessary qualifying result this weekend to get ready for Rolex and beyond next year.  

Boyd won his second Fair Hill CCI3* championship in three years this afternoon.  The first came in 2009 with Neville Bardos and Boyd of course rode Neville for the USA 12 months later.  Could the same situation play out 12 months from now in London?  It’s impossible to tell, but there’s no doubt that Thomas has put himself into the mix of Boyd’s horses being considered for the team.  Thomas won Fair Hill by 4.2 points and it could easily have been 15 points with a few more fitness runs to make his cross-country a bit quicker.  That being said, two or four of those show jumping rails could easily have fallen down–that’s eventing.  Boyd now has four horses qualified for the London Olympics: Ying Yang Yo, Neville Bardos, Otis Barbotiere, and Remington.  Between four qualified horses and just winning a CCI3*, there’s no doubt that Boyd has the strongest position of any US rider right now looking ahead to London.
 
Fair Hill CCI3* Results:

1. Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo +0  52.0
2. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me +4  56.2
3. Jan Byyny and Inmidair +8  59.2
4. Will Coleman and Twizzel +4  59.2
5. Phillip Dutton and William Penn +0  61.2
6. Doug Payne and Running Order +4  62.8
7. Allison Springer and Arthur +8  63.6
8. Kristi Nunnink and R-Star +0  63.8
9. Marilyn Little-Meredith and RF Rovano Rex +0  63.8
10. Emily Beshear and Here’s To You +5  66.6

[Fair Hill Final Results]

A few notes from the press conference:

–Boyd called his show jumping round a “typical Ying Yang Yo round where we bumped and rubbed our way around the course.”  The always classy Boyd gave Jan and Becky a lot of credit and mentioned that he didn’t know whether to be happy or sad when Jan pulled the rail down because he admired her comeback so much. 

–Then Boyd told the story of buying and naming Thomas to the press conference.  Thomas was bound for slaughter and the man who bought him off of the slaughter truck has a system of running horses at a jump and the ones that jump he buys and the ones that don’t get put back on the slaughter trailer.  Boyd bought Thomas from that man for 1,200 Australian dollars and the rest is history.  Boyd deadpanned that he named Thomas “Ying Yang Yo” because he hoped the horse would compete at the Beijing Olympics and thought that the name might win favor with the Beijing judges.  Some of this stuff you just can’t make up.

–Boyd read the top seven horses at Fair Hill off of the list “Arthur, Running Order, William Penn, Twizzel, Inmidair, Can’t Fire Me, and Ying Yang Yo” and said “all of a sudden it looks like America has a bit of depth looking towards the London Olympics.”  He said he feels like we are a lot stronger overall going into London than we were going into the 2010 WEGs.  Boyd mentioned that the key now is to not beat the horses up too much with competitions in the spring so we can get all of our best horses to London.  Before Burghley, Blenheim, and Fair Hill I was quite concerned with the lack of depth for the US going into 2012, but US high performance has had a really good late summer and autumn overall. 

–Boyd emphasized again today that he believes Fair Hill is the toughest three-star in the world and said that is it no coincidence that the top three horses are all ex-racehorses. 

–Becky thanked her owners (husband Tom and Phil and Melissa Town), who stood with her throughout this year as Can’t Fire Me moved up the ranks.  “Teddy” had to walk a very tight qualifying route to get here but he did a great job for Becky this weekend.

–Jan jokingly called herself “desperately lucky” to not fall off.  She said she felt great before her round and nerves weren’t a factor.  She just felt Inmidair would leave from the gap distance she gave him but he didn’t.  As a quick factoid, Jan bought Inmidair from 4th placed Will Coleman.  

–Amy Ruth Borun and Santa’s Playboy won the best turned out award, so a huge shout-out to Amy’s groom Shannon for another weekend of hard work.  Holly Payne and Madeline won the fitness award.  Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton were the highest placed international pair.  Kelly Pugh and Copycat Choloe won the highest placed young rider award. 

We’ve had a great weekend here at Fair Hill.  I want to give a big thanks to all of the volunteers, organizers, riders, and fans who showed up this weekend.  And of course, thank you for reading Eventing Nation.  The USA can sleep easy tonight with all of the top 10 spots at the Fair Hill CCI3* filled with red, white, and blue riders.  May we have as much success next weekend in Guadalajara.  Go eventing. 

Apologies to Thomas for cutting off his smiling face, more photos coming soon

We’ll have a full recap shortly.

[Fair Hill Results]

Go Thomas.

There’s no doubt that the Dansko Fair Hill Three-Day Event is a world class international eventing competition.  But, let’s be realistic, the real marquee competition of Fair Hill weekend is the Shetland pony relay race featuring young riders, PRO riders, and of course their trusty Shetland steeds.  In today’s race, Will Faudree gave a clinic in riding a true Shetland closer by navigating Smarty Pants to a brilliant closing final turn to just edge out Clark Montgomery and Funny Bone.  The young riders tarted out with one lap and then the pros took over.  Of course, the all important post-race interviews:

We are working on tracking down a full list of the competitors and we’ll post that as soon as we can.  Go eventing.

Kylie Lyman and Trading Aces FTW

The CCI2* show jumping course at Fair Hill featured big fences and a long track.  There were just 15 double-clear show jumping rounds and only three of the top 10 pairs after the cross-country jumped double clear.  Kendal Lehari and Colleen Rutledge, 8th and 6th after the cross-county respectively put down two of those double-clears and at that point it looked like the course would ride well for the final few riders.  However, Ideal Contini and Young Man both punched out rails, DHI Colour Candy tapped a rail that barely slipped off the cups, and Double Rivers Really Cool pulled the last two rails.  Overnight leaders Kylie Lyman and Trading Aces had a rail in hand when they entered the arena, but they didn’t need it and jumped a beautiful clear ride for the Fair Hill two-star win. 

CCI2* Results:

1. Kylie Lyman and Trading Aces +0  48.7
2. Colleen Rutledge and Dillon +0  53.9
3. Kendal Lehari and Totally Frank +0  54.7
4. Will Faudree and DHI Colour Candy +4  55.9
5. Kadi Eykamp and Double Rivers Really Cool +8  57.5
6. Will Coleman and Ideal Contini +4  57.7
7. Diana Burnett and Diamond Cut +4  58.4
*8. Laura VanderVliet and Mightly Mangaroo +0  58.6
9. Kylie Lyman and Garrison Flash +4  59.3
10. Karl Slezak and VDL Ulando H +0  59.3

[Full Fair Hill Scores]

–Kylie is a great champion and was all smiles after her win.  She was really complimentary of Trading Aces and said “he really didn’t put a foot wrong all weekend.”  Trading Aces was imported from Ireland two years ago and Kylie said she fell in love with him the first time she saw him.  Kylie now rides out of Ocala and Vermont and works with Buck Davidson but Bobby Costello helped her this weekend since Buck is on a plane bound for Mexico as we speak.  Trading Aces didn’t look like the easiest ride today, but Kylie did a great job guiding him around.

–Collen can head into the off-season after a great autumn of competitions.  After doing so well at Burghley aboard Shiraz she finished second at the two-star with Dillion.  Colleen has had a couple of tough falls on Dillon this year and re-routed to the two-star from their original plan of doing the three-star at Fair Hill and it worked out great for them.  Fair Hill couldn’t have a classier group of podium finishers.

–I’ve known Kendal’s horse Frank for a few years and, in all honesty, two years ago I did not see this horse finishing third at his first two-star, but I couldn’t be happier to be wrong.  Kendal and Colleen are models of riders who work incredibly hard to produce their horses and they do a great job at it.  Frank won the highest placing American TB award for the CCI2* from the Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue and Kendal won the leading foreign rider award for being born in Canada. 

–Courtney Cooper won the sportsmanship award for the two-star, which is very much deserved.  Courtney competed multiple horses all weekend including in the YEH divisions, and, as usual, I never saw her without a smile on her face.

–Libby Head won the highest placed young rider award.  She moved all the way up from 55th after the dressage to finish on 17th with zero penalties Saturday and Sunday aboard Sir Rockstar.

–Just four pairs finished the weekend on their dressage scores in the CCI2*.  The fantastic four: Kendal Lehari and Totally Frank, Sara Kozumplik and Tatton Winter, Kevin Keane and Fernhill Flutter, Libby Head and Sir Rockstar.

–Fair Hill was anything but a dressage competition.  Of the top four finishers, only one of them was in the top 10 after the dressage–Kylie.  Colleen moved up from 10th after the dressage, Kendal moved up from 19th to finish in third, and Will moved up from 14th to 4th with DHI COlour Candy.

The CCI3* starts jumping at 1:30pm ET.  I’ll be around right after the division finishes with a recap.  Go eventing.

Your Fair Hill CCI3* leaders

Jan Bynny and Inmidair stormed around the cross-country course at Fair Hill with the third fastest ride of the CCI3* division to move up from 5th into the lead going into the Show Jumping.  Ying Yang Yo and Boyd Martin finished their comeback full of running but with 11.6 time penalties to drop to second.  Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me moved down one spot to third.  Here are a few notes from a fabulous day of competition:

—All three of the top 3* riders have been through some incredible adversity over the past two years.  Jan of course had the fall at Pine Top that nearly killed her in the spring of 2010, Becky was spun from the jog at the WEGs when Comet suffered an injury that could potentially end his career, and Boyd lost 6 horses in the True Prospect fire and his father in a cycling accident this year.  The three of them now stand atop the premier autumn event in North America, separated by one point. 

–I can’t speak highly enough about Derek di Grazia’s cross-country course.  The CCI3* was very challenging but very safe and, as for the CCI2*, the issues were pretty evenly spread out.  There were just two falls in the division, both at the hanging log at #6, and horses and riders were all up quickly and walked away.  Second placed Boyd Martin said that Fair Hill is “without question the hardest three-star I have ever seen.”  He called it a three and a half star and said that if you can get a horse around here you probably have a four-star horse. 

–The time was almost impossible to make Saturday afternoon.  I say almost because two riders finished with double-clears.  HJ Hampton is one of the best cross-country horses I have ever seen and carried Peter home inside the time.  Daniel Clasing hit the optimum time exactly with Houston and took home the $2,000 SSG award for his efforts.

–Many of the horses finished looking pretty knackered.  Terrain and deep footing combined for a perfect storm of challenges to the horses’ fitness.  But, contrary to past years, not a single rider that I saw looked like they were pushing their horses too hard or past the point of being safe.  There was some great horsemanship out on the course today and hopefully the horses are feeling good in the barns right now as a result. 

—25 out of 43 starters finished the CCI3* course with clear rounds.  10 horses finished with at least a stop, 2 were eliminated, 4 retired, and 2 riders fell.  Nate Chambers withdrew Rolling Stone before the cross-country and they will reroute to Galway in November with hopes of better footing. 

–There were too many great rides today to list them all, but, just scanning the leader board, Twizzel looked great when I saw him on the back half of the course, Running Order was full of run, Here’s To You had the best cross-country round of his career, Marilyn Little-Meredith looked every bit like she belonged out there and had a better ride than quite a few eventers in the places I saw her, and Mensa looked like a finely tuned cross-country machine for Carl Bouckaert.

I’m not one to love press conferences, but, with the three aforementioned riders on top in the CCI3*, today’s was not one to miss.  A few nuggets from the press conference:

–Jan Byyny remarked at how glad she was to be back at Fair Hill and I think I speak for everyone when I say that it’s great to have Jan back at Fair Hill and even better to see her atop the leader board.  Jan said that the course wasn’t easy for Inmidair but he persevered throughout the course and finished strong. 

–Jan spoke briefly but emotionally about her accident and said that it has really changed her perspective on things.  She said that re-learning how to speak was harder than anything she has ever done on a horse and that she has learned to love every day on horseback.

–Boyd Martin also spoke about facing adversity and said that for him happiness is with horses and that riding had really helped him get over the hardship of this year. 

–Boyd mentioned that he hopes to have Thomas back at the four-star level next spring.  He said he thinks the horse has one more big event in him and that he feels that Thomas could handle the Olympics.  Boyd wants to have 4 horses qualified for the Olympics next year and Thomas could very well be one of them.

–When asked about having another great grey horse, Becky mentioned that she hopes that Comet’s time off is only temporary.  Becky said that Comet has had a “no setback” recovery and he might be out at a few dressage shows this autumn and that she hopes he will start back eventing in the spring.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed to see Becky with two great greys next spring 

Fair Hill CCI3* XC Results:

1. Jan Byyny and Inmidair +4.4  51.2
2. Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo +11.6  52.0
3. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me +8.0  52.2
4. Will Coleman and Twizzel +9.6  55.2
5. Allison Springer and Arthur +8  55.6
6. Doug Payne and Running Order +11.2  58.8
7. Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton +0  61.0
8T. Holly Payne and Madeline +7.2  61.2
8T. Phillip Dutton and William Penn +8.8  61.2
10. Emily Beshear and Here’s To You +7.2  61.6

[Full Fair Hill Results]

Karen O’Connor has had so much success at Fair Hill over the years and today was no exception with a lovely round aboard Veronica.  Karen was kind enough to chat with us after her ride:

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, today’s Eventing Nation “I ran over a dog while riding cross-country and lived to tell the tale” award goes to Holly Payne.  Horse, rider, and dog are all fine but word from Doug an anonymous tipster is that Holly’s epic miss at the next jump was because she was thinking about the yelping dog. 

A few quick French links: [Pau XC report pending Clayton’s appeal, Pau placings upheld, Burto’s XC ride]

The first horse inspection starts 8am with the CCI2* going first.  The CCI2* jumping starts at 10am, and the CCI3* jumping starts at 1:30pm ET Sunday afternoon.  It’s wonderful to have such a clean and safe day of cross-country.  As always, I want to give a big Eventing Nation thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make Fair Hill possible today.  We wouldn’t be here without you.  Go eventing.

Kylie Lyman and Trading Aces galloping into the lead

Susan Beebee and Wolf reportedly jumped the intermediate table into the #13AB combination in the arena, then jumped the advanced B element, and then circled back to jump the intermediate B element.  They were assessed with 20 penalties for circling in the middle of an A&B combination with the reasoning that they are allowed to jump a fence one level above without penalty under FEI rules.  That ruling is provisional, but either way their 11.6 time penalties dropped them well out of the lead.  I feel bad for Susan, but I suppose if I am going to pick up 20 penalties I would rather it be for jumping an advanced jump than my horse being naughty.  Either way Wolf has a very bright future at the upper levels. 

Kylie Lyman and Trading Aces moved from being tied in third into the lead by coming home 3 seconds over the optimum time.  Kadi Eykamp and the AECs champion Double Rivers Really Cool moved into second with 5 seconds of time penalties.  Kylie had two great rounds today, finishing with just 1.2 total time penalties aboard Trading Aces and Garrison Flash, the latter now being placed in 10th.

The 7 year old DHI Colour Candy scampered around his first two star for Will Faudree and they are provisionally third after the cross-country.  This horse has had a big year including a lengthy trip to Great Britain, but he has stepped up to every challenge Will has presented to him and is surely a lot better for the experiences.  Phillip and Young Man moved all the way up from 17th to 4th with one of 10 double clears on the day.

[Fair Hill Live Scores]

The CCI2* course at Fair Hill posed a real challenge to horses and riders this morning.  But, it posed the right type of challenge, with issues spread out throughout the course and only three falls.  Quite a few pairs had stops and a relatively high percentage of starters were eliminated for having three refusals.  Of course I didn’t see all of the stops, but the ones that I did see looked like they were caused by horses who weren’t quite comfortable making that extra effort to heroically save the day out of muddy takeoffs or pairs who came a bit quickly through the turns. 

Both the CCIC2* and CCI3* courses here at Fair Hill have a ton of jumps off of turns.  The best rides in these situations occurred when riders protected the horses through the turns and then were able to move forward up to the jumps from a quality canter.  There were three rider falls and all horses and riders were reportedly fine. 

At long last the sun is shining down on Elkton, Maryland.  The course is drying out rapidly and although there are certainly going to be some muddy spots in low areas of the CCI3* course, but the footing looks a ton better than it did just 24 hours ago.

–There’s nothing better than ending the year with a clean round on a challenging three-day course.  And there are few things worse than ending the year with a bad round.  That’s what is at stake here at Fair Hill today.

–Former Pan American Games short listers Kevin Keane and Fernhill Flutter shot up the placings with a double-clear.  Kevin is of course a full time vet, but he stepped his riding up today with an aggressive round that didn’t leave anything in doubt.

–19 CCI2* starters had issues on course, with six eliminations, three retires, and three rider falls.  As I mentioned earlier, the issues were pretty evenly spread throughout the course.  

—Boyd Martin and Cold Harbour were Pan American Games alternates two weeks ago, but they withdrew from consideration and headed to Fair Hill.  That proved to be a good decision today and they will go into the off season after picking up one second in time penalties on a great round.

—Colleen Rutledge has had a wonderful year including that great performance at Burghley with Shiraz.  She finished the cross-country today with just 3.6 penalties on Dillon and they are provisionally in 6th.

—Caroline Martin and Petite Flower had a stop today, but Petite Flower was one of those horses that made me stop and say ‘Wow.’  That horse definitely has the jump for the next level.  Caroline was recently sponsored by EN sponsor Horse Quencher, so Petite Flower was no doubt well hydrated going around the course if I’m allowed a shameless plug.

–Brian O’Connor and Ed Holloway are doing a great job today with the announcing.  I’m always deeply appreciative of the announcers who are my second (and third) set of eyes out there.  This is particularly important at a venue like Fair Hill where you can only see portions of the course from any given point. 

The CCI3* starts at 12:45pm ET and hopefully they will have as great of a day as the CCI2* horses.  Go eventing.

Diana Burnett was kind enough to take a few moments Friday afternoon to chat with us about a combination on the advanced course that looks (relatively) straightforward, but will be a big challenge tomorrow seeing as how it is towards the end of the long CCI3* course and at the top of a long uphill muddy gallop.  Diana had already walked two courses and our quick interview caused her to miss her ride back to the barn.  No worries though, we hitchhiked our way back.  Thank you Diana, good luck today and go eventing.

These cross-country courses at Fair Hill are absolutely beautiful thanks to the great work of the volunteers, the builders, and course designer Derek di Grazia.  The courses seem universally liked by the riders and the common theme with everyone I have spoken with is the hope that they will dry out as much as possible throughout the day.  I was walking the course Friday afternoon and someone remarked how beautiful the grounds are at Fair Hill.  It struck me that I get so caught up in the courses that I often times forget to recognize how truly beautiful our venues are in US eventing.

The weather.  The weather is perfect course-drying weather with wind and full sun.  It’s a race against time to dry this course out as much as possible.  The CCI3* is the second division on course, which is a distinct advantage over the CCI2* because the course will have more time to dry out.  My guess is that the riders who have to go at the end of the CCI2* will have the toughest time because the course will be most torn up at that point. [Weather]

Normally we publish a post with all of the course photos, but Fair Hill has kindly put a course map with photos of every jump for both the CCI2* and CCI3* on their website, so we will just link to those.  I’m planning a live blog of the show jumping, but not the cross-country this year.

[Live Scores, CCI3* Course Map with Pictures, CCI2* Course Map with Pictures]

I tagged along with Phillip’s course walk Friday afternoon.  Phillip’s walks are a must-attend event for much of US eventing high performance.  I would say that close to half of the CCI3* field was on that walk and five of the top six riders after the dressage were in attendance, including of course Phillip.  One of the reasons that so many riders, including myself, like working with Phillip is that he tells you how to get the job done in the simplest way possible.  A big theme of the course walk was recognizing that the hilly terrain combined with less than ideal footing would take a lot out of the horses.  Phillip emphasized ways to ride efficiently and look after the horses around the turns and through the combinations late on the course. 

The top 10 three-star pairs are separated by under 10 points and the top 30 buy just over 20 points, and the two-star is even tighter, so it’s going to be an exciting day of competition.

The action starts at 9am ET.  Good luck to all of the competitors at Fair Hill and around Eventing Nation today.  Stay safe, have fun, and go eventing.

Doug Payne won the 5 year old YEH with Royal Tribute, Kelli Temple won the 4 year old with Corneel

I mentioned this morning that there were going to be some great dressage rides this afternoon at Fair Hill and the field certainly lived up to the expectations.  Seven of the riders in the afternoon CCI3* moved into the top 10.  Boyd Martin and the 15 year old Ying Yang Yo had the best of the many great rides and they were rewarded with a 40.4 and a four point lead heading into the cross-country.  44.2 was the score for Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me “Teddy” as they followed up their Poplar win a few weeks ago with a lovely dressage ride to put them in second. 

Fair Hill CCI3* Dressage Scores:

1. Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo  40.4
2. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me  44.2
3. Karen O’Connor and Veronica  44.6
4. Will Coleman and Twizzel  45.6
5. Jan Byyny and Inmidair  46.8
6. Phillip Dutton and Ben  47.2
7. Gina Fiore and Feral Errol  47.4
8T. Doug Payne and Running Order  47.6
8T. Allison Springer and Arthur  47.6
10. Marilyn Little-Meredith and RF Rovano Rex  49.4

[Full Fair Hill Dressage Scores]

Karen and Team Rebecca’s Veronica are in third heading into the cross-country.  Karen was very pleased with Veronica’s ride from this morning and mentioned that she thinks the horse has a very bright future particularly because of her positive and hard working approach.  Earlier this springTeam Rebecca bought Veronica for Karen from Scott Keach, who is currently ninth in the CCI2*. 

We have written about Ying Yang Yo’s comeback story enough on Eventing Nation over the past few months that I won’t go through all of it here.  The short version is that “Thomas” retired from upper level competition after Boyd fell from him in the water at Rolex ’08.  Thomas spent the next two years competing at the lower levels with his owner Faye Wolf’s daughter.  As Faye told me today, they treated him medically like a four-star horse with the best possible care while they competed him at novice.   Faye lost Call Me Ollie in the True Prospect fire and Boyd got the comeback ride on Thomas to help get him back on his feet while Faye’ daughter was busy at school.  Thomas looked better than ever today and the moment I saw him trotting around the arena I felt like he would take the lead.  Boyd decided to come to America in many ways because of his successful trip to Rolex in 2006 with Thomas and he loves this horse unlike any other.  It was wonderful to see them do so well today.  I bet Boyd will be sitting way back jumping into the water complexes tomorrow.

Sitting in 4th place after the dressage, Twizzel has officially become known as the four-legged Cam Newton, named either for his athleticism or his penchant for stealing computers.  Joking aside, Twiz was great for Will today considering their hectic preparation with just one outing at Morven since Burghley.

The CCI3* at Fair Hill has some incredible story lines this weekend.  The division is filled with talented horses and riders.  Some horses, like Can’t Fire Me, Veronica, Utah B, William Penn, Madeline, and many many more, are talented young horses on the rise.  Others are veterans making comebacks and looking for redemption, such as Ying Yang Yo, HJ Hampton, and Rolling Stone.  Still others are top horses in desperate need of a great weekend like Twizzel, Arthur, and R-Star. 

Of course, you can’t look at the CCI3* rider list and not have Marilyn Little-Meredith and Nina Ligon jump off the page at you with their fabulous horses.  I mention Nina and Marilyn in the same sentence because they have both received a lot of attention lately, both in love from supporters and often times petty attacks from detractors.  I haven’t seen them do anything other than work hard and do their best to put themselves and their horses in a position to be successful, but tomorrow will probably be the biggest test yet for both of them.

Susan Beebee and the 8 year old Wolf were the last to ride in the CCI2*, but they saved the best for last and took the lead in Wolf’s fourth intermediate level competition.  Wolf was a dressage horse who converted to eventing and he has only been jumping for two years.  In the press conference at the end of the day, Susan said the CCI2* course is a traditional Derek di Grazia course–it’s not trappy but there are tests all the way through.  Susan will have the challenge of riding the cross-country last in the mud on a warmblood tomorrow.  Courtney Cooper and Who’s A Star are just over a rail back in second.  The AECs intermediate champions Kadi Eykamp and Double Rivers Really cool of Australia tied with overnight leaders Andrea Leatherman for third on a 47.5.  The CCI2* horses head out on the cross-country at 9am tomorrow.

Go eventing.

Peter Barry and Kilrodan Abbott of Canada getting some air

It has been a morning of ups and downs here at Eventing Nation.  Despite the heartbreaking news of Jon Holling withdrawing from the Pan Am team we have had a great morning of dressage here at Fair Hill.  Karen O’Connor and Veronica performed a lovely test just as the sun started to peek through the clouds here at Fair Hill to seize the lead in the CCI3*.  Veronica took a two point lead in front of Jan Byyny and Inmidair who also rode this morning.  The lovely R-Star from California didn’t disappoint with a 51.0 to move into 4th behind  overnight leaders Phillip Dutton and Ben.  So far today’s pairs have been really impressive and they occupy 5 of the top 7 CCI3* spots on the current leader board.  There are 13 horses still to go in the CCI3* and I expect four or five of them to jump into the top 10. 

[Fair Hill Live Scores]

EN’s good friend Courtney Cooper and Who’s a Star are leading the CCI2* at lunch time after scoring 45.8 this morning.  Overnight leaders Andrea Leatherman and Mystic My are holding on to second.

Fan favorites Peter Atkins and Henny had a great CCI3* test that I felt deserved a better score than the 61.0 that they received.  We’ll hear more from Peter shortly, but I think that Henny’s dressage work this year really showed in their performance today.

Doug Payne and Royal Tribute won the 5 year old Young Event Horse division.  The four year olds were delayed by a thunderstorm that showed up just before lunchtime and left as quickly as it arrived. 

Fair Hill has my full attention, but if you have been reading Eventing Nation for the past week you know that a certain CCI4* is competing this weekend in sunny France.  Our good friend Monty White from across the pond is lucky enough to be attending Pau this weekend.  Monty has Pau on lockdown over on his blog, The Talking Horse, which is an official EN must read.  Monty was kind enough to send us a preview of the CCI4* course.
—-

From Monty:

If Pau ever runs in April, I predict, EN John’s April Fool’s joke will involve giant Pyrenean Moles digging up the XC!

Pau, if you’ve never been here, is double flat, like I mean bowling green flat. The event site is a racetrack and training centre for thoroughbreds, and the course designers over the years have adapted to this by digging holes and creating mounds. The over riding theme on this cross country course is fences on man made mounds of earth.  If it’s not a mound it’s a fence over a ditch, a corner brush or a water complex.  Apart from the beginning and end there are few let-up fences or places to have a really good stretch and make up time.

Optimum time for the course is 10:39, and it’s very ‘loopy’, running across the racehorse training grounds for the middle of the course then looping back to the water for the last of three opportunities to get wet.

As is often the case, Fence 4 provides the first ‘question’, a tight left hand turn from an upright to a corner brush. It’s actually pretty big, and grows as you approach it.

Fence 6 looks like a straightforward upright but it’s a hanging log over a ditch that has been masked by those flowers, and the ditch is covered with bright shavings. Mind you, you’d be going so fast that that you wouldn’t have time to notice any of that.

And so the mole hills begin! A bounce to a drop followed by two strides to an angled brush follow. Get this wrong and you could be setting yourself up for more problems later on.

The first water is straightforward enough, if you like skinny brushes in the water, followed by yet another brush corner.

Head on over a table and then to another mound, this time with a duck on top where the landing side is pretty steep. Yikes!

Fence 14 brings two mounds together with arrow heads mounted aloft, tricky striding in between. I plan to watch this one.

Then we enter the racehorse training grounds proper and this where the ditches begin, but not before another mound, and as Paul Tapner aptly described it probably the trickiest line so far.  Parts B&C force you onto a tight left turn around some over-sided pot plants.

Then down to an angled flower box over a ditch:

This section is very similar to the vicarage fields at Badminton criss crossing a ditch:

It’s a another tight left hand turn to 21 and into the water:

The next four fences are straightforward and not upto to maximum height then it’s back to the water.

Turn sharp right to a big step up then work out how to stride parts c and d, on top of another mound. This really didn’t walk well at all for anyone:

On and over another table then up another mound with a brush upright dropping down a slope taking care to turn right half way down and over another corner brush.

Two more straightforward fences and your home crossing the finish line in the arena.

Personally I think this course looks more straightforward than it is. The flat terrain is deceptive, the fences on mounds will have two affects. Firstly it’s a confidence killer, because the horses are being asked to jump blind summits. Get one or two wrong and the horses might start to get wary. Secondly these mounds will affect horses leg weariness, and therefore affect the showjumping. The water fences are generally straightforward, and the water is shallow.

The tight turns all over the course, and the related distances on top of mounds is what I think will force the time faults, and errors. My first impression is that Fences 14, 15 & 26 C&D, and 28B will see most run outs.

More rain is predicted for Friday at Fair Hill, photo by Holly Covey

I’m the resident insomniac here at Eventing Nation.  If you ask the right people there are some truly amazing stories out there about late night posts, if I do say so myself.  Some nights are less amazing than others however and so here I sit after a quiet but fun dinner, answering emails and bringing you everything from Thursday at Fair Hill that we didn’t get to earlier.

Firstly, if you haven’t already, check out the Fair Hill blog.  It’s a huge upgrade to the event and we welcome the folks at Fair Hill into the blogosphere.  They included an EN shout-out today, so all the more reason to visit.  [Fair Hill Blog]

Second, EN reader and good friend Holly Covey was kind enough to send us a few canded photographs from Thursday.  Here’s a look at some of the action from around Fair Hill: 

Holly attached a paragraph to this photo: “The volunteer tent has volunteers Tina, Pete (in her coat) and Joan. Joan is part of the local fire company auxiliary, and coordinates all the volunteers — a HUMONGOUS job. She will be in the tent at 5 — yes 5 am on Saturday to hand out badges and passes and get lunches organized. I doubt she will be able to leave until 7 or 8 on Sat. night. And she’s spent countless hours emailing ALL of the hundreds of volunteers to confirm tasks, in the weeks ahead of the event. She never gets to watch and never even sees a rider.” 

Thank you Joan and all of the volunteers for your service at Fair Hill!

The Great One:

I’m not sure who has the better rain gear, David or Jimmy.

Awww!

Be sure to stop by and see my main man Eric at Devoucoux
 

As for the videos, check out Josh Walker’s YEH video for the USEA:

And Ed Holloway’s interview with Phillip Dutton Thursday afternoon:

That’s all for now.  Visionaire will be along shortly with news and notes and until then go eventing.

Phillip and Ben rode through the rain and into the CCI3* lead

Good evening from Elkton, Maryland after a quality first day of dressage here at Fair Hill.  Our Eventing Nation award for best weather comment of the day goes to Will Coleman, who said that it was so dreary he expected to see dementors coming out of the fog.  I didn’t make Will as a Harry Potter fan, but he is cool and all Harry Potter fans are cool, so there you go.  Despite the weather, spirits are high here and all expectations are for a fun weekend of competition.

As we all know, Andrea Leatherman sold her fabulous horse Mensa to Carl Bouckaert earlier this year, but that transition must have been made at least a little easier by the fact that she has a fabulous horse in the mare Mystic My, who leads the 60 horse CCI2* here at Fair Hill after the first day of dressage.  This is Mystic My’s third two-star and she had the best trot work that I saw in the two-star division and perhaps the three-star all day.   Andrea is easy to root for, and not just because she was kind enough to give me a golf cart ride in the rain at Morven.  Karl Slezak of Canada is in second in the CCI2* on Ulando H for Canada.  Scott Keach and Vamor are third in the two star, representing Australia.  Scott told me that Vamor alternates between show jumping and eventing but the horse is ultimately meant to be an event horse and will look to move up in the spring time.  30 two-star horses ride dressage tomorrow.

Phillip Dutton and Ben lead the CCI3* here at Fair Hill after a really nice test that scored as the only Thursday three-star score to break under 50.  Ben has a 7 point lead over Erin Sylvester and No Boundaries.  Nina Ligon is third on Tipperary Liadhnan after a test that had brilliant moments as well as a few bobbles.  Carl Bouckaert and Cyrano Z of Belgium are in 4th on a very steady performance.  Phillip is riding 4 horses this weekend and he is 5th overnight in the CCI2* on Young Man.

CIC3* Thursday Dressage Results:

1. Phillip Dutton and Ben 47.2
2. Erin Sylvester and No Boundaries 54.4
3. Nina Ligon and Tipperary Liadhnan 56.2
4. Carl Bouckaert and Cyrano Z 57.0

[Fair Hill Scores]

Phillip already has a video on Eventing Nation today, so here is Nina Ligon and Tipperary Liadhnan.  Apologies to Nina for cutting off her halt and salute, I am a terribly distracted videographer.

Portions of the leader board are sure to change tomorrow with some heavy hitters scheduled to ride including Arthur, Twizzel, Can’t Fire Me, Rolling Stone, and Veronica.  Top to bottom, the Friday lineup is my favorite dressage group from any three-star this year because of the quality of horses and riders including the aforementioned Mensa, and Henny.  Marilyn Little-Meredith will be defending her CIC3* win at Plantation this weekend and I’ll be cheering her on.  Unfortunately EN blogger Lisa Marie Fergusson had to withdraw from Fair Hill this week and therefore will not be pursuing the Bit of Britain Challenge.  She will touch base with us soon with an update.

Danica and Utah B of Canada:

Quite a few horses here in the Fair Hill three-star started off the year looking towards the Pan American Games, including Utah B and Danica Moore of Canada.  Obviously, none of the horses here will be making the trip to Mexico, but competing in the Fair Hill three-star isn’t a bad alternative and will set their horses up nicely for their future three-star and hopefully four-star careers. 

Several of the top three-star horses need a good weekend to maintain their 4* qualification and therefore stay on track for Rolex next year and beyond.  I expect to see some safe riding for the qualifying score on Saturday.  As usual, Fair Hill has a lot to do with looking ahead to Rolex for North America’s best horses.

Looking back to the YEH divisions from this morning, we mentioned that Kelli Temple and Corneel are leading the 4 year old division.  Corneel is a lovely 4 year old owned by Jules Stiller and the horse came over from the UK in July.  This is just his fourth event but he looked absolutely lovely.  As Kelli pointed out, the YEH horses get a great experience here at Fair Hill with the YEH arena in the main arena right in front of the grandstand.

A number of the riders today (perhaps a third) wore their helmets today in the FEI dressage.  It seems that rather than seeing a full conversion to helmets there is a divide of riders who choose to wear them and those who do not.  In my mind, I don’t see a reason not to wear a helmet, but it’s a personal choice and I can respect that. 

Lastly, I want to echo Visionaire’s welcome of Dubarry to the EN family of sponsors earlier this morning.  My view is that sponsorship on Eventing Nation works both ways and we look to associate ourselves with companies who share our values of giving back to the sport, having fun, and keeping your feet dry.  Dubarry is a fantastic company and we are very privileged to be partnered with them.  And of course thank you to all of our readers who support our sponsors each and every day.

I’ll add videos to this post as they finish uploading, so check back after the London Olympics.  The main arena here at Fair Hill is bustling right now with tomorrow’s riders getting their evening rides in to acclimate their horses to the environment.  Stay tuned for much more from Fair Hill throughout the weekend including the NFL nicknames of your favorite horses.  Go eventing.

Kelli Temple and Corneel took the lead in the YEH 4 year old division Thursday morning

Rule number one when coming to Fair Hill is do not get your car or truck washed the day before.  Because it will get muddy…very muddy.  Despite the mud you won’t hear a single person complaining about the clouds, scattered rain, and 60 degree weather because these conditions are some of the best that Fair Hill has seen in 3 years.  To make things even better, the weather is predicted to be really nice over the weekend so the nature of the competition is going to come down to how quickly the course can dry out.  Ok, that’s the last time I am going to talk about the weather and footing until the next time I talk about the weather and footing. 

Thursday morning featured dressage for the CCI2* and Young Event Horse divisions side by side in the main arena.  The YEH and FEH divisions are all too often relegated to a spectating obscurity at events, whether by scheduling or location, but they are front and center here at Fair Hill.  Doug Payne took the 5 year old YEH lead with Royal Tribute, and Kelli Temple took the 4 year old lead.

At the lunch break in the CCI2*, Will Coleman and Ideal Contini, owned by the newly married Lucia Strini, have a lead on 51.7.  They are trailed closely by Phillip Dutton and Young Man and Kylie Lyman and Garrison Flash.   

[Fair Hill Live Scores]

The CCI3* division will take over the YEH division arena at 2:30pm ET for the first portion of the 45 CCI3* riders here at Fair Hill.

As the competition is just getting underway I want to give a big thanks to everyone at Fair Hill for putting on such a wonderful event.  The press tent is even heated!  Everyone is incredibly nice and the volunteers have gone through an incredible effort over the past days and weeks to get this beautiful venue ready to go for a great weekend of eventing.

It’s October, it’s Fair Hill, it’s cloudy and rainy, and this is the very best of eventing.  Stay tuned throughout the weekend for much more from Fair Hill.  Go eventing.