Yesterday I covered the top 10 in the Adequan USEA Gold Cup and PRO Tour Series Advanced Division at Southern Pines, and now that I’m home in snowy Kentucky I have a bit more time to get to the remaining ten. Congratulations to Jimmie Schramm, above, who achieved exactly what she told me she set out to do at her first Advanced with Bellamy – get around and have a good experience. She was excited and a little nervous about such a milestone in her riding career, but she handled it beautifully and I’m looking forward to watching them both go on to bigger and better.  With a couple of rails down on Sunday they completed in 17th place; once again you can find all the final results here.

Lizzie Snow was our first clear round of the day in the Advanced division, albeit with five time penalties, and rode out of the ring to loud applause. She rode Coal Creek beautifully to finish 15th.

Kate Chadderton was, as usual, busy all weekend with a bunch of horses in all the divisions and finished just inside the top 20 in the Advanced on Collection Pass.

Caitlin Silliman had a stop at the wall on Catch A Star and several rails after that and I talked to her afterwards to find out what went wrong. She told me that Hoku seems to have developed a phobia about the Puissance Wall, that she stopped at it at Southern Pines last year, and in the 3* at Plantation last autumn, “I felt bad for her. Show-jumping is definitely her weaker phase, she wants to be really careful, she’s definitely not the type of mare that you can make have a rail in the warm-up to make her more careful, and I always get a bit nervous, so I think with a combination of it being on the grass, and the weather, and then the schedule got moved forward so we were suddenly a bit rushed. I showed her the wall when we cantered in, but she’s really scared of it, and after her stop there , and then she had the planks down (the jump following the wall) she was really flustered, and I was just pleased and proud of her for getting round.” Caitlin told me that they go home to Pennsylvania from Southern Pines and she’ll spend some time doing smaller jumps and get her confidence back, and that she’s already rung Katie Walker to see if they can borrow the Plantation Field wall to school over gently.  Historically, Hoku’s show-jumping has always been something of an issue which was why Caitlin was able to buy her in the first place, and it has improved beyond recognition, so hopefully this will just be a minor blip.  Next stop for Hoku is The Fork and then fingers crossed for Rolex. Having won the open  intermediate class fairly handily on Remington, I asked what the plans were for him, and Caitlin explained that the FEI rules mean that she will indeed have to go back and do a CCI**, “At first I was pretty disappointed because how many times in your life do you get handed a fit, sound four star horse, especially as Remi is a bit older, he’s 17 now and I don’t know how much longer he might go on for if he has to go back and do a two star and a three star? But Ron and Densey Juvonens, the owners of Remington and I talked about it, and they very nicely said that as long as he’s enjoying it and as long as Seema Sonnad  can continue to help paying his expenses they’re happy for him to stay with me.  Remington really doesn’t owe anyone anything. We’re really starting to click and to get to know each other so I’d like to aim him at the Jersey Fresh 2* and then perhaps a 3* in the Fall.”

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Caitlin Calder, who is now working with Jan Byyny, had an expensive show-jumping round to drop to 16th place on Jolliyat

Allie Knowles was our first clear round within the time on Last Call, and it was beautifully judged and ridden. I was also impressed by this pair on the cross country on Saturday; hopefully it will make the trip from Kentucky worthwhile.

Kate Samuels and Nyl Du Terroir – another nice clear, and one of the few to choose the option to turn left-handed after the planks and take the liverpool, above.

Colleen Rutledge and Shiraz getting some perfect British weather match practice in for Badminton! Two down though left them in 18th place.

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Boyd jumped a lovely clear on Trading Aces, belying what actually I think is quite a painful ankle, not from the fall off Crackerjack but from his moped the night before; hopefully he’ll get back to Pennsylvania and Silva will nurse him back to health, or knock some sense into him, or both!

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Sharon White just had the last fence down and one time penalty on Wundermaske to finish 14th.

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Many thanks again and as always to all the volunteers, the organisers, the grooms, connections, horses and riders. Many thanks to my friend who looked after Leo for me while I was away, and I’m sorry that he was so smelly, apparently, that he needed to be taken to the groomers! Not sure how I should feel – embarrassed, grateful, flattered, affronted? I have already made up my mind that Leo will stay somewhere else next time, well, he’ll actually come with me, see you at The Fork Leo fans,  but truth be told, it seems it may not even be up to me, she certainly didn’t jump at the chance when I vaguely mentioned something about ‘if or when I went away again’ – harrumph, the cheek!  But I digress! Thank you to Southern Pines for a fabulous weekend of competition despite the elements, congratulations to Will Faudree again, make sure to like his facebook page here, and GO Eventing!

After sweeping the board at Pine Top earlier this Spring, Will Faudree made it a repeat performance at Southern Pines, taking home the top two spots in the Adequan Gold Cup USEA and PRO Tour Series Advanced Division.  You can find all the final scores here.

Andromaque jumped a flawless clear round to retain the lead she’d held since the dressage phase, adding just 6.8 time penalties to it on the cross country the day before, and even though she may have sounded like she was making an effort over around the stadium course, grunting a little over the fences, she made it look easy! Will was full of praise, unsurprisingly! “Andromaque was amazing! I think she sounded a bit like Serena Williams over every jump but I know when she does that she’s just going higher and wider and I couldn’t be happier with her, it’s really exciting.” Especially so because Southern Pines is Will’s local event, he lives barely ten minutes down the road and as he said, it’s always nice for a local boy to deliver the goods!

Pawlow had just one rail down but that was good enough to keep him in second place, “I had one down but  it was totally my fault. I thought the triple combination walked a little tight and so I over-rode a little too much and came down on his back to the vertical and he just tipped it behind, but I’m very happy with him, he jumped well.”

Susan Beebee’s Wolf was third in his second Advanced and they now head to the CIC*** at The Fork. Susan told me she’ll work on cleaning up his changes but otherwise she’s absolutely thrilled with him,  that he was practically foot perfect but for one moment where he helped her out at the trakehner cross country and cooled out brilliantly. Again for her, Southern Pines is practically in her backyard, “Bobby, Will, Charlie, this is definitely my hometown now and I feel like I’ve got all my family around me”

Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Fugitive had one rail down but maintained their fourth place. Phillip had withdrawn Fernhill Eagle after dressage but was one of a couple who didn’t run cross country to jump after the competition was concluded – many thanks to the organisers for offering this, especially in such horrible conditions. (Fernhill Eagle jumped clear, Phillip told me he didn’t need the run cross country and will go to The Fork)

Leslie Chelstrom and Cecilia actually moved one place up the leaderboard with one down to finish 5th.

Jan Byyny and Inmidair also moved up a place to 6th with just a rail down

Daniel Clasing and Houston put in solid performances across all three phases this weekend to finish seventh after one rail down in the show-jumping

Erin Sylvester’s No Boundaries bounced around the course almost with disdain, clearing everything easily!

Will Coleman gave Donner an absolutely class ride, one of the nicest clear rounds all day, and he paid credit afterwards to the work Lynn Symansky has done bringing the horse to this level – great team effort!  

An expensive two rails dropped Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me from 5th to 10th but it was actually a very nice round and shouldn’t worry anybody unduly.  The ground crew worked hard in between horses trying to maintain the integrity of the landings and take-offs as much as possible, but really it was just a horrible day altogether. I have a few more pictures and notes to come, but am running  (always late, always rushing!) to catch a plane. Thoughts are with those driving through rain, snow and ice to get home with your horses – please be careful and safe. Thanks for visiting Eventing Nation. An enormous Eventing Nation Thank You to the volunteers and grooms this weekend, and to organisers, connections, riders, and to the horses – what dire and disgusting conditions but I saw smiling faces, kindness, determination and surely madness everywhere! Go away rain, snow and ice, and go Eventing!

Congratulations to Caitlin Silliman and Remington on victory in the Open Intermediate Division at Southern Pines II. With driving wind and rain Marc Donovan’s course has been causing some problems this morning but Caitlin added just one rail down show-jumping to maintain the lead she established in the dressage.  Allison Springer capitalised on a clear round show-jumping to move up into second place on Copycat Chloe who has looked great all weekend, and  Doug Payne was third on his impressive Crown Talisman. You can find all the scores here. The weather is frightful and the ring crew are making every attempt to maintain the footing in between horses.

Boyd Martin was the first to go this morning on Crackerjack, who spooked at something in the far corner of the ring before the bell had rung, unseating Boyd. Having told me yesterday this was the first Southern Pines he hadn’t fallen off at in 3 years, I hear he also fell off his moped earlier today also – famous last words. He did get back on and jump a beautiful clear round on Crackerjack with just one time fault, and jumped several other horses afterwards too.

Crackerjack jumps clear with one time fault

Looking at the driving rain and once again filled with gratitude and for all the amazing volunteers here and at every event – an endless EN thank to all the people who help run our competitions, especially in dire and unpleasant conditions such. Thank you for reading, and Go bundle up and go eventing!

I just caught up with Emily Beshear and talked to her about her ride Saturday around the Advanced track at Southern Pines;  she told me that actually it was the corner fairly early on that caused her some trouble but she doesn’t think it’s an indication of any real problem , “When I walked the course I was happy that there were those open stretches because every year I go to The Fork and I have trouble early on because it’s so open and he’s not focused, so that question in particular (the corner) sent up a red flag to me for him. David (O’Connor) has been talking to me all spring about taking more chances with him and not spending so much time setting up for the combinations so I thought that would be a good place to test it out and it didn’t work! It’s obviously something in his development that I have to keep working on; in a long, straight stretch he literally does not see the technical aspect so he just ran straight past the corner and then got really flustered and ran past it again, and then I got him to jump it. He’d been brilliant at the beginning. I was obviously disappointed but not really that much so because it was definitely something I needed to test out whether I could shave a few seconds here and there and that’s not somewhere  where I can do it.”  Emily in fact, did NOT pick up 20 penalties for circling at the water before jumping the roll top out, “If I hadn’t had the earlier trouble I would have made the water happen, but because I could tell he was just a little flustered from what had happened earlier in the course I just wanted him to finish settled  so I thought, OK, I’ll just circle there and get his composure back, because he was brilliant everywhere else. He was really good early on and I was actually close to my minute markers up until that happened at the corner which is rare for me, so now I know I can be quick and still take a few seconds to let him read the question better. I’ve had trouble in the past with that exact type of situation, and that was my day to see if we were ready to take that on or if he still needs more time, and I think he still needs more time.”

Emily didn’t intend to show-jump Quincy this afternoon as the weather is deteriorating as I write this, but told me she will definitely go home and set up a similar question so that he learns to look for things, “I don’t feel like he was misbehaving, I literally think he just didn’t know he was supposed to jump that fence.”

In a reassuring sign that even the four star riders have superstitions this is Quincy’s travelling companion, and yet, because he has a history of destroying his mascots, it’s not allowed to hang outside his stall!  Emily shared the details, “Quincy always used to travel by himself but it started off with a purple monkey who was his travelling companion, but the problem is we keep having to get new monkeys because he kills them! We always know it’s going to be a little bit of a questionable day because we’ll come in the morning and one time he had ripped a leg off and drowned it in his water bucket! So this weekend it’s not outside his stall, it’s by the grey mare’s, and we thought maybe that’s why he’s not quite on his game, because he doesn’t have his monkey!”

Wishing Emily the best of luck at The Fork, and hoping that all the competitors get through the show-jumping here at Southern Pines (driving wind and rain) and have safe journeys home. Am off to try and find a dry-ish spot to watch and maybe take some photos. Thanks for visiting Eventing Nation, please come soon, Spring. Go Eventing!

Andromaque looked absolutely copybook around Hugh Lochore’s Advanced cross country course at Southern Pines and jumped clear with 6.8 time to retain the lead in the USEA Adequan Gold Cup Pro Tour Series Division. Having not had the most auspicious start with a fall on DHI Colour Candy at fence 8, Pawlow made it all look easy for Will, moving up into 2nd place with a speedy clear round and for the rest of the day the worst he had to endure was some light-hearted ribbing about his muddy breeches!

Pawlow making the second water look like a walk in the park.

Susan Beebee’s Wolf galloped round well within himself, he’s the sort of horse that makes you think he’d give you all the confidence in the world, he’s so scopey and bold, jumping everything out of stride and Susan has a great rapport with him.

Susan Beebee and Wolf move up into third place with a solid clear; you can find all the scores here.

Phillip Dutton withdrew Fernhill Eagle before the start of cross country but moved up into fourth place overnight with a quick clear on Annie Jones’ Fernhill Fugitive. He took a short cut through the trees after this roll top out of the water to the table (of course!) almost mowing down surprised  spectator Bobby Costello who was standing right in his path but luckily escaped without incident, not sure if he went especially close to him on purpose to see how fast he could run!

Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me are looking right on form cross country.   They were fantastic at Rolex last year until they were pulled up right near the end and I’m expecting them to be a real threat there this year. Becky told me that last year she felt that Teddy felt a tiny bit tired towards the end of the course in Kentucky, and this year after taking him south to work on his dressage and show-jumping over the winter she’s really stepped up his fitness, and told me she can certainly notice the difference. She said that he was almost unrideable for the first couple of fences but luckily he’s such a good horse and always looks to go through the flags, “even if I’m looking at his forehead sideways!”  She also admitted that perhaps without Comet she’s missing having another horse at the upper level and so has unconsciously stepped up Teddy’s work schedule more than she realised, and she smiled, “I was so lucky with Comet, and with Hogan – you just had to look at them to get them fit!”  As she said though, Can’t Fire Me settled down and went really well, looking for his routes through the more complicated combinations and felt spot on. He’ll go to The Fork next, and then on to Rolex.

Leslie Chelstrom and Cecilia were one of many to knock the flag down at the corner but still had a nice round and finish the day in 6th place

Jan Byyny has the measure of Inmidair and rides him beautifully through the second water for a clear round and lies seventh overnight. Jan has been nothing but consistent this spring and I look forward to watching her at Rolex this Spring also.

I’m so thrilled that Jimmie Schramm had such a  great round on Bellamy, both their first Advanced. I bumped into Jimmie a couple of times walking the course and she was telling me that she was feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement, that she definitely acknowledged it as a huge  step up in her riding career, and she couldn’t have give him a better ride today. Well done Jimmie and Bellamy!

Boyd was the perfect trailblazer on Trading Aces – this horse gets better and better as they build a partnership together, and I spoke to Boyd about him afterwards, “I’m enjoying riding this guy. He’s got as much quality as I’ve ever had in a horse and I think he’ll be green at Rolex, but a little bit like Otis last year, you’ll see how brilliant he is there, and we’re still getting to know each other.”  Last autumn at Plantation we had spoken about fitness and Boyd had said that was one of his concerns with the horse, “We’re still five weeks out so I’ll take him  to Pennsylvania next week and I’ll swim him two times before The Fork and I’ll also get two gallops up Nelson’s Hill. I think I’m in good shape.  Phillip (Dutton) rode him around a cross country (Pine Top) when I got knocked out the other day and it was really cool because he then came and gave me a few cross country lessons on him and told me a few changes I neeeded to make, my technique of riding him, and I was really, really pleased with him today because he was really locked onto the complicated combinations and such.”  Boyd was yet another rider to praise Hugh Lochore’s track, “It’s better –  much more flowing and galloping. This event had a reputation of being hard on the horses because of the galloping up and down but the new design has taken that out, and this is the first Southern Pines that I haven’t fallen off at in three years so I’m very pleased!”

The superhorse Neville Bardos was entered in the Advanced division and I asked Boyd why he hadn’t made an appearance,  “Neville pulled up a little bit stiff after one of the gallops and we scanned the suspensory and initially it looked fine so I kept pressing on, and then last week it looked like they saw a bit of a strain on the ultrasound so I decided to pull him out of Kentucky and rest him up. We’ve sent him to  Dr Revenoff, a vet in Kentucky who’s got a fancy new laser machine, there’s only two in the country, one in Kentucky and one in Southern California and they’re having great results in rehabilitating leg injuries so I’m lucky that we got him in there and we’ll see how it goes. It’s quite depressing because I was really on a mission this year with him, but as I said to the syndicate although the future at the moment is a bit cloudy with him, the good thing is he’s only 13, and for event horses that’s not terribly old and I wouldn’t mind just resting him for quite a long time and just letting his whole body rejuvenate. Last year, and a little bit this year we’ve been pushing on him and trying to get him here and there, and I think I’d just like to give him a good break and ease up and let him freshen up again. His heart’s in it, he wants to do it but he’s got mileage, but he’s been around a bit.” Wishing Neville a happy, restful recovery and we look forward to seeing him back when he’s ready xx

Caitlin Silliman and Catch A Star looked fantastic, travelling easily.

Donner looked really good for Will Coleman who gave him a sympathetic ride for a clear round

I am hoping to catch up with Emily Beshear later to chat; she looked great at the water, just turned away to circle before the roll top coming out , which is separately numbered, but was awarded 20 penalties, and also picked up 20 penalties somewhere else on course, not sure where yet. Emily did tweet that she’d experimented today with letting the handbrake off a little with mixed results, but I’ll try and report back in the morning.

Allie Knowles and Last Call looked impressive

Eventing Nation’s Kate Samuels and Nyls Du Terroir looked lovely the whole way round

This was just a warm up for Badminton for Shiraz who barely glanced at the fences! Now if only we can wrap Colleen in bubble wrap as she is the one walking around with a bruised ankle having literally kicked herself in the foot – doh! Of all the things that can go wrong and prevent one from competing at the world’s greatest three day event that would be rather unfunny!

Sharon White’s Wundermaske is a very exciting prospect for the future. Bouncing through the water for fun, Sharon confirmed later that he absolutely loves the job, and is a joy to ride. She’ll aim him at Jersey Fresh if everything goes to plan with the idea of perhaps going to Europe in the Autumn, but nothing is set in stone.

The heavy rain didn’t stick around and actually just improved the footing for the advanced horses that went around lunchtime. Intermediate show-jumping starts at 9am Sunday morning, followed by the Advanced. As always, many many thanks to the tireless volunteers and organisers, grooms, helpers, connections, horses and riders, and thank you of course for reading. Go Southern Pines and Go Eventing!

Phillip Dutton posts a quick clear on Alex MacLeod’s Railroad Man Jim

The good news is it’s slightly, very slightly warmer here this morning. The bad news is it’s started raining! When Phillip Dutton wears his warm weather cross country gear, the yellow waterproof jersey – you know it’s not good, I knew there was a reason I love to watch those bright blue colours fly across the countryside!

Sharon White and Bettina Star were perfect trailblazers for the prelim division at 8am this morning, galloping around fairly steadily but posting a lovely clear round.  The rest of the morning the course seemed to ride fairly well, with the bank at 7 causing the most trouble. As I write this we are coming to the end of the Open Divisions with the J/YR and PR divisions still to come so it will be interesting to see if they have any more trouble. The Advanced is due to start at lunchtime.

Doug on his second prelim ride, Cellar Door. He’d followed Sharon earlier on Lysander – both horses looked fabulous.

Kate Chadderton clears the last on Check out the Charmer, one of multiple great rounds I saw one after the other – Kate, Bobby Costello on his lovely, grey young horse Fernhill Teddy Two Two, so genuine and talented but they apparently missed out a jump, Erin Sylvester’s Paddy the Caddy, Lauren Lambert’s Opera Ghost, Will Coleman on Lynn Symansky’s Osborne…

I also really liked Allison Springer on Eclipse, above, not what I’m used to seeing her on. Many thanks to the show-jumping announcer and scoring crew for letting me shelter in their cabin while I type this up, even though I’m going so slowly because my fingers aren’t moving. Check back later for an advanced report, hopefully! Thanks for reading,  Go Southern Pines, go away global warming and go eventing!

Will Faudree: Not only winning the dressage phase of the Southern Pines Gold Cup Adequan USEA PRO Tour Series, but the Style Stakes too

There was no change at the top of the leaderboard after the lunchbreak – Will Faudree and Missy, his lovely mare Andromaque who belongs to Jennifer Mosing, like his three other rides here at Southern Pines, retained their lead from Emily Beshear and Here’s To You, and Will also kept third place with Pawlow.  Call me soppy but my heart melts every time I see Will and Missy trotting around together, him with a big grin on his face, unless he’s really concentrating, her with her ears pricked and always concentrating, and whenever I ask him how he is when he’s riding her he unfailingly replies that he’s wonderful, or fabulous, or the luckiest person in the world.  About his test today he elaborated, “I was very happy with her; she’s like going to work withe Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada every time I get on her, she’s all business and I’ve got a great partnership with her. I did ride her once early this morning, mainly because it was so cold – I just wanted to get them out of the trailer and move them around, and then we put lots of coolers on them and gave them about an hour to themselves, and then when I warmed her up she felt really good so I didn’t do a whole lot, and she went in and put in a really business-like test. I’ve been working a lot with Sandy Phillips and recently it’s been hard to get her over, so between that and I’ve had awesome training sessions with David, it’s just been brilliant. I’ve got so much out of them, and he’s helped me so much with the quality of the work we do with her, she’s not one of the biggest moving horses and if I don’t work with her trot she becomes quite ordinary, she’s 15.3 and built a little downhill and we have to really work to build her uphill but I watched the video and I was really pleased with her frame throughout the whole test. If she doesn’t understand something, she tells me she doesn’t understand it and we ask her a different way and try to figure it out.”  You can see Andromaque’s video, courtesy of the Horsepesterer – thank you! – here.  Will also went on to say that while he adores Missy and it’s mutual, the other girls on the barn are not so smitten, “Jennifer jokes that when I get on Missy it’s like being on Cloud Nine and I get off her and I’m happy, but it’s funny because she’s not a warm, fuzzy mare – Nat V-C (barn manager) and Christina Curiale (travelling groom) do not get along with her at all, Missy does not like them. They tolerate each other, but I joke that there can only be one queen in the barn and it’s Missy!”

A chance meeting at a clinic where Will taught Jennifer Mosing’s two daughters Kaitlynn and Madeline blossomed into a friendship and business relationship. After Jennifer bought Pawlow, they found Andromaque in Ireland as a somewhat tricky two star horse and decided to take a chance on her, “Thank God we did! She reminds me a lot of Antigua in many ways. They’re built very similarly. She has a quieter brain than he did in the dressage but she’s a little bit stronger in my hand cross country. In the way they go and the way they move across the ground though, it’s cool.”  The plan is to apply for Saumur with Missy this Spring and then take her to Pau in the Autumn. Meanwhile, Ernie aka Pawlow is headed to Rolex, “He’s fourteen this year and I have a great partnership with him; I have a great partnership with all my horses and they’re all of course a bit different. I’ve had Ernie for a very long time, I bought him from Robyn Fisher through Amy Tryon. He always delivers; he’s not the fastest horse in the world so at the top level he’s always going to have time penalties – I can go as fast as I want but he’s an amazing horse in the sense that I never feel a loss of jumping ability from him, but I lose fifth gear at about 8 minutes, and then I lose fourth gear at about 9 minutes, and then at the last four star we did, at Luhmuhlen we sort of coasted home in third gear, I can kick as hard as I want, and he still jumps as well as ever, but he’s not going any faster! I’m just having fun on him, he’s a really fun CIC horse because I don’t ever lose fifth gear on him there, he’s fun in the dressage.”

The cross country course at Southern Pines is designed this year by Hugh Lochore and Will is one of several riders I spoke to who was full of praise for it this year, “It’s really good. They’ve changed the flow of the track; I think it’s a bit more gallop-y than it has been in the past and it looks really good, they do a good job. You can’t control the weather, it felt like 12 degrees this morning, but I love that these competitions are changing the course designers every three or four years because I think it’s good to have a fresh look and feel, I think it’s good that we get to see different courses and ideas. It’s never fun to go to the same event over and over again and think, ‘here we go again!’ I think Hugh’s done a great job this weekend, there’s definitely plenty to do out there. I’m not going to be blasting any of them really fast around, it’s early in the season, I want to build on what my goals are this Spring.” Will also has DHI Colour Candy in the Advanced and Riesling De Buissy in the Open Intermediate.

Susan Beebee was one of several riders to forget her test, but Wolf is such an extravagant mover and overall impressive horse, and there were some really lovely moments that Leslie Mintz and I who were watching together wondered if she might take the lead regardless.  Also worth mentioning is Becky Holder’s test on Can’t Fire Me; as expected it was a pleasure to watch, expertly ridden and just lacked a little bit of finesse that I’m sure Becky will work on between now and Rolex. With the frigid temperatures and with some horses still having only their first or second run I think we can expect to see some of the rust still being knocked off after the winter.

Erin Sylvester’s No Boundaries has been looking consistently good in all three phases this spring, and Erin also has some nice young horses coming up through the levels.

Daniel Clasing and Houston had nice moments to finish in 7th place after the dressage

Eventing Nation’s Kate Samuels and Nyls Du Terroir

Leslie Chelstrom and Cecilia

Will Coleman and Twizzel who lie in fourth place after dressage but who won’t go cross country – they galloped at home a couple of days ago, and Twizzel will run at The Fork before Kentucky.

Check out Obos O’Reilly’s forehead, currently 7th in the OI division after dressage. They say more than one whorl is a sign of naughtiness (or is it luck?) but he has at least five!

and yet he looks like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth!

Colleen Rutledge looks so spiffy in all her new gear, and I am crossing my fingers that she gets to show it off in the main arena at Badminton in a few weeks time. At number eight on the waiting list her chances are awfully good, so if the weather, the EHV, and then all the normal horse things that could go wrong could just not, please, then she should be fine!

Finally, I hardly got to see any of the Intermediate or other divisions but luckily for me Dr Kevin Keane went quite late in the day on his own lovely Fernhill Flutter. Their first outing this year as Kevin has been working hard in Aiken all winter they proved that the time away from competing, and instead practicing dressage has not been wasted in the slightest by producing a blinder of a test. They lie in 3rd place in the OI division behind Phillip Dutton and Emily Beshear who tie for the lead.  Cross country starts at 8am Saturday morning, and although it is supposed to be even colder (how can that be possible) than Friday, everyone is praying that the rain holds off until Sunday, well, Monday would be even more ideal but there is a chance it may come much sooner. The volunteers and organisers at Southern Pines and the Carolina Horse Park could not have been more friendly or helpful, especially in such horrible conditions – once again we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for reading too, and Go Eventing!

Will Faudree has taken an early lead on Andromaque after a lovely test in the Advanced Division, and he currently also occupies third place on Pawlow.  You can find all the scores [here]. Will always looks so happy to be riding his beloved Missy, and it showed in an expressive, mistake free test, one of very few this morning; maybe it’s the sub-zero temps (it was below twenty on my way here, and although it has warmed up into the thirties the wind still makes it feel colder) but the changes weren’t happening for a lot of people, and several riders forgot their tests to boot.

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I’ve been raving about Emily Beshear and her gorgeous Ky bred OTTB Here’s To You (by Will’s Way) all spring, and they didn’t disappoint me, also turning in a lovely, soft, smooth and flowing test, good enough to split Will’s rides for second place currently.

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Will Coleman and Twizzel performed, as expected these days, a very nice solid test, albeit with some slightly untidy changes, but it was more interesting to watch Will ride Lynn Symansky’s Donner, above. Lynn has broke her hand recently on a young horse, a spiral fracture when it stopped suddenly and she jammed it into the neck, so although she is riding gently again already, and hopes to be back in time for Rolex, Will is deputising for her at competitions. Having only ridden Donner for a few days they’re still figuring each other out but they looked pretty good so far.  Much more to come from Southern Pines later. Stay warm and go eventing!

This massive fallen tree that course-builder Mick Costello dragged across the Horse Park for the 2010 competition is once again on the track for 2013.

The sun shone briefly Friday morning over the Kentucky Horse Park so it seemed like an ideal opportunity to take Leo out for a quick walk so we could check out the progress being made on the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** cross country course. It truly takes a village, and year round grafting to produce one day of awesomeness. Of course there’s Course Designer Derek Di Grazia, who makes regular visits from California and who is in constant contact with Course Builder Mick Costello.  If there’s anything Mick doesn’t know about the Horse Park, it’s not worth knowing; he’s built the Rolex track since 1998, as well as the driving course for the National Championships that also take place at the Kentucky Horse Park, the 2010 WEG cross-country, and more, and is only very slightly neurotic about the footing which is why it’s always as excellent as humanly possible!

Mick and Yvonne Todd have an impromptu meeting to finalise jump details.

Yvonne has drawn the jumps for the artist’s rendering of the  course in the Rolex programme for some 30 years now, but has also lent a hand as dressage steward and much more.  The drawings need to be submitted by the end of the month for the programme to go to the printers the first week of April, and then a couple of weeks before the event Mick hopes to have the course flagged and ready. In between that time, jumps will be stained, filled with brush, in some cases moved. Flowers come in a couple of days before cross-country from Georgetown, and then need to be covered in case of overnight frost. The actual track has been roped off for some time now and Mick watches the weather carefully so he can plan his vertidraining, rolling and all the work he does on the going accordingly.

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The footing is amazing, especially when you consider the time of year and the winter we’ve had.

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Then the closer we get to the event, start multiplying exponentially the numbers of absolutely indispensable helpers and volunteers, some who come faithfully every year, giving up holiday time and at considerable expense, who will flock to Lexington as if to the Holy Grail and who also make the magic happen. Thank you to all the jump judges, vets, starters, timers, the control crew, the maintenance guys, the medics and emergency personnel, of course the grooms, riders and supporters, and so many people that I’m doubtless forgetting.  I wanted to post some pictures today so that we can all appreciate how much work, and  what a work in progress the course is, and also because it’s so much fun to anticipate that day just over a month away now!

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The first fence – in the same position but brand new this year. Where it all starts – it’s hard not to get goosebumps when you walk the course, walk past such signature landmarks as the start, the Rolex Stadium, the Head of The Lake. The first fence where so many dreams and expectations will either take flight or crash and burn within the space of the next ten minutes, years of work have come to this.

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The Tudor House is now the second fence. There aren’t actually many new fences but there’s been quite a lot of changing places.

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The brush boxes at 3 and 4.  Then, in a departure from previous years, instead of turning right-handed to the pond, the track goes straight into the infield.

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Past the driving hazard, and the old fence 2, the stone walls, is now in the infield.

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This will be a brush to a brush coffin but there’s no ditch, just a dip

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The no-ditch no brush  brush coffin!

Then you come back and do the first water, the pond.

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Coming out of the pond

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Going back into the infield to a massive oxer. This is partly why I wanted to post all these pictures today, and then another series in a few weeks time when they’re all dressed and finished – the difference is incredible!

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Appreciating the width!

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A proper coffin

The hammock is back on the course this year, and then the horses and riders gallop down to the sunken road

Sunken Road, seen from ‘behind’, horses will jump through it towards camera, then gallop on to log at top of post, double of corners, and up hill to quarry/hollow.

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This is the jump at the bottom of the hollow, at quite a steep angle, looking up at the jump out.

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The jump into the quarry, I’m pretty sure it will be a brush fence.

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The two mounds are not being used this year, you can just see them next door to this giant table which Mick fashioned from trees in the Horse Park.  Along with the first and last fence, he tied up all the left over scraps in tidy bundles and gave them to the Campground for firewood.

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The Head of the Lake – the same jump in as last year, the duck in the water and then out over this corner which will have brush on it.

Once again the riders cross back into the infield by way of the Normandy Bank and the triple skinny brush, but this year they then head back to the water, and first they must tackle one of these red cabins.

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The third and final water.

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Where the offset double of angled ‘horse park barns’ used to be, the Walnut Tables have taken their place, and instead…

the Horse Park Barns are now at the Final Combination, the double of ditches that used to be brushes.

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The last fence is more or less the same but is actually a new jump.  After last year’s course which had been purposely designed to give the Olympic horses a trial run on a tighter, twistier track, from what you can tell at this early stage it seems to be more flowing and open this year. It’s early days for the entries too, but with William Fox-Pitt already having four horses in, all impressive and one (Cool Mountain) a former winner and WEG silver medalist it’s hard to bet against him; if you made me choose though I’ve liked Emily Beshear and Here’s To You since she did well here last year, and she’s done nothing but improve since then. After a great Blenheim last autumn she’s had a terrific Spring and would be a crowd favourite to go well too.

Emily Beshear and Here’s To You

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I’ll be out at the Horse Park often in the next few weeks, and hope to bring you an update once the course is close to being ready. Go the behind the scenes crew, Go the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and Go Three Day Eventing!

I already reported on Lisa Barry’s tough week at some length in an earlier post, so I’m delighted to be adding now that she won the Advanced division at Red Hills, jumping a beautiful clear round on F.I.S Prince Charming, adding nothing but a couple of time faults to her score.

I spoke to Lisa very briefly after her win, and apart from being thrilled and sharing that ‘Peanut’ had nearly jumped her out of the tack a couple of times, she was anxious to go and take care of him and get on the road home to Ocala. Sydney Conley Elliot was 2nd on Pancho Villa, a 10-year-old Selle Francaise owned by Michelle Taylor. Sydney has ridden him for two years and says he’s still quite green at the Advanced level, having moved up just a year ago. “He was on his game this weekend; he was very, very good. It was a tough decision to do the Advanced and not the CIC*** since I am qualified, but since he is fairly new I just didn’t want to overface him, and then I was kicking myself when I walked the cross country because it was the same course! In hindsight, I would definitely have done the CIC*** and hopefully that will be our next outing.” From Shreveport, Louisiana, Sydney told me she’ll sit down with Michelle (“We’re a team of three!”) and figure out a plan for Pancho Villa, but right now she’s assuming she’ll go to the CIC*** at Chattahoochee. Sydney runs a barn of 10 to 15 horses and is coached by Mike Huber and Heather Morris. “They are fabulous. We are in Area V and we’re very close to the Gold Chip crew. We love our Dallas neighbours!”  This was Sydney’s first visit to Tallahassee and Red Hills, and she told me she will definitely come back next year, hopefully with all her horses.

Joe Meyer’s experience in that Grand Prix jumper ring over the winter paid dividends, and he rode a skillful clear to move up to 3rd place on Sanskrit, who is bound for Rolex.

Fernhill Fugitive came out looking decidedly fresh and cheeky; lack of concentration may have been the reason for his two rails, which dropped him down to 8th place.

Sara Kozumplik had a rail down on Flagmount’s Sterling Prince, but still moved up a place to fourth in the Advanced.

Katie Ruppel and Sir Donovan

Caroline Martin rode two beautiful clear show-jumping rounds Sunday at Red Hills, one on Center Stage to win the Preliminary division and the other on Quantum Solace, above, in the Advanced.

Caitlin Calder and Jolliyat

Nicole Parkin and Lexus

The Intermediate Division

Sara Kozumplik had two rails in hand and used them both up on Tatton Winter to win the Intermediate, and she left the ring shaking her head.

Leslie Law also left the ring looking slightly disappointed, as he had the penultimate fence down, dropping him out of 2nd place.

Holly Jacks and More Inspiration capitalised on a clear round and grabbed the reserve slot.

On my life I swear I’m not biased, but Kate Samuels’ round on Nyls Du Terroir was one of the nicest I saw all day.

Jennie Jarnstrom also jumped a lovely clear on Capetown to move up the order.

I’m running to catch a plane, but one more congratulations to the True Prospect Farm team who captured the CIC** and CIC***, the latter for the second year in a row. It’s always sad to leave Red Hills, but I can’t wait to see the brand new courses next year and find out if Phillip can make it three in a row. Thank you for  the fabulous Tallahassee welcome and hospitality, the top level of sport and enthusiasm that we’ve become accustomed to at Red Hills and, again, thank you to the volunteers and organisers. I hope all the grooms, helpers, riders and connections have a safe journey home  and enjoy a good night’s sleep — I know I will. Go Red Hills and go eventing!

Is there anything Phillip Dutton can’t do? Mighty Nice has a loose shoe? No problem! Winning the Adequan Gold Cup Series Pro Tour CIC*** and driving away in a Benz for the second year in a row? Check! Thanks to Peter Atkins for sending in the picture.

After a lovely dressage test in the Advanced that was good enough for third place, Lisa Barry and F.I.S Prince Charming, her New Zealand-bred OTTB, skipped around the cross country making good time to find themselves in the lead going into show jumping the next day. Coming into the weekend, she knew she needed to give her horse a good ride around this tough track but, has been struggling with personal issues.

“I feel like I was riding with an angel on my shoulder this weekend,” Lisa said. “I lost my working student/groom Collin Rahal in a horrific car accident last Sunday. She was a wonderful girl with great spirit and passion for horses and learning. I’ve never met someone so thankful for the small things or with such a positive outlook on life. I had a really hard time with it mentally and emotionally, and was still really struggling when we first got here. I took some sports psychology advice from my brother. He said that I should allow myself to put the emotion away for the weekend so I could focus and do my job, and so by taking his advice and accepting that’s what I needed to do, I feel that I could channel that spirit and ride to my best. I am so lucky to have had her in my life, even if it was for just a short time. This is only Peanut’s fourth Advanced and I’ve been at the back of the pack the whole time. I’d hoped to do well because the cross country is easy for him, and in the show jumping he’s such a good jumper and he’s learning to be careful. He’s still young; he’s only nine. His dressage has improved so much though since I’ve been working with Linda Zang, which has been going really well, and I’m still working with Karen and David O’Connor on a regular basis, so I was hoping that we’d start to creep up there and get a little higher in the rankings. He really stepped up for me this weekend; he’s a good boy.”

Lisa has had F.I.S. Prince Charming, aka Peanut, since about Christmas time 2008 and spent the first year just schooling at home without going to any competitions. From Red Hills, they will aim to do the CICs at The Fork, Jersey and then go to Bromont so that she can give Peanut plenty of downtime in between competitions.

“He still gets quite stressed; he was racing about six months before I got him from New Zealand, and that’s quite a lot of his issues on the flat,” Lisa said. “It’s just tension. He’s capapble of doing all the movements very well, but with the way he’s built, when he gets tense and tight he just loses all his movement, so we’ve been working a lot on figuring out how to  keep him quiet and relaxed. We school the movements at home so he’s not worried about them — partly growing up, partly some training. This was by far the hardest track he’s ever seen, and he was just on it the whole time. From the first combination we did at the coffin at fence 4, as soon as he jumped through there I knew he was all over it and I thought we could go for it, so I opened my rein and let him gallop and he made easy work of the rest of it. It’s pretty cool to be able to trust a young horse. I haven’t run a track like this on him and I think he’s definitely going to be there for me; it’s exciting.”

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Emily Beshear is campaigning Here’s To You for his second tilt at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** this Spring. A Kentucky bred OTTB by Will’s Way who raced “very little,” Emily told me she’s made a few changes this year and has a very fit and happy horse on her hands. “I definitely started earlier this year; last year he actually didn’t run an Advanced until Southern Pines so this year, with the mileage he got last year, I felt more confident coming here this year, feeling like I could be ready and that would help me get a bit sharper leading up to it. Last year it was more, ‘let’s just get to Kentucky!’, whereas this year I want to go there and be competitive. There’s a few things I want to work on myself that I can only work on in competitions, so I’ve definitely added more to the calendar this year. He was bouncing the whole way back to the stables from the cross-country finish, and he’s been standing in his stall pawing to go out and usually he’s sleeping! He’s bright-eyed and ready to run again. I had plenty of horse left at the end and I’m pretty excited about that.”

Emily will go to Southern Pines next, and the The Fork will hopefully be her final run before Rolex. The recent training sessions with U.S. Team Coach David O’Connor have been very helpful, Emily added, as she doesn’t work with any one person in particular consistently, but had worked with David last year leading up to Kentucky and then slightly more again in the build up to and at Blenheim. “He’s the one I tend to go to if I have some issue I want to work through or a question about something. Here’s to You is really coming into his own now. He used to be a bit silly and spooky and now he just thinks he owns the place! He’s so lazy in his day-to-day work, but we were laughing because in the training sessions he was the best behaved he’s been all spring, and it’s because there were crowds and people there to see him; he wants to put on a show!” Look out for Here’s to You and Emily Beshear at Rolex this spring.

Kyle Carter and Madison Park will start the show jumping in the OI division on Sunday morning in 5th place after a solid clear cross country. Kyle’s wife Jen told me there is no real plan for Parker at the moment — that they’re enjoying every day and every competition as it comes. The decision to come to Red Hills was a last minute one, as one of their clients was boarding at a barn and couldn’t come due to EHV-1 restrictions, so they decided to take their entry for them. Luckily for all the spectators — as we were nervously waiting for someone to complete the OI xc course — Kyle and Parker duly delivered. Kyle also had a good weekend on FR’s Trust Fund, a homebred, finishing 2nd in the CIC*.

Jessie Phoenix was busy all day and if she wasn’t zooming around cross country, she was zooming around on her scooter with son Jake riding in front of her! A Little Romance, above, 8th in the CIC**, continues to improve.

Kristin Schmolze and Ballylaffin Brackin, 23rd in the CIC***

Bonner Carpenter and Basco, 4th in the CIC**

Mara Depuy and Chequers Macon, another quality performance leaves them in 5th place in the CIC**

Alexandra Green and Fernhill Cubalawn, 21st in the CIC***

Sara Kozumplik’s good cross-country rounds saw her move up the order in the Advanced on Flagmount’s Sterling Prince, above, from 10 to 5th going into the show jumping and into the lead on Tatton Winter in the Intermediate.

Hannah Sue Burnett and Harbour Pilot — class all the way, enough said (well, except to add that they were 7th in the CIC***!)

H.J. Hampton, aka Henny, gave Peter Atkins his customary Rolls Royce ride around the Red Hills cross country, and we could hear Peter around  the course: “Good boy, Henny. Come on, Henny!” However, I talked to him afterwards and he told me he’d lost valuable time at the start due to a misunderstanding. Henny, like so many eventers, gets very nervous at the start and Peter explained he needs to time his start-box strategy with absolute precision. So, when they called him over and told him he had 30 seconds to go and in actual fact he had more than 45 seconds to go, he said it made waiting, getting into and then leaving the box very fractious and he wasted, by his reckoning, at least 40 seconds. Peter will continue to work at home on his dressage with Henny, building on the vast improvement he made last year in Europe with Bettina Hoy, Rick Klaassen and Eckart Meyners. While in Ocala, he’s been working with Chrissa Hoffman, a dressage guru from Kentucky most famous for getting two saddlebreds up to Grand Prix. “Henny was happy and relaxed and rideable in the dressage on Friday; it was fun! I was almost enjoying the dressage!” From here, Henny and Peter will go straight to Rolex. Run Henny Run!

Caitlin Calder and Jolliyat had a stop in the Advanced but looked good where I saw them.

Kilkenny, above with Phillip Dutton, and Lough Rynn with Joe Meyer both got all the way round to the very final fence on the OI course, the now infamous Owl Hole, before deciding not to go any further. Kilkenny, who was flying round in wonderful form until then, had previously taken a dislike to the Saloon at Pine Top — hence the renaming of it after he demolished it a few weeks ago — and Phillip is now in the market to buy a jump with a roof over the top to school over at home every day. It seems we may have found his kryptonite!

Lough Rynn and Joe Meyer — two stops and then a rider fall at the final fence. Will someone be building an owl hole next to the pool house? #eventingsunnyfl?!

Classy Canadian Peter Barry and the lovely Kilrodan Abbot looked fabulous around the CIC*** course at Red Hills, finishing in 20th place.

Lexus took a dislike to the pergola corners in the Advanced divison, but had a great round everywhere else, according to her rider, Nicole Parkin; she certainly looked super at the steps up to the hanging branch.

Heather Gillette and Our Questionnaire were having a super round but for a momentary lapse at the penultimate — a fairly simple angled double. Heather had told me that she’s tentatively aiming for Rolex this spring with Questie, but that at 17 years old she’ll let him tell her how he feels. However, she added, laughing, seeing as he keeps bucking her off, she feels fairly certain he’s on target for the big one!

Clayton Fredericks didn’t have a great day — fall off the lovely Sorrento while leading the CIC** didn’t get things off to a great start and a stop at the same jump on Pigrela Des Cabanes, above.

RF Black Pearl finished in 3rd place in the CIC** with Marilyn Little, just behind her stablemate, RF Azarah. Marilyn has barley ridden the horse until this weekend. “She came in from quarantine last weekend and I was in Wellington, so I asked Hannah Sue Burnett if she would ride her last week, and she found out a lot of stuff about her which was really helpful. I showed her in Wellington in the jumpers in three classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but I’d literally never jumped a cross country jump. She’s everything I hoped she’d be. She has the movement, she has a lot of character and the jumping is great. She’s very careful, super fast and very smooth, and I really look forward to building a partnership with her. I think she’s going to be a player.”

Marilyn told us she found both mares, both rising 8, in Europe. Azarah is Dutch bred, and Black Pearl is from Germany and was previously competed at the two-star level by Beeke Kaack. For both jumping and eventing, she likes mares: “I think there are a lot of difficulties that come with mares and a stigmatism attached to them. I’m not saying it’s unfounded, but I think if you get a good mare ,you’ve got a real partner. They will fight for you on the day. With Demeter last year at Rolex, I didn’t know her so well and we hadn’t had the best partnership, but I can say that at minute number nine when I felt like she had nothing left, I called on her and she gave 120 percent, and I haven’t felt that from a gelding, and I get that in the jumpers and the eventing. It makes life harder on most days, but on Saturdays you come through the timers and you remember why you love them, because they’ll give everything for you. I probably do look for the good mares.” RF Azarah was also having her first run of the year this weekend and finished in 2nd place in the CIC**. “She’s a fantastic jumper and we’re building a partnership. She’s a great cross-country horse. She’s looking for the jumps and she’s scopey. To me she has four-star horse written all over her. I look forward to jumping bigger and bigger courses with her. I think that’s a non-issue. The partnership and the discipline and the getting the flatwork down — that’s coming.”

Ellinor MacPhail and RF Eloquence, 7th in the CIC**

Jan Byyny and Syd Kent, 11th in the CIC***. Consistent good form this season continued at Red Hills. Jan also finished 8th in the 3* on Inmidair.

Sara Kozumplik and Tatton Winter moved up from 11th to lead the Intermediate division going into the show jumping.

Jacob Fletcher’s progess around the CIC*** xc course on The Prof could be tracked by the throngs of screaming young girls following him! I’ve been to a One Direction concert, so I have experience with these things! Jacob put in a lovely clear round at his first CIC*** to finish 15th.

Leslie Law and Zenith ISF put in a good round to finish 16th in the CIC***.

Thanks again to all the grooms, helpers, volunteers, organisers, and of course, horses and riders. Show jumping is under way, so thank you as always for visiting Eventing Nation, and please check back later for more from the final day at Red Hills. Go eventing!

Cross country day at Red Hills didn’t get off to the best start with the intermediates having all sorts of trouble in their division. However as the day went on and the more experienced horse/rider combinations came out the results sheet began to look a bit more healthy; you can find all the scores here.  Clayton Fredericks,  overnight leader of the CIC** had a fall in the water with Sorrento –  he tweeted that he missed his stride and fell off, and then later had a stop on his 5th placed horse.  Marilyn Little, lying first and second in the CIC3* had some time faults on the leading horse and a fall on RF Demeter. Added to that were numerous stops, run-outs and a couple more falls. Jenny Caras’ Fernhill Stowaway tripped over the log coming out of the Appalachia Bay, the water which caused the most trouble, and fell fairly heavily. Jenny did get up immediately afterwards but there was a substantial hold while medics checked her out, and she was then taken to hospital for observation.

Phillip Dutton and Bruce Duchossois’ Mighty Nice, “He’s actually a pretty cool horse; he’s so confident in himself  he’s bordering on being arrogant on the cross country, he has a great sense of what he can do. He’s a huge horse but he’s very, very clever, he can pat the ground very easily and grows an extra leg if I maybe misjudge things a little bit.  It’s rewarding for me to have an up-and-coming horse like this that’s owned by Bruce Duchossois who’s supported me for a long time.”

Phillip Dutton made his intentions for the big Spring Three Days clear by storming round the Red Hills CIC*** xc course to win and taking sixth place on Atlas for good measure.  He said he’ll run them next at The Fork, very quietly, and then it’s full steam ahead to Kentucky.

Jennie Brannigan finished very slightly slower than her boss for 4th place on Cambalda, “With Ping my goal was to go out and be quick and not run his legs off, and I think I did that today. I am so happy for Phillip and it’s so nice to genuinely feel that sort of admiration for the person you work for.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to win but I’m so happy for him; he’s a master at this, there’s so much more that I still have to learn from him. I think he was really happy for me and Ping this weekend, and obviously he’s been really helpful with Indie too.” Jennie will take both these horses to The Fork next and suggested that she’ll probably run Ping (Cambalda) for time there to get a level on his fitness before he heads to Rolex.

Marilyn Little filled the number two spot with her lovely grey gelding Smoke on the Water, at his very first outing this year, but had an unfortunate run-in, literally, with a tree early on course with RF Demeter and so retired,

“The course was typical Red Hills, difficult to make the time but I thought it was a great challenge with a lot of variety. I loved the direction the course took this year compared to last year, I thought it made for a much better flow and I think the horses really felt the benefit of that, it was a lot more galloping and open in the beginning. I was really pleased with the way Smoke went. Demeter warmed up great and started out the best I’ve ever felt her. I landed from Fence 6, and not for love nor money could I avoid the tree in front of me, she dove straight into it, hurled a bit to the left and I hit the tree.” Marilyn hung on and got dragged for a little while because she didn’t want to let go, “She would have looked like Seabiscuit coming down to the water without a rider!” and when I asked if she was ok, (she was limping very slightly) she laugher, “You should see the tree!”  Marilyn will now have to adjust her galloping schedule and perhaps delay her return to Wellington as she was only on course for about a minute. Marilyn will also head to The Fork next and then Demeter is headed for Rolex

Buck Davidson and Ballynoe Castle RM were the last combination on course in the CIC*** Adequan Gold Cup Series PRO Tour division, and despite giving it a good go, they came home with just under five time penalties to finish 3rd. Buck blamed himself for not winning, and added that he thinks Reggie should win every time he goes out because he’s that good,  “I made so many mistakes at this weekend I just can’t believe it. I was on the best horse and I didn’t do what I was supposed to do. It’s just how it goes. I think it was an exciting day having him be last to go and be in with a chance, I think it was good for the crowds, I know the (owners) Carl and Cassie Segal loved it. I tried. He’s obviously not a thoroughbred horse and not the fastest horse, but he is as honest as they come and he gave me an unbelievably special ride, as he does pretty much every weekend. I always feel like he’s just the best horse and he should win every single time! I always feel like I let him down, but I’m very proud of Reggie and you can’t win them all.”

Selena and A First Romance

Selena O’Hanlon was on fire around this course, with the only two rides inside the time on Foxwood High for 5th and A First Romance for 12th; she was also clear and very quick on Bellaney Rock who ended up 10th. Selena has to pick and choose her events carefully as she and her mother are funding the running of both A First Romance and Foxwood High, and she said she’s been targeting Red Hills and always intended to run quickly, “I love Red Hills, I love fighting for the time; although the course feels like you do a lot of looping there’s actually tons of places to make up time.” Between that and the excellent footing, Selena explained, she was able to really make use of the galloping stretches, and I’ll add that I saw her on each horse and she’s thinking about accelerating away from the fence, talking and clucking to her horses, urging them on, the instant they land.

Lots more from the CIC*** to come later, as well as from some of the Advanced and CIC** horses.  For now, though a huge thank you to all the riders, grooms, volunteers and organisers.

Marilyn Little may have relinquished her dressage lead after the lunchbreak Friday to the True Prospect Farm raiders Jennie Brannigan and Phillip Dutton who moved into first and second places, but she claimed it back with a clear show-jumping round later in the afternoon and took the reserve slot with her second ride RF Demeter for good measure.

Marilyn’s lucky irons? Since coming 2nd at Fairhill last fall, Smoke has had plenty of time off “hanging out in the field”, and almost incredibly has only had his shoes on for just over a month and this is his first event of the season.  Marilyn said “I didn’t know what to expect, he was quite fresh before the Dressage but he put in a nice test, not his best test, we left plenty on the table and I’m excited about what’s to come this Spring.”  What will come this spring depends on US Coach David O’Connor’s advice, “I was looking towards Rolex but David has been talking about some other plans for him, maybe considering Saumur.  I will likely defer to whatever he considers thinks is appropriate because I haven’t been to Saumur, this is only my second full year in eventing and I don’t know what the possibilities are in terms of the development of a young horse to the higher levels.”  After The Fork with Smoke and immediately following Rolex, Marilyn is planning to take a mixture of her jumpers and eventers to Holland to spend the summer there, close enough to the German border to use their gallops, she explained, but in Holland because her business is located there primarily and she prefers the lifestyle.

Marilyn must have been pleased with RF Demeter’s clear round, as the show-jumping is something she’s been working on with her since her “wake-up call” at Rolex, three rails down, last Spring. “We’ve been working on a lot of things with her since last year.  I hadn’t been aware of the history that she had with (former rider) Raf Kooremans in the terms of the show-jumping so there’s been a serious plan in place for that mare to develop that. Fairhill went well so I was looking for a good round from her today on the grass; the grass here at Red Hills always throws a wrench into the works, because you can have a good jumper, and they’re used to the grass and the undulating terrain but it’s not often that you see that mixed with the show-jumping, it adds a little bit.  I was really thrilled with her performance today.  For me, the dressage is always a work in progress, and I’m feeling with Demeter that I’m getting there, I’m getting closer.  As David O’Connor said today, I’m within range, and I can count on her more and more.”  With two rides in both the CIC** and CIC*** Marilyn conceded that the new format (running both dressage and show-jumping before the cross-country) made for a busy day but added that in her opinion it’s well worth it to increase spectator-friendliness and bring the sport in line with Europe.  Marilyn did not ride Mr Medicott who was entered in the Advanced Division, “He’s not my horse. The plan was always for the horse to come to Wellington, long before Karen was hurt, and Karen really wanted to focus on his show-jumping during the winter months because he had had a break since the Olympics so his off season started very early.  When she got hurt she wanted to keep the plan the same so the horse came down (to Wellington), I competed him up the 1 meter 30 level and started getting him fit for the events, and it’s up in the air, it’s not up to me to decide the horse’s plans, he has a syndicate that is in place and they are going to make all the decisions.  He’s fit, well and ready to go, he’s ready for anything.”

Jennie conferring with US Team Coach David O’Connor before the show-jumping.  David has been tireless so far this weekend, watching, helping, talking.

Jennie had one rail on Cambalda to drop behind Marilyn into 3rd place

Phillip Dutton also had one down on Mighty Nice to stay right behind his True Prospect Farm assistant Jennie, in fourth place

Jan Byyny moved up 5 places to 5th with a clear show-jumping round

A clear on Atlas, who never looked in danger of even breathing on a rail, also moved Phillip Dutton up so that he has both his horses in the top 6 overnight. You can find all the scores here.

Peter was rightfully delighted with H J Hampton’s  (Henny – look at those famous ears!) dressage and a genuine clear leaves them in touch in seventh place. Last year not only were they clear around the CIC*** xc track, they were also the fastest combination, ever!  Look for them to worry the leaders.

The experienced Ballynoe Castle RM ended up the best of Buck’s three rides in this division, adding one rail to his score and dropping two places to 8th.

Kristin Shmolze and a keen Ballylaffin Bracken had two down to stay in 21st place

Come on, Leslie! It worked – Lesley’s wife Leslie jumped clear on Zenith ISF to move up from 26th to inside the top 20

Buck Davidson and D.A Adirmo had two down to drop to 16th place

DHI Zatopek had three down to drop to 30th place, but things went from bad to worse when poor Jon Holling rode his second horse Proper Timing ,  racking up a cricket score and plummeting from 3rd to 33rd place.

Emily Renfroe and Walk the Line, 24th

Selena O’Hanlon and Foxwood High move up to 18th with one rail down

Alexandra Green and Fernhill Cubalawn, 23rd

A beautiful clear round from Emily Beshear and Heres to You move them up to 13th place

Peter Barry and his loyal campaigner Kilrodan Abbot jumped clear and moved up to 15th place

Buck Davidson had one down on Park Trader to tie with his stablemate D.A Adirmo in 16th place

Jan Byyny and Syd Kent jumped clear to move up five places to 11th

Young rider Jacob Fletcher had one down and sits in 12th place overnight. I spoke to him after his dressage and have that video slowly, slowly uploading – I’m hoping I will wake up and have it all magically ready to go Saturday morning – stay tuned, he’s adorable, will bring you that ASAP.

Red Hills attracts tons of spectators, many of them completely un-horsey and simply enjoying a day out, and also lots of local media. As usual everything ran to time, the volunteers and organisers are friendly and helpful, the commentators, Nigel Casserley and John Kyle are outstanding and the weather couldn’t have been better. Horse and Hound’s Pippa Roome and I did spare a thought for all those attempting to compete at Tweseldown this weekend (Jess and Clark Montgomery xxx check & like Uptown Eventing’s facebook page for great pictures) and  a quick EN Get Well Soon shout out to Lucinda Fredericks who broke her collarbone and several ribs in a fall there.  Wishing everyone safe and successful rides across country – Go Red Hills and Go Eventing!

Clayton Fredericks led the dressage on his impressive black Sorrento by just over a point from Jennie Brannigan and Indie, and a clear round in the show-jumping solidified his lead when Jennie had a rail down.

Indie and Jennie Brannigan will still start the cross country in 2nd place Saturday morning, but have a little more ground to make up if they intend to catch Clayton. You can find all the scores here.

After a nice dressage on What Law, “I’ve been working on getting him to stick his head out rather than in, and perhaps he stuck it out a little too far this afternoon!”, Lesley Grant Law jumped clear to move up three places to 3rd.

Bonner Carpenter and Basco slipped down one place to 4th with a rail down

Marilyn Little was first into the ring on RF Azarah and jumped a deceptively easy-looking clear round to move up to 5th place after the first two phases.

In fact the one rail Marilyn had down on RF Black Pearl was the only fault she picked up in four rounds of jumping on Friday afternoon, leaving her in 5th and 6th spots in the CIC**

Clayton Fredericks added a second clear to his tally also, to lie in 7th place overnight on Pigrela Des Cabanes.  In between riding Clayton has been coaching the Canadians who are out in force this weekend, and someone somehow even persuaded Graeme Thom to video all their rides so they can review them which is something Clayton apparently particularly likes.  In what might have been a tricky transfer, taking the place of the much beloved David O’Connor, Clayton seems to have slotted into Ocala life fairly easily; he’s certainly becoming a fixture at the events already, the Canadians seem to have wholly embraced him and even those strait laced girls of the Sinead Halpin Eventing Team have let their hair down a bit since basing themselves at his farm for the last month.

Mara Depuy has had a consistent Spring with Chequers Macon and starts cross country in 8th place

Jessie Phoenix and A Little Romance in 9th place overnight.

The CIC** will start out on cross country Saturday morning starting at 8:55am following the OI divison which kicks the day off at 8am sharp.  If everything runs to time all day then it looks like the last horse on course will go at 5:21pm. Please return to Eventing Nation for more Red Hills, but in the meantime thank you for visiting, good luck to all the competitors, and Go Eventing!

Jon Holling and Proper Timing

After singing the online scoring’s praises via twitter for being so prompt about publishing we seem to have stalled!  However it has been confirmed that Jon Holling and Proper Timing shares the CIC*** lead after dressage with Marilyn Little and RF Smoke on the Water. Marilyn also easily took first prize for most sparkles, and the real photogs (who don’t use autofocus like me!) had to adjust all their light settings to cope with all the glitter reflection!   You can find all the scores, hopefully soon, here.

Marilyn Little and RF Smoke on the Water. Marilyn did not ride RF Demeter, yet – she did warm her up earlier this morning and she was plaited so not sure if she will come later but she did miss her published time, and Mr Medicott has not been spotted so far and did not do dressage either.

Buck Davidson did a lovely test on D.A Adirmo, despite some whinnies at the walk, and he now lies in fourth place; Buck is riding through the pain after hurting his back earlier in the week.

After the lunch break we have some heavy hitters – Syd Kent, Mighty Nice, Here’s to You and Ballynoe Castle RM, followed by a short break before the CIC*** show-jumping which isn’t scheduled to finish until 5:45pm. So, we will be back with lots more, but chances are it won’t be until much later. Thanks as always for visiting, and please follow @USEventing and me on twitter for all the latest updates until then. Go Red Hills and Go Eventing!

Red Hills is a firm favourite on the US eventing circuit, and why wouldn’t it be – sunshine, ever-improving cross country courses,  massive local support, extremely generous prizes, fantastic sponsorship….need I go on? As Sinead explained on her course walk, it’s also the first ‘big’ event here in the US, an important prep for horses headed to Rolex or other big Spring three days.  The schedule is jam-packed for the next three, long days and it promises to be an exciting competition.

Nicole Parkin’s lovely Lexus will run in the Advanced – a freak accident in the stall in which she ripped her nostril badly meant she missed the first Training Session with new Canadian coach Clayton Fredericks, and her first planned run, but after an outing at Pine Top a few weeks ago she’s back on track and I’m looking forward to watching her go this weekend.

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Check out Waylon Roberts, working a goatee and a tattoo on Esprit de la Danse

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Hanna Bundy working her Canadian Mustang, D’Jion (stable name – Mustard, of course!) with Jessie Phoenix. Jessie has a great string of horses this year and she and her son Jake are  looking forward to her husband Joel coming to join her this weekend after his trip to Switzerland to prep a prize-winning show cow.

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Caroline Martin and Quantum Solace working with Buck Davidson.

Heart melter moment: Buck said girlfriend Andrea Leatherman is doing much better and he has left her at home with a long list of horses to ride, “I’m very happy to have her riding my horses again so she can fix them for me!”  In all seriousness though, he added that it had been a scary time following her fall a few weeks ago, and told me that he’d offered to buy her the most expensive dressage horse he could afford for her in case she fancied specialising in something slightly safer.  Of course Andrea declined;  she would have loved to have come to Red Hills but is teaching a clinic this weekend, we look forward to seeing her soon.

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Lisa Barry working her lovely NZ OTTB F.I.S Prince Charming with Karen O’Connor. Imported from New Zealand by Donna Smith, he’ll contest his fourth advanced this weekend.

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Lesley Grant-Law and What Law, a lovely 8 year old by Mill Law. Leslie was helping his wife on the flat and said they’re headed for the CCI** in Ocala and will probably stay at this level all year. Lesley, he told me, has developed a real rapport and bond with this horse, who they bought and imported from England as a five year old after seeing some video and sending Leslie’s brother Graham to check him out.  As he’s progressed up the ranks, Leslie told me he continues to surprise them by improving all the time, looking more and more classy as he gets fitter and stronger and that added to his fantastic temperament makes him an exciting prospect.

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The first water jump – reminiscent of the alligators at Barbury but in their natural habitat here in Florida

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Max Corcoran at the hanging log – Advanced competitors jump up two steps with a bounce in between, curve left handed to this which has less of a drop this year, and then over the D element to finish. We’ll bring you much more from the cross country tomorrow.

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A scene by the last water jump! The courses are always beautifully and imaginatively decorated. Strict measures are being taken with EHV-1 in mind; some riders reported a short delay in getting in to the venue on Thursday afternoon during rush hour whilst officials checked 72 hour health certificates, and there are designated buckets for the communal water in the stables, riders are encouraged to take their horses’ temperatures twice a day, and to be generally vigilant.  Lots more to come from Red Hills, thanks as always for checking in with Eventing nation, Go Eventing!