Next time you have to show jump them both at the same time Becky
Becky Holder put on an incredible performance this weekend at Richland Park, riding the two beautiful greys Can’t Fire Me and Courageous Comet to first and second places in the CIC3* respectively. Becky brought two horses to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she placed first and third in the dressage, added just 5.6 time penalties on the XC for both horses combined, and then just two rails in the show jumping.
Becky told Samantha yesterday that the American Eventing Championships in two weeks will likely be Comet’s last upper level competition. Comet must have read Eventing Nation last night because he came out looking anything but ready for retirement and full of energy, pulling just one rail in the best show jumping round I have seen from him this year. Can’t Fire Me was simply lovely all weekend, adding 8 jumping penalties to his dressage score and still winning by almost four points. Becky used her veteran experience to get through a hectic warm up schedule. She rode Comet out of order due to having two top placed horses. The upside was that she entered the arena with Can’t Fire Me with the knowledge that she had already secured the win with Comet.
Last year’s Richland CIC3* winners, Buck Davidson and Carl Segal’s Ballynoecastle RM, jumped one of just 9 clear rounds on the tough CIC3* course to finish in third. Buck had an excellent day of jumping in the CIC3*, finishing two out of his three horses in the division double-clear. Upon entering with one of his horses, Buck asked the jump crew to turn a slightly bent rail that was placed with the bow upwards–it’s a good reminder to always check that the jumps are replaced and set well when you enter the show jumping arena.
Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Eagle had the best weekend that I have seen from this horse so far in his young career with Phillip, finishing in 4th. Phillip finished in 6th with Olympic alternate Mighty Nice. The other Olympian in the CIC3*, Boyd Martin, finished 8th with Trading Aces on a good weekend of jumping. Trading Aces is a top Normandy 2014 prospect for Boyd. Sir Donovan and Utah B also had lovely rounds–Utah B in particular jumped with really top form.
The Richland show jumping course is causing quite a few issues today, both because of the grassy and undulating terrain, and because it is a course that includes a ton of related distances. All but five of the spaces between fences on the CIC3* course involved related distances of 8 strides or less. My feeling is that those distances between 5-8 strides are the hardest to ride because you are caught between riding off of the distance and off of your eye.
Hackamores were popular in the CIC3*, with Comet, No Objection, and Madeline all competing without bits.
A great crowd of several hundred people showed up today to watch the show jumping. From some of the conversations I overheard, I would guess that the event has done a great job of rallying local support from non-eventers. That’s a real challenge and something that our sport desperately needs.
I would be remiss if I didn’t extend a huge thank you to everyone at Richland, including owners Bob and Kay Willmarth, for everything they have done to present such a wonderful event. Michigan has been going through a major drought this summer and the footing at Richland could easily have been terrible. But they worked incredibly hard with major irrigation projects including massive sprinklers running all weekend (and I’m sure many weeks in advance) to produce good footing for all of the horses. Thank you also to all of the many west Michigan volunteers who made all of this possible this weekend–we couldn’t have eventing without you volunteers.
The advanced divisions are starting their show jumping, stay tuned for much more form Richland.
Go eventing.
