Classic Eventing Nation

Kim Severson and Cooley Cross Border. Photo by Valerie Durbon Photography.

The rains came down in typical Morven Park fashion today as the fall horse trials kicked off in Leesburg, Virginia. To be fair, the precipitation that fell didn’t require anyone to build an ark, unlike last year’s deluge that saw a chunk of cross country canceled during the competition.

Kim Severson and Cooley Cross Border are sitting in familiar territory once again, leading the CIC3* after dressage and show jumping just as they did last year. The 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the Cross Syndicate set the early bar in dressage with a 46.7 and held onto the lead with a double clear round over Chris Barnard’s challenging course.

Will Faudree and Pfun. Photo by Valerie Durbon Photography.

Just five pairs in the division managed clear rounds inside the time in show jumping to shuffle the leaderboard. Will Faudree and Pfun delivered one of those rounds to move from fifth up to second place on their dressage score of 49.8. The 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Jennifer Mosing is our Dark Horse pick to take the win this weekend.

Booli Selmayr delivered her first double clear show jumping round at the CIC3* level aboard Jaeda to move from sixth to third on 53.4. This 12-year-old off-track Thoroughbred mare owned by Kelly Morgan was one of just four horses to make the time in her three-star debut at Plantation Field earlier this month, so look for her to be in her element tomorrow.

Booli Selmayr and Jaeda. Photo by Valerie Durbon Photography.

Will Faudree has a second ride in the top five in Hans Dampf, who sat in second place after dressage on 47.0 and added one rail and four time penalties in show jumping to move to fourth place on 55.0. Colleen Rutledge and Escot 6 round out the top five on their dressage score of 56.0, with a clear show jumping round inside the time boosting them up from 10th place.

Looking to the Advanced division, Lynn Symansky and Mary Ann Ghadban’s Cascani led after dressage on 28.8, but two rails and four time penalties over the tough show jumping course dropped them down the leaderboard to eighth. That boosted Hannah Sue Burnett and Under Suspection, also owned by Mary Ann Ghadban, up from second to lead on their dressage score of 30.7 thanks to the only clear round inside the time.

Rails came tumbling down in the Advanced just as they did in the CIC3*, with time penalties proving equally influential. Four combinations jumped clear rounds with time penalties, including Meghan O’Donoghue and Chase Shipka’s Palm Crescent to move from seventh to second on 34.5 with just one time penalty added to their dressage score.

Colleen Rutledge and Escot 6. Photo by Valerie Durbon Photography.

Lauren Kieffer and D.A. Duras, owned by Debbie Adams and Jacqueline Mars, round out the top three, adding two show jumping time penalties to their dressage score to move up from equal fifth place to third on 35.2. Buck Davidson and Carlevo initially sat third in the division on 35.0 after show jumping but have since withdrawn ahead of tomorrow’s cross country.

Mara DePuy and Congo Brazzaville C lead the CIC2* after the first two phases on a score of 40.0, with Lauren Balcomb and Guido Hatzis in second on 47.7. We have to send a special shout out to Gabby Dickerson and Kim Severson’s former upper-level ride and 2014 World Equestrian Games mount Fernhill Fearless, who sit in third in the CIC2* on 52.1.

Jessica Phoenix and Bentley’s Best sit 10th in the CIC3*. Photo by Valerie Durbon Photography.

Will Coleman and Cooley Off the Record lead the Open Intermediate A division on 25.2 after dressage and show jumping, with Lauren Kieffer and Landmark’s Ginger Rogers leading the B division on 21.5. Marilyn Little sits in second place in both divisions with RF Demeter and RF Overdressed, respectively. Kim Severson and Ringfort Fighting Chance are third in the A division on 25.7, with Jennie Brannigan and Waterford rounding out the top three in the B division on 30.7.

It’s a busy weekend at Morven as many pairs squeeze in their final prep run ahead of the Dutta Corp Fair Hill International. Click here for live scores from all the divisions.

You can preview Tremaine Cooper’s CIC3*/Advanced cross country course here thanks to our friends at CrossCountry App, and keep it locked on EN for more beautiful photos from Valerie Durbon Photography throughout the weekend. Go Morven!

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Jump into the arena at #3! Photo by Kate Samuels.

I just got a chance to zoom around the cross country course at Stable View Farm for the inaugural Advanced horse trials on a golf cart with the organizer, Anne Dearborn. All of the jumps for this level are brand new and are just waiting to be christened tomorrow by the first on course. Designed by Capt. Mark Phillips and built by Eric Bull, this course is definitely full of decent questions for the level, as well as terrain and turning that will add an extra facet of difficulty.

The course starts out confidently, with two good fences before the unique third fence, in which you drop down a little dip and then jump over an angled log into the arena where you just recently completed your dressage test (the arena sides will be removed, obviously), gallop across the ring, and then out over an airy log oxer at four, which features a frangible pin system on both front and back logs. This course is littered with frangible pins at every possible location, making every effort to ensure the safety of horse and rider should something go awry.

Two table fences away from this, we encounter the brand new water complex in the derby field, which serves as the first of three water combinations on the course. This is a simple 7AB with a straight shot in over an inviting fence and down to a relatively friendly chevron. I should mention that all of the fences have been beautifully decorated by Diane Dzingle, who has been a nurseryman for more than twenty years; 95 percent of the course decorations are live all-natural plants.

The new water complex in the derby field. Photo by Kate Samuels.

We get to have a little gallop after this before coming down to an iconic Mark Phillips fence, the Elephant Trap at 8. This fence looks mighty impressive coming up to it, but it has a lovely inviting slope to the front and will ride quite well. I think the jump at 9 is a surprising question, as the fence initially seems to the horse like a plain table, but the ground is higher on the backside, so it is more like a step up and the riders won’t want to come banging down to it and shock their horses on the offside.

The Little Murray Water Complex sports a solid 6-foot drop over a brush log and then quite a few strides to a very decent brush corner after you exit the water. For those trying to get close to the optimum time of 6 minutes and 19 seconds, they will make a very quick right-handed turn and put on the gas to the hanging log oxer at 11.

The question at 12ABC is certainly where things start to get serious, and if you had trouble at the right-handed corner at 10B, you might be considering the time-costly black flag option for this next right-handed corner, which slopes off down the hill. Down you gallop after that to the Flying Cross, which is another impressive fence courtesy of Mark Phillips’ design style.

Fence 13. Photo by Kate Samuels.

After that we have a terrain question along with two separately numbered corners, where the riders can decide to take the quick route or do a loop if they’re having an educational round. There are a fair amount of very experienced horses here this weekend, but there are also a good number of horses moving up to the level, so the course has provided options along the way for horses who might not be quite ready for some of the questions.

As we head to the back of the property, we finally get some real galloping time, plus some big tables to re-establish a rhythm. The Sunken Road Complex at 18ABCD is the type of question we don’t get to see much anymore, but will reward straight and bold riding, as well as courageous and scopey horses.

Fence 18. Photo by Kate Samuels.

After the sunken road, the horses get to gallop up a good hill nearing the end, and then the riders have to make a decision about how they contour their U-turn to the final water complex at 19AB, with the cabin on the hill and the boat in the water. There are lots of pine trees dotted here and there in this course, and riders will really have to walk their galloping tracks to be sure of the route that best works for their horses and their time goals. With $60,000 in prize money on the line, riders (ahem, Doug Payne) might have some interesting inside turns up their sleeves.

The final question is two skinny triple brushes at the end of the course to test the mental awareness of both horse and rider, as well as straightness and honesty. Stable View decided to run the event as a one-day, which is unusual for this level in the U.S., and with the course being a full 3,850 meters, some of the horses might be feeling a bit tired either mentally or physically at the end.

There are several course walks available tomorrow morning, starting with Mark Phillips at 9:30 a.m. and Boyd Martin at 10:30 a.m., if you’re in the area and want to get an up close and personal look at the fences. Boyd kicks off the action with dressage at 7:30 a.m. on Tsetserleg.

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