Classic Eventing Nation

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Double Sixteen. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

Each athlete comes into a prep event for a major competition with a unique plan. For Caroline Pamukcu, the goal for these tune-ups, especially at FEI levels, is to compete. It’s how she plans her season, leveraging National competitions as practice and FEI events as tests, generally speaking. The Paris Olympian brought a full trailer to Stable View’s Oktoberfest in Aiken, SC this weekend and has come away with three of the top four spots in the CCI4*-S, also the final East coast qualifier leg for the US Equestrian Open of Eventing.

Taking the overall win is the Double Sixteen Partnership’s HSH Double Sixteen, a “Jack Russell” of a Thoroughbred gelding who stepped up to the CCI5* level at Kentucky this spring. Now, “Six” is legging up for his fall destination, and finishing on his dressage score of 33.4 wraps up a strong string of prep runs for the fall.

Caroline has not yet made her final decisions on where her horses will aim for their major fall goal. She’s deciding between the MARS Maryland 5 Star as well as the US Equestrian Open CCI4*-L at Morven Park and will likely have a presence at both. With Stable View being her final deciding run, she’ll consult with her team to make the plans final this coming week.

Caroline’s, Sherrie Martin’s and Luann McElduff’s HSH Conner picked up third place after cross country after leading to start the day. 10.8 planned time penalties would drop him down in the order. Stablemate HSH Tolan King (owned by the Tolan King Partnership) moved up from fifth to finish fourth on the day.

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Conner. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

“We’re fine-tuning the program at home,” Caroline said. “I’ve got Samantha St. Jacques in helping me with the dressage at the moment. She’s been absolutely wonderful. She’s a mom herself, and she’s unbelievable. So I’ve got her, and my head rider, Mason, and my other rider, Matt Crutchfield putting in the work with them at home for the flat work. For show jumping, I’ve got Matt videoing my rounds and sending them straight to Anne Kursinski, and then she would tell me how to fine tune my show jump rounds. For cross country, Leslie [Law] was here this weekend, which has been great. I kind of talked through my plan last night, what I was going to do. I was first out, so I kind of told then what I was going to do with the horses.”

Caroline picks up 70 US Equestrian Open points for her efforts this week. Each athlete’s best six qualifier results will count towards the final total; in this pickup, Caroline will drop her lowest accumulator (20 points) to come away with a current tally of 215 points — enough to take over third on the leaderboard, but not quite enough to catch Boyd Martin’s total of 260 or Phillip Dutton’s total of 235. It’s been a goal of Caroline’s to get into the money for the $25,000 leaderboard bonus for the Open for a very specific reason: “I really need a mom car!”

[Learn how US Equestrian Open points work]

[See the US Equestrian Open of Eventing leaderboard]

Caroline Pamukcu and HSH Tolan King. Photo by Eileen Dimond for Liz Crawley Photography.

Caroline’s been vocal about the process of getting back to top level competing after having a baby. While she’s had success on paper this year and has been pleased with her horses, she’s admitted that she hasn’t felt her strongest or at her best form. Now, though, almost a year into motherhood, she says she’s feeling more and more herself (and also well-versed at managing chronic baby-induced sleep deprivation).

“It’s just trying to fit everything in one day,” Caroline said. “There are only so many hours in the day, and that’s been the biggest challenge. This weekend in particular was a challenge because [her husband] Deniz is gone this week for work, and so Blake woke up at three a.m. wanting to have a party and I was running on just a few hours of sleep. And that’s another thing that no one really talks about — it’s a lot of stuff to juggle, so it’s just about finding a balance. But I’ve got incredible owners. I’ve got incredible help at home with Jenny and Chloe and my husband and, you know, great owners, the team has been absolutely amazing this this year. So I really have no excuses not to do well.”

At home, Caroline’s head groom Chloe’s mother, Jenny, has joined the team to help care for (human) Blake. The team is supported by riders Mason Reidy and Matt Crutchfield, as well as Caroline’s business partner, Kelley Hutchinson. She also works regularly with fellow 5* rider and Pan Ams teammate Sharon White.

Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic. Photo by Liz Crawley Photography.

Maryland 5 Star-bound Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic broke up the Pamukcu party at the top of the standings, moving up to second after starting the weekend in eighth. Imperio Magic, an 11-year-old Anglo-European gelding, also debuted at the 5* level at Kentucky, finishing 16th as the best rookie pair, and are now picking up steam to double down on that effort at Maryland in a few weeks’ time.

Mary Bess came out of that Kentucky step-up knowing she wanted to continue to work on “McColl’s” dressage. Over the last year, she’s enlisted the assistance of Grand Prix dressage rider Roel Theunissen, and has also worked with Karen O’Connor for many years. This weekend’s result, she felt, was a hopeful sign that things are going in the right direction.

“He has come so far, but with that I lost some relaxation going into this season,” Mary Bess said. “So I’ve backed off that and we’ve tried to get him relaxed, and I think it’s working.”

She refers to McColl as a real try-hard, pleaser type — as expressed in his enthusiastic jumping style — but that sometimes this eagerness can lead to tension. “I’m just trying to somehow make him realize that in the dressage ring we don’t need so much effort. I don’t know if I’ve communicated that well enough yet, but I feel we’re starting to get to that relaxation that we’ve had in the past.”

The pair traveled to Europe last fall to compete at Military Boekelo. They finished 19th individually there (the U.S. finished in silver as a team), and Mary Bess said McColl felt relaxed there. “I had to start thinking about what I had lost, how did I lose it, and where do we need to go.”

“I’m hopeful I can put it together at Maryland, because this week he was so relaxed and took the pressure well, so I’m hoping it’ll all align because dressage is our biggest struggle,” she continued. “He’s getting it, it’s just very hard for him in the arena at shows. This weekend helped a ton because I backed off and worked on his relaxation. I knew when he went out of the start box he was just relaxed and all about the job, so I was excited because I knew we could go fast.”

Mary Bess and Imperio Magic picked up just two time penalties — the second-quickest of the division — to finish the weekend on a score of 38.6.

Emily Hamel and Corvett. Photo by Jennifer Crawley for Liz Crawley Photography.

Completing the top five are Pau-bound Emily Hamel and Corvett, who finish the weekend on a score of 49.7 with just some time added in the jumping phases. Emily is hoping to become just the first rider to complete all six Northern Hemisphere 5* events in the Maryland 5 Star era with the same horse with “Barry” as she looks ahead to a first start at Les 5 Etoiles de Pau in the south of France at the end of October. (Note: Colleen Rutledge and Shiraz also achieved this feat, pre-Maryland 5 Star — and they did compete in the former Fair Hill International at the now-4* level, which was succeeded by the Maryland 5 Star.) This was Emily and Barry’s final prep for Pau, and they’ll now get ready to travel to France to base in Belgium ahead of competition.

Helen West’s evolving cross country track took on some new routes this weekend, making use of some of Stable View’s extensive arena infrastructure to introduce some more technical elements. Fence 8A, a narrow arrowhead into the water, caused a fair amount of influence, with two riders faulting here. Fence 6B, a left-handed open MIM oxer, also caused two problems.

Photo via CrossCountry App.

“I was pleased with how the tracks rode,” Helen commented in a press release. “I thought that the combinations rode pretty much as I expected. I think the first combination in the all weather arena rode tougher than perhaps I expected. The first part of the course was very galloping and then I think going into the arenas was harder to make that adjustment. I think the ground was absolutely stunning and because the footing was so good the horses were traveling over it so well. You just watched them and they were wanting to gallop and jump. Overall, it was a really positive picture and a good day for the sport.”

Looking to the other divisions that completed Saturday, Lucienne Bellissimo enjoyed a confidence boost of a run with Horse Scout Eventing’s Dyri, winning the CCI3*-S on a score of 27.2. Lucienne has entered Dyri in the US Equestrian Open of Eventing Final CCI4*-L at Morven Park in October. Canada’s Katie Malensek and STX Mex won the CCI2*-S on a score of 27.8. Lucienne Bellissimo also took home the CCI1*-S win with Horse Scout Eventing’s Hermine.

In the Advanced division, Boyd Martin brought home the Annie Goodwin Syndicate’s Fedarman B home for the win on a score of 46.3. Lucia Strini took home the Open Intermediate win with Plain Dealing Farm’s Keynote Dassett. Ariel Grald returned to competition for the first time since a heavy fall at Bromont in June left her with several broken ribs and other injuries to recover from. She returned in grand fashion, winning the Open Preliminary with Annie Eldridge’s Obalix. Carolyn May and Patricia Luttgen’s Sky Moon were the winners of the Preliminary Rider division — a win on Carolyn’s debut at the level, no less! Sky Moon, formerly campaigned through Preliminary by Chris Talley and Lee Maher, teamed up with Carolyn, who’s also a USDF Bronze Medalist, at the start of this year, and went on to win team and individual bronze at the USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships this summer at the 1* level.

Stable View owner Barry Olliff has worked alongside his wife, Cyndy, to implement ongoing additions and improvements to the property. This year, new “tiny home” lodging options were added on-site, as well as new arena space.

“As you’d expect, ‘Constant Improvement’ is what Stable View is seeking to achieve for its April four-star,” Barry said in a press release. “We’re developing the concept of separately roping the four-star so that it becomes its own track. This will mean that four-star riders will – wherever possible – have their own real estate. In addition, we’re taking out four of our paddocks. This will enable us to soften certain turns while offering significantly greater choices in terms of cross country course design.”

Go Eventing!

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