Hannah Sue Hollberg and Capitol H I M. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Saturday’s cross-country day at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill presented by Brown Advisory was an excellent day of competition. Hannah Sue Hollberg and Capitol HIM held onto their lead in the USEF CCI3*-L Eventing National Championship.
Great displays of cross-country riding meant not much changed at the top of the USEF CCI3*-L Eventing National Championship leaderboard. Despite the torrential rain earlier in the week, the footing held up well and the majority of the field easily galloped around the hilly terrain to finish inside the time allowed. However, only six-tenths of a point separate the top three heading into Sunday’s show jumping phase, making for an exciting finale. Hollberg (Kennett Square, Pa.) and Capitol HIM lead the charge in the CCI3*-L division, having a textbook round over the lovely track designed by Ian Stark (GBR). Hollberg and Christa Schmidt’s 2007 Holsteiner gelding were double-clear to add nothing to their dressage score of 26.0.
Hollberg got to ride the course first on her other mount, Lukeswell, who sits in 27th place on a score of 35.0. While Lukeswell is a fast cross-country horse, Capitol HIM requires more finessing to make the optimum time.
“[Capitol HIM] was really good. He is a quite different ride than Lukeswell. He has got one or two speeds unlike a really quick horse like Lukeswell is, so I have to ride him a bit differently,” said Hollberg. “To be quick on him, I have to be very accurate, which I wasn’t completely. But he made up for it. He did all the combinations really well and came back to me nicely and actually picked up speed at the end really nicely. It was great.”
Though Capitol HIM has competed at higher levels, Hollberg hasn’t had the year she had hoped with him due to some setbacks and wanted to end the season on a high note.
“[The setbacks] held us back enough that I didn’t want to overface him and make him feel like he can’t do something. After coming here last year in the three-star, it was such a grand event even though it is the three-star level. It nearly is a four-star with the terrain and course design; it is difficult,” said Hollberg. “The atmosphere in dressage and show jumping is something I have been trying to work on with him, so I thought this would be a really nice end to this year, and I’m really glad I made the decision.”
Elisa Wallace (Reddick, Fla.) and Renkum Corsair had a great cross-country round to remain in second place. Wallace and Corsair Syndicate, LLC’s 2010 Holsteiner gelding looked confident as they finished the course and added no penalties to their score of 26.4.
Young rider Cassie Sanger (Lakeville, Conn.) and Fernhill Zoro delivered another stellar performance on cross-country to stay in third place. Sanger and Nina Sanger’s 2008 Irish Sport Horse gelding were the last to go in the CCI3*-L and quickly turned in a double-clear round to remain on their score of 26.6.
