Your Fair Hill CCI3* leaders
Jan Bynny and Inmidair stormed around the cross-country course at Fair Hill with the third fastest ride of the CCI3* division to move up from 5th into the lead going into the Show Jumping. Ying Yang Yo and Boyd Martin finished their comeback full of running but with 11.6 time penalties to drop to second. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me moved down one spot to third. Here are a few notes from a fabulous day of competition:
—All three of the top 3* riders have been through some incredible adversity over the past two years. Jan of course had the fall at Pine Top that nearly killed her in the spring of 2010, Becky was spun from the jog at the WEGs when Comet suffered an injury that could potentially end his career, and Boyd lost 6 horses in the True Prospect fire and his father in a cycling accident this year. The three of them now stand atop the premier autumn event in North America, separated by one point.
–I can’t speak highly enough about Derek di Grazia’s cross-country course. The CCI3* was very challenging but very safe and, as for the CCI2*, the issues were pretty evenly spread out. There were just two falls in the division, both at the hanging log at #6, and horses and riders were all up quickly and walked away. Second placed Boyd Martin said that Fair Hill is “without question the hardest three-star I have ever seen.” He called it a three and a half star and said that if you can get a horse around here you probably have a four-star horse.
–The time was almost impossible to make Saturday afternoon. I say almost because two riders finished with double-clears. HJ Hampton is one of the best cross-country horses I have ever seen and carried Peter home inside the time. Daniel Clasing hit the optimum time exactly with Houston and took home the $2,000 SSG award for his efforts.
–Many of the horses finished looking pretty knackered. Terrain and deep footing combined for a perfect storm of challenges to the horses’ fitness. But, contrary to past years, not a single rider that I saw looked like they were pushing their horses too hard or past the point of being safe. There was some great horsemanship out on the course today and hopefully the horses are feeling good in the barns right now as a result.
—25 out of 43 starters finished the CCI3* course with clear rounds. 10 horses finished with at least a stop, 2 were eliminated, 4 retired, and 2 riders fell. Nate Chambers withdrew Rolling Stone before the cross-country and they will reroute to Galway in November with hopes of better footing.
–There were too many great rides today to list them all, but, just scanning the leader board, Twizzel looked great when I saw him on the back half of the course, Running Order was full of run, Here’s To You had the best cross-country round of his career, Marilyn Little-Meredith looked every bit like she belonged out there and had a better ride than quite a few eventers in the places I saw her, and Mensa looked like a finely tuned cross-country machine for Carl Bouckaert.
I’m not one to love press conferences, but, with the three aforementioned riders on top in the CCI3*, today’s was not one to miss. A few nuggets from the press conference:
–Jan Byyny remarked at how glad she was to be back at Fair Hill and I think I speak for everyone when I say that it’s great to have Jan back at Fair Hill and even better to see her atop the leader board. Jan said that the course wasn’t easy for Inmidair but he persevered throughout the course and finished strong.
–Jan spoke briefly but emotionally about her accident and said that it has really changed her perspective on things. She said that re-learning how to speak was harder than anything she has ever done on a horse and that she has learned to love every day on horseback.
–Boyd Martin also spoke about facing adversity and said that for him happiness is with horses and that riding had really helped him get over the hardship of this year.
–Boyd mentioned that he hopes to have Thomas back at the four-star level next spring. He said he thinks the horse has one more big event in him and that he feels that Thomas could handle the Olympics. Boyd wants to have 4 horses qualified for the Olympics next year and Thomas could very well be one of them.
–When asked about having another great grey horse, Becky mentioned that she hopes that Comet’s time off is only temporary. Becky said that Comet has had a “no setback” recovery and he might be out at a few dressage shows this autumn and that she hopes he will start back eventing in the spring. We are all keeping our fingers crossed to see Becky with two great greys next spring
Fair Hill CCI3* XC Results:
1. Jan Byyny and Inmidair +4.4 51.2
2. Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo +11.6 52.0
3. Becky Holder and Can’t Fire Me +8.0 52.2
4. Will Coleman and Twizzel +9.6 55.2
5. Allison Springer and Arthur +8 55.6
6. Doug Payne and Running Order +11.2 58.8
7. Peter Atkins and HJ Hampton +0 61.0
8T. Holly Payne and Madeline +7.2 61.2
8T. Phillip Dutton and William Penn +8.8 61.2
10. Emily Beshear and Here’s To You +7.2 61.6
Karen O’Connor has had so much success at Fair Hill over the years and today was no exception with a lovely round aboard Veronica. Karen was kind enough to chat with us after her ride:
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, today’s Eventing Nation “I ran over a dog while riding cross-country and lived to tell the tale” award goes to Holly Payne. Horse, rider, and dog are all fine but word from Doug an anonymous tipster is that Holly’s epic miss at the next jump was because she was thinking about the yelping dog.
A few quick French links: [Pau XC report pending Clayton’s appeal, Pau placings upheld, Burto’s XC ride]
The first horse inspection starts 8am with the CCI2* going first. The CCI2* jumping starts at 10am, and the CCI3* jumping starts at 1:30pm ET Sunday afternoon. It’s wonderful to have such a clean and safe day of cross-country. As always, I want to give a big Eventing Nation thank you to all of the volunteers who helped make Fair Hill possible today. We wouldn’t be here without you. Go eventing.
