(1) In New York, Leslie Law and Pembridge Swingtime won the Stuart CIC2* today after jumping the only double clear show jumping of the top three riders. This was Leslie’s first competition with Swingtime, who is owned by Missy Miller, and they entered the show jumping in 2nd place. Leslie’s joking (I hope) strategy of giving the lead to Jennie Brannigan seems to have paid off.
There were no horses that finished on their dressage score, but Holly Payne’s Madeline was the closest and added just 3.6 penalties over the weekend to move from 14th to finish 7th. Holly’s brother, Doug, beat her by two places and finished in 5th on Running Order.
I spoke with Missy and she explained that Leslie rode the horse because she was at the Area III Young Riders camp at Chattahoochee Hills this week. I give those Area III riders so much credit for being willing to take a week to help their coach Kyle Carter learn a few things that he might be able to apply to the WEGs.
(2) In Maryland, the prelim and novice competitions went well today. I saw one tough fall–as I was on course–but the horse and rider were both fine and up moments later. I give the event two thumbs up for hospitality. Everyone was extremely nice despite the oppressive heat and the shuttle drivers were amazing.
Having had time to glance at the scoreboard, the top 5 in the OI-A division on Saturday after the dressage was Ballynoecastle, Bobby, Last Monarch, Andromaque, and Mensa. Buck did withdraw Bobby before the XC, and the rest of those horses took their time on the XC with other competitions in mind.
Update: As Polly kindly pointed out in the comment section, Sarah Cousins had a dominant weekend in the Maryland intermediate, with 4 of the top 6 placings in her two intermediate divisions.
Link: Maryland results
(3) In Aachen, Germany, Andrew Nicholson and Nero won the won the CIC3* at the World Equestrian Festival.
In other news…
