Jennie Brannigan won the PRO Puissance at Plantation by jumping 1.89 meters, photo by Steven Berkowitz via Katie Walker
When show jumper Marilyn Little-Meredith announced last fall that she was hoping to compete at the Fair Hill CCI3* this year, I think everyone was at least a little skeptical. Marilyn’s early events with the enthusiastic show jumping mare Udonna produced mixed results. But instead of calling it quits and heading back to pure show jumping, Marilyn went to Europe and bought more eventers. Today Marilyn and her new horse RF Rovano Rex won the CIC3* at Plantation Field. One weekend is just one weekend, but to win a CIC3* against the likes of Remington, Henny, and the rest of the quality Plantation field is a big achievement. Perhaps more importantly, I believe Marilyn qualified both of her advanced horses for Fair Hill this weekend. Boyd Martin and Remington finished in second with 12.4 penalties on the XC and Peter Atkins finished his first CIC3* with Henny since the WEGs with a yellow ribbon. Henny and the fourth placed Daily Edition of Canada were the only two horses to make the time in the CIC3*. The CIC3* show jumping rode really well with the top 5 horses all jumping clear. The XC was a different story and quite a few really nice horses didn’t finish the course.
Buck Davidson and The Apprentice won the CIC2* and led that division wire to wire. The Apprentice is a really nice jumper and definitely a horse to keep an eye on as he continues to move up the ranks with Buck. Will Coleman finished in second and third and I can’t help but think what might have been if Will had continued to target the Pan Ams with Obos O’Reilly. Susan Beebee and Wolf finished in 4th in the CIC2*.
Will Coleman and Ole Boy won the Plantation CIC*. Both Lisa Marie Ferguson and Sinead Halpin showed depth in their programs by finishing second and third on Uni Sprite and Clasiscal King respectively. If winning the CIC3* wasn’t enough, Marilyn finished 5th on RF Smoke on the Water in the CIC2*.
Michael Pollard and DV8 won the advanced by 6.8 points. The horse trials divisions concluded Saturday afternoon at Plantation Field. Everyone in the advanced had XC time penalties. Phillip Dutton and The King’s Spirite were second on a 47.6.
Nina Ligon and her new horse Butts Leon dominated the intermediate-A division by 10 points, as you would expect from the Luhmuhlen CCI4* champion. Clarissa Wilmerding and Luna won the intermediate-B division.
Congrats to all of the riders on a great weekend at Plantation and around Eventing Nation. I also want to echo Annie’s get well soon wishes to Lucia Strini and Abbie Golden who had to take trips to the hospital yesterday. Thankfully both are expected to be fine.
Go eventing.
