Will Faudree and Andromaque, above, who leave for Saumur in France to represent the USA soon, currently lead the CIC*** after cross country, but his team mate Buck Davidson is leading the CCI *** division on D.A Adirmo. Although only 8 years old and still quite green, D.A Adirmo has rarely been out of the ribbons this spring and Buck said he decided to bring him here to Jersey to see what he was made of, ” He’s a good jumper but he’s not the bravest horse I’ve ever ridden so I really wanted to fill him full of confidence for this, and try to make a big effort here, and he obviously did – he tried his heart out the whole way round. There was a big question mark hanging over him before him today about whether he’d go the distance etc and he checked every box. For him to jump to do that course today was a big step in his career, he jumped great the whole way around and he was honest and I couldn’t ask for more. He certainly won’t go to a four star this year. He’s green in the show-jumping and he’s careful but I haven’t jumped a clear round on him in an Advanced yet. He gave me everything he had today so we’ll worry about tomorrow tomorrow (Sunday). I’ll do the best I possibly can and the horse will do the best he possibly can and we’ll see what happens.”
Buck Davidson on Wiley Post, 3rd in the CCI** — Photo by Jenni Autry
Wiley Post, a former Kim Seversen ride and a relatively new mount for Buck , lies in 3rd place in the CCI**, “We’ve struck up a partnership,and he’s a really nice horse – he’s a thoroughbred horse, he’s very well bred and he’s a good jumper. His weak link would be the show jumping for sure; he jumps with his head a little high which makes him fantastic to ride across country, and he does a nice dressage test. He’s very fast and very easy to ride cross country so I hope that he’ll jump clear show-jumping Sunday but we’ll see. I’m very, very excited about him for the future, so as long as I don’t knock down a hundred rails he’ll step up to the next level, and I think he’ll be a really nice three star horse in the fall, that’s the hope anyway.”
Jessie Phoenix on Erodium (who is indeed related to Tamarillo! Thanks to Rebecca Guiness and Biddesden Stud for the tip!)
Jessie Phoenix sits in second place right behind Buck on her 2010 WEG silver medal winner and Rolex Kentucky and Burghley CCI**** partner winner. Jessie revealed that far from feeling like a demotion to drop down a level, it’s almost the reverse, “Exponential is just so much fun, I just love going out on cross country on that horse. It was actually really fun to bring him back to Jersey and let him cruise around this course, he was really strong, he was definitely loving his job! I’m just really, really proud of him. I think with these upper level and four star horses it’s really rare that you get to drop them down a level and do a full three star CCI with them, and because of what happened at Rolex with him, not getting the dressage score that we wanted, we decided to regroup here and I think it’s been a really good weekend for him.” Unlike most of the other horses competing here this weekend ‘Tucker’ is not on a strict schedule and instead, once the competition is over, “He’ll have as much time as he’ll take which is normally about two or three weeks, he doesn’t like to be out of work for very long, and then we’ll just hack him to keep him happy and then I think we might give him a really light Fall and then bring him back into work next year in Florida and aim him towards the WEG 2014 in Nomandy.”
Lauren Kieffer brought her great form from The Fork north to Jersey Fresh and leads the CIC** division on Veronica, above, “She was great; I went out and it’s easier just not to mess with her so I just kind of drop the reins and let her go at her own pace, but becasue she’s obviously been above this level you can just go at this level and cruise around and she knows the questions. She just skipped around and she was great fun. She’s very experienced, she’s obviously been beautifully trained by Karen.” Did Karen have any advice for her? “She said to not take a long one to the bounce!”
“I think, as with the US team, just getting used to a new coach, you’re always going to try and make changes for the better and try and get more competitive in the dressage so we switched things up a little bit in the dressage warm up at Rolex just to try and make it more competitive in the ring and it backfired on us, so we took a step back and re-grouped and came back this week and tried a little bit different approach and it really paid off, and I think Clayton learning more about us a team, and more about us as horses and riders, it’s been a really good Spring season for Canada. I love Clayton – he’s fantastic! He’s got a ton of enthusiasm, he’s super knowledgable and extremely helpful, and I think once we all get to a place where we all get to know each other well and know all the horses and riders well, it’s really going to be exciting.”Almost predictably Caitlin Silliman leads the CCI** on Remington, “Remington was awesome today, he obviously knows his job, he’s an old campaigner, he’s been around the world, he’s done….I think five 4*s so obviously the two star track doesn’t look like much to him but I think it was our smoothest round so far and I think we’re really getting to know each other.”
Caitlin on Remington right before the coffin
Congratulations to all the riders, grooms, supporters, organisers, connections but especially this weekend to all the volunteers and a big shout out to all the mothers! Happy Mothers Day! Jenni has put together something pretty fantastic for you -enjoy! Thank you so much for making Eventing Nation and this weekend, Jersey Fresh a part of your day. Stay with us and Go Eventing!
