Good Evening Eventing Nation! Well, my prediction for rainy weather proved true in many parts of the country today, it certainly wasn’t the case for all the folks at the Florida International Horse Trials! I talked to one of the competitors who reported that the temperatures were close to 100 degrees by the afternoon, definitely not the best climate for a day of CCI level cross country.
But despite the late Florida heat wave, the day went well for the majority of the competitors. Leslie Law is leading the CCI** aboard the lovely Rehy Lux, and second in that division is Joe Meyer and Intrepid. Joe is a big time rider, originally from New Zealand but based out of Great Britain, who has been in the US for the last month to carry out his final preparations to compete his horse Snip at Kentucky. Becky Holder is down from Georgia with her new ride, Can’t Fire Me, and they currently are third in the CCI**. Can’t Fire Me is a lovely horse, I’m sure we will see bigger things from that pair very shortly.
In the CCI*, Robin Walker leads aboard Florenz on a 42.8. Buck is about seven points behind to sit in second place with No More Rocks after a double clear cross country ride today. Skyler Voss sits third on 50.0 with Argento. Judging from the results, it seems like the one star was a fairly straight forward test, there were minimal time faults across the board and only a few scattered twenty penalty rounds. I remember attending this event last year and something crazy like every single ride in the CCI* finished without time or jump penalties. I think it shows they’ve made the course into a better test this year.
Lisa Fergusson is leading the Open Intermediate division with Smart Move. I know Lisa spent the winter working on dressage in Wellington and this is her first event back, so leading a big division will surely be a nice welcome back. I know this pair has struggled with their show jumping in the past, so it will be interesting to see how they come out tomorrow.
Lauren Kieffer is leading the OP division aboard Maria Brazil’s Pas de Panique, and Melissa McMaster is leading the PR rider on one of the more colorfully named horses in Eventing– Sir Scooby Doo.
The lower level divisions will run cross country tomorrow, and the Preliminary and Intermediate will show jump. The CCI** and CCI* competitors will show jump following the horse inspection at 8 am sharp. Good luck to all the competitors tomorrow!
Go Eventing.
