Look familiar?
Rebecca Howard entered the arena without a rail to spare after Hannah Burnett and Harbour Pilot jumped double-clear. For the second straight month Rebecca Howard and Roquefort “Rocky” take home a 2* victory. They won the CIC2* at Jersey Fresh in May, and her win today at Bromont is of the CCI2* variety. With those two results, Rebecca Howard and Rocky are arguably the top two-star pair in North America and they should be big favorites to make the Pan Am squad for Canada, although that is an incredibly long time away. For today, Rebecca gave the hometown Canadian crowd something to smile about amidst the now very rainy Bromont weather.
Bromont CCI2* Results:
1. Rebecca Howard and Roquefort +0 49.4
2. Hannah Burnett and Harbour Pilot +0 52.8
3. Phillip Dutton and Mighty Nice +4 53.5
4. Karen O’Connor and Veronica +4 57.4
5. Michael Pollard and Schoensgreen Hanni +0 57.5
6. Kevin Keane and Fernhill Flutter +0 59.3
7. Jon Holling and Downtown Harrison +4 59.8
[Live Bromont Show Jumping Scores]
For the win:
–Aside from 4 clean rounds towards the end of the division, the 2* show jumping caused even more issues than the 1*, which is saying something. There were three stops and Kyle Carter fell from Chances Are at the last fence.
–Hannah Burnett and Harbour Pilot were one of only two pairs in the CCI2* to finish on their dressage score and they moved up from 8th to 2nd over the jumping phases. Hannah and William seem to always find a way to finish in the top 5 and Hannah finished the spring with top 10 performances in both a 3* and 4*.
–Phillip and Mighty Nice added 4 penalties in the show jumping. Phillip had three tense rides through the triple in the 2*, but his best ride through there was with Mighty Nice. Phillip also finished Young Man in the top 10.
–Phillip’s vet, Kevin Keane rode an excellent round with Fernhill Flutter. Kevin was the only rider other than Hannah to finish on his dressage score in the two star. Kevin consistently produces really nice horses and it’s no surprise to see him finish in the top 10 of a really quality 2* field.
–Rebecca got the victory for Canada, but the USA owned the rest of the 2*–US riders filled the 2nd to 10th spots.
–David O’Connor has to be proud of the 2* results, with two of his students–Rebecca through the Canadians and Hannah through the O’Connor Eventing Team–finishing in the top two places.
–Another OCET student, 15 year old Rowdie Adams of Texas added just a rail to her dressage score and was the highest placed young rider in 8th.
–Will Coleman followed up his CCI* win with a 10th place finish on Oboe O’Reilly. In the 2* press conference, Will made the point that the environment in the warm up which is on top of the hill, is a lot different from the environment in the main arena, where there is a lot to look at. That difference might have caused some of the issues in the show jumping as the horses started looking around in the main arena. Will was also very complimentary of the ground jury throughout the weekend.
–A lot of the CCI2* riders can breath a sigh of relief that they now have their qualifiers done for the Pan Ams. Now they just have to make the team–no sweat, right?
As some bonus coverage, here’s video of the PRO wheelbarrow race between the 2* and 3* show jumping:
The CCI3* will start shortly. The show jumping has stretched much longer than anticipated so expect an especially quick CCI3* recap because I’ll have to rush to catch a flight. Go eventing.
