Sophie Click and Tarantino 54. Photo by Cortney Drake Photography.
Sophie Click and Tarantino 54 jumped clear with just 6.4 time faults on the cross-country track designed by Morgan Rowsell to win the CCI3*-Short at Aspen Farms Horse Trials in Yelm, WA on Sunday.
“He was amazing,” said Click of Tarantino’s clear cross-country ride. “The ground was definitely wet, so I was just trying to give him a good ride, and he was really good today. He had one of those hard-to-find weekends where he was really good in all three phases, and it all came together.”
Up next the pair is aiming for the 3*-L at Rebecca Farm in Montana next month. Californian Tommy Greengard and his Dutch Warmblood gelding Joshuay MBF finished second in the CCI3*-S. It is the gelding’s first season at Intermediate/3* level.
“He was absolutely perfect,” said Greengard. “He didn’t put a foot wrong anywhere. He felt amazing. The course road to plan everywhere. We are so happy with him. He has come up to play at this level.”
Looking ahead, the pair will be headed to the American Eventing Championships at Rebecca Farms in Montana in August.
Tommy Greengard also won Open Preliminary aboard Andrea Pfeiffer’s gelding, Leonardo Diterma. They led the division from start to finish, earning their third consecutive Preliminary level win in a row.
“He was super,” said Greengard. “He kept trying the whole way around. It was a big ask for him, especially with the rain we got earlier in the week. He kept showing up and was totally on task. We’re thrilled with him.”
Anna Stein and her OTTB mare Lucy Lucy Lucy moved up from fourteenth place after show jumping to finish second, thanks to jumping a clear cross-country round with the fewest time faults in the division.
In the CCI2*-S, Karen O’Neal and Clooney 14, owned by Annika Asling, led from start to finish. They jumped clear cross-country and added just 4 time faults to win on a score of 30.4. Kerry Groot and Borasco finished second on 34.3.
In Open Intermediate, Meika Decher finished first aboard her homebred, Archie McPhee, after producing the fastest clear cross-country round in the division. It was thirteen years ago almost to the day that Decher returned home from Aspen Farms Horse Trials to meet her newborn foal, Archie, out of her three-star mare, A La Mode, by Ariadus.
“This is a long-time coming,” said Decher. “I’ve gone up and down with this horse from Prelim to Intermediate for the last two years, and he has not been easy. This time it felt like everything was right in its place. He answered every single question beautifully.”
In Preliminary Rider, Amy Haugen and Ebenholtz held their lead thanks to a clear cross-country round with only time faults. No combinations made the time. Brianna Lerner and Horton finished just .7 points behind the leaders to claim second.
“He is amazing, and I’m so thrilled with him,” said Haugen. “He’s an incredible horse; he’s so honest. We had a great round. We’re still working out some kinks early on in the season, but he kept getting more and more confident all the way around the course. We had some great fences. We weren’t fast today at all, but the wet conditions weren’t suited for fast today anyways.”
Next month, they hope to make their FEI debut at the CCI2*-L at Rebecca Farm in Montana.
Over 300 hundred horse and rider combinations competed at Aspen Farms Horse Trials, and more than $25,000 worth of prizes went to top finishers on Sunday, thanks to generous show sponsors. Aspen Farms Horse Trials looks forward to hosting the USEA Area VII Championships at the September Aspen Farms Horse Trials, September 16-18, 2022.
