Winners of the CCI*, Will Coleman & catch ride McLovin
The Virginia Horse Trials is always one of my favorite events, and this year was absolutely no different. It is practically in my backyard, and I’m disappointed if I can’t attend, so this year I entered my baby horse in the Novice, had a blast, and stalked the CCI* with my camera in hand. Sandy was merciful on our area of Virginia, and we suffered next to nothing in terms of destruction or even rainfall, so the weather was perfect, if a teensy bit chilly at times. Last year, it snowed on the Saturday of this event, so it was definitely an improvement upon that type of weather!
I was unfortunately unable to watch the dressage, but watching these one star horses trot during the second jogs was enough to impress me with the quality of the field. After the first day of competition on Friday, Mara DePuy found herself in a familiar position at the top of the board with her lovely mount, Alimit, with a 41.6. She was closely followed by Sharon White riding Severn Sky, who scored an equally impressive 41.9. Rounding out the top three was Will Coleman catch riding a lovely horse called McLovin (which made me continuously think of Superbad jokes all weekend), and he followed on their heels with a 44.4. The standings were all very close after the first phase, with the top 10 standing only 8.7 points apart.
There were also eight combinations in the CCI* JR division, and Benita Strini assumed the lead after dressage with her stunning black mare Sammy Jo, scoring a 46.7. Brynn Hamel followed close behind with Cavalier Clover Boy on a 48.1, while Beau Guimond scored a 52.5 to sit in 3rd after dressage.
Lynn Symansky's lovely mare, Waitangi Notebook ("Mouse"), overall 2nd
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David O’Connor’s cross country course at the Virginia Horse Center is a thing of beauty, and combined with the unbelievable terrain at the facility across the road from the stables, it creates a true test of fitness, determination, and athleticism. My first CCI* was around this course, and I’ve been fond of it ever since. It requires bold riding, lots of balance for the extreme hills, and a really game horse. The course took it’s toll on quite a few riders, causing three retirements, five eliminations, a rider fall and a horse fall. The vast majority of the issues were caused quite early on in the course, at the first water complex at the bottom of a hill. There was a decent sized log situated atop a crest, and the horses landed on a slope running down into a small pond, and a lot of horses took a good long peek at the water on the other side and decided that they were not interested.
Dressage leader Mara DePuy and Alimit fell victims to the first water when her horse mis-judged the takeoff for the bank out, and failed to get his hind end up along with his front end, and Mara pulled him up after a shaky scramble up the bank. In the CCI* JR division, Sasha Scott fell from Woodwork halfway around the course, and third placed Beau Guimond’s horse got stuck on a table near the end of the course. Benita Strini maintained her lead with a wonderful double clear, and Sharon White moved up to first with Severn Sky after a similarly smooth double clear round.
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CCI* JR winners Benita Strini & Sammy Jo
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Not only is VAHT infamous for it’s challenging cross country, but nobody can forget about “The Coliseum,” where the show jumping takes place. It is about as scary as arenas get, and the atmosphere affects each horse differently. Most horses get incredibly claustrophobic feeling, and suck back really hard, making the rideability factor ten times worse than it usually can be. Only the lucky ones find horses that don’t care at all, but most are completely different horses inside the coliseum than in any ordinary arenas.
The show jumping caused it’s fair share of trouble, especially for leaders Sharon White and Severn Sky, who pulled five rails to have 20 jump penalties as well as four time penalties to drop all the way to 14th place. The top seven jumped double clear, as well as 16th placed Jason Racey on the most adorable roan I’ve ever seen. There were quite a few horses feeling the after-effects of Saturday’s cross country test, and more than a handful of rails came down. Will Coleman jumped McLovin double clear to finish on his dressage score for the win, and Lynn Symansky was runner-up with her own Waitangi Notebook, finishing on her dressage score as well. Boyd Martin rounded out the top three with Steady Eddie.
In the JR division, Benita Strini held onto her lead despite two rails and one time penalty. Second placed Molly VanArsdalen rode her own Pierre up from 4th place into the reserve position with two rails as well. Arden Wildasin placed third with 3 rails and one time penalty on Kineo.
Also, as a last note, big shout out to TheHorsePesterer, who I met on XC! Check out his YouTube channel for 19 videos from this weekend, including footage from XC & SJ for CCI*, Intermediate, and Preliminary.
