From London to Kalamazoo, Olympian Boyd Martin galloped around the CIC2* on Crackerjack
Eventing is fully underway here in west Michigan and I couldn’t be happier that they let me outside to be at an real live event again. The weather at Richland is a bit warm with sunny skies and highs in the 80’s but the landscape, venue, and courses couldn’t me more suited to a great day of eventing. The lower levels are show jumping today while the upper levels are riding around Ian Stark’s bold cross-country courses.
The intermediate divisions struggled this morning with 7 retirements, an elimination, a rider fall, and multiple stops. Organizers removed fences 16 and 17 from the intermediate course before the start because of the sun’s position early this morning.
The CIC2* course also caused some issues with two rider falls, two retirements, and an elimination. From what I could see, the issues were pretty well spread out on course, although I did see a number of issues particularly at the water jump and the coffin. Boyd Martin and Crackerjack (provisionally) added just 0.4 time penalties to their dressage score and maintained their overnight lead with a 46.0.
A quick, non-comprehensive montage from the CIC2*:
Michael Pollard and DV8, via Pollard Eventing:
The CIC3* is just getting started with Phillip Dutton and Atlas first out on course. Stay tuned for much more from Samantha and me at Richland. As a break from Richland tradition, the CIC3* course is considerably different, in my opinion, much harder than the advanced course this year. Go eventing.
