United States Eventing Association

Myakka City, Fla.—March 28—The show jumping phase of the CCI4*-S division at The Event at TerraNova on Saturday kept everyone on their toes as both time and jump penalties kept shuffling the standings in a tightly placed field.

Alyssa Phillips and Rockett 19 had a gorgeous round (27.0) and bumped Mia Farley with Karen O’Connor’s Invictus (28.8) from the top of the leaderboard with a double clear, but there were still more big guns in the lineup. Canadian Colleen Loach and FE Golden Eye laid down another clear and fast round to edge Phillips out of the top standing (25.5). Lauren Nicholson had a shot at taking second after show jumping, but a rail down at fence five—a reverse Liverpool heading toward the in-gate—left them in ninth place with 30.0 penalties.

Monica Spencer (NZL) and Artist cantered into the ring in second place, but the first rail of a triple combination as well as two time-faults dropped them into fifth (27.3).

Overnight leader Dan Kreitl of Muncie, Indiana, also had a rail down at fence 5 riding Kay Dixon’s Carmango, a 13-year-old Westphalian gelding (Chirivell x Taramanga), but with zero time-faults he held on to the lead by just half a penalty point (25.0). The very last rider in the ring, Bruce “Buck” Davidson, Jr. and Cooley Candyman, owned by Cassandra Segal and Rolo 7 LLC, were clear and in the time and moved up from fifth to third place overall. Davison is also 15th on Sorocaima, owned by Sandra Powers, and 19th on True Belief, who he owns in partnership with Carl Segal.

Kreitl said that historically the show jumping has been the weakest phase for both him and his horse, but he’s been working hard. “As he’s gotten stronger, he’s gotten better, and my eye has gotten better,” he said. “I’ve had a long history as a rider of just blasting the rails down—it’s amazing how mental that phase can be. The harder I try, the worse I do, and getting intense only makes it worse. Learning to focus on the things I can control, and helping the horse to relax, helps —it’s been a slow process but it’s fun that things are starting to come together.”

Of the fence he had down, he said, “My horse has gotten so adjustable that he’s easy to over-ride. I moved up too much to that fence, and he can be funny about Liverpools—he peeks at them —and the reverse Liverpool was even harder.”

Looking ahead, Kreitl said, “The cross-country looks like a proper four-star that will take some good riding. It looks like there are some forward lines and some technical elements to it. I’m sure it will shake up the leaderboard, but it looks like a fun, good course.”

With the Cosequin Lexington Kentucky CCI4*-S on the horizon, Kreitl’s plan from the beginning has been to take it easy this weekend. With both of the first two phases behind him and sitting atop the leaderboard, and since cross-country is typically his strongest phase, he said it’s tempting to change that plan and go for the win, but in the interest of his horse’s soundness, he’ll probably stick to the plan. “I will say, it’s a big enough course, and there are some combinations where I’m going to have to really ride properly—but in straightaways where I’d normally put the pedal down and say, ‘Let’s go’, we’ll probably just have an easy canter,” he said.

Commenting on the venue, Kreitl said, “Oh my gosh, this is truly the best I’ve seen anywhere. I’ve only been to Europe a a couple times with the horse, but even compared to what I saw there: the facilities, the footing, the jumps, even the details of how nice the paint and flowers on the cross-country jumps is, it is first class through and through.”

Time was the deciding factor in the CCI3-S show jumping phase: Mia Farley and her own Piña Colada 28, a 10-year-old black Hanoverian mare, just nipped into the lead with only 0.4 time (29.6), while dressage leader Lauren Nicholson and Jacqueline Mars and Christa Schmidt’s How Easy GG jumped clear but added 1.2 time faults (29.9) to drop to second place by a narrow margin. The diminutive grey Selle Francais gelding pinged around the course, making it look easy. Canadian Colleen Loach and Chiaro Z Excalibur, a big, scopey bay owned by Peter Barry, moved into third with a double clear round (30.6).

Dani Sussman had a clear round inside the time with her Argentinean gelding Jos Bravio to stand fourth heading into cross country. Sussman and Water Valley Royal Guy were third after dressage, but a heartbreaking four rails down bumped them down to a tie for 40th place. Less than five penalty points separate the top ten, so there is still plenty of room for the leaderboard to change during tomorrow’s cross-country phase.

Farley is also currently seventh in the four-star with Invictus and fourth in the Open Intermediate riding D.A. Nixon.

Farley said, “Honestly, I was really happy with everything in Piña’s round—I think I was a little surprised that one of the lines was longer than I expected, but I landed and asked her to go forward and she did, and that rideability gives me a lot of confidence for cross-country tomorrow. I’m excited to go out on cross-country, I feel like every time I go out at a three-star, our sport is evolving, and I see new things at each show, but every time she goes to a show she gets better and better. She only started eventing when I got her two years ago, and every day I’ve been excited and proud for her—she’s quite good on cross-country; she reads everything well. She gets a bit wide-eyed with all the bright colors, and she’s careful, but usually by around fence 6 on course she gets into a rhythm, and she’s on it.”

Of her four-star horse, Invictus, Farley said, “’Sammy’s’ great; this is his first four-star back after having colic surgery in September. We were planning to do a 4L last fall, and he was fit for that, so his recovery from the colic has not been too complicated, knock on wood! We’ll see how it goes, and we’re aiming for a 4L again this fall. He’s got a lot of warmblood in him, and I learned last year that when I kind of push him on cross-country, he pays attention better, so I’ll go fast tomorrow but making time is not my priority.”

Cross-country course designer Alec Lochore said that the first water jump on the four-star course will be the first major challenge that horses and riders face on Sunday. “Having said that,” he said, “They’ll have a couple of big, maximum spread fences early in the course to get the horses really jumping, and a simple combination to get their attention.”

In the middle of the course, he noted that there is a new combination that was built after the spring event last year and was not used in the fall. “We’ve got a big table, and they’re going to come down a slope to a big step up, and then two strides to a quite skinny brush. Really this whole combination is about how they jump the big fence in, and then balance for the step up and hopefully just keep the horse on a good, straight line. Most horses at this level can read these sorts of fences really well—always what we want is for horses and riders to have a happy and safe time.”

The Event at concludes on Sunday with winners crowned in the final rounds from Starter through the CCI4*-S level. Spectators are invited to attend with free admission, on-site food trucks, and children's activities such as Mini Horsemanship Camp. Livestreaming is free to watch from home or on the go at www.terranovaequestrian.com/streaming.

For full results, click here.