Selena and Colombo
Team Canada proved that their best can compete with anyone's best by winning the CIC3* and one advanced division at Richland. Selena O'Hanlon and Colombo moved up from 3rd after the CIC3* dressage with the only double-double-clear in the CIC3*. In the Advanced-B division, Canadian EN guest blogger Steph Bosch also finished on her dressage score and moved up from 5th to win. The question for the fighting Canucks now is who wants to step up as their 3rd and 4th riders? The next highest placing Canadians were Jessica Phoenix and Expoloring (9th CIC3*), Ian Roberts and Napalm (7th Adv-A), and Diana Burnett and Manny (9th Adv-B). Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master withdrew from the Advanced B division after the XC but from what I hear, it's not an issue that will sideline their season.
Link: Richland Results
The Americans only won one division but the US short listers had very consistent performances this weekend and the US fans should be happy with the weekend. 5 US short listers finished in the top 7 of the CIC3*, 3 in the top 3 of the Advanced-A, and 4 in the top 6 of the Advanced-B. For those of you keeping score home, that's 12 potential US team horses that finished in the top 16 of their divisions. The US has the best depth of talent right now that I can remember in recent history.
CIC3* - Selena moves up two places FTW
1. Selena O'Hanlon and Colombo +0 50.8
2. Boyd Martin and Remington XXV +4 51.6
3. Karen O'Connor and Mandiba +0 53.2
4. Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos +0 53.9
Karen O'Connor and Mandiba backed up their win at Rebecca Farm with a superb weekend in the Richland CIC3*. One notable moment occurred when Buck had a stop in the show jumping with Ballynoecastle. Buck had a tough warmup with "Reggie" that included several stops at an oxer and it carried into his round. Buck and Reggie are normally an excellent show jumping pair and they will get things back on track, but I feel like today might have made My Boy Bobby the front-runner to carry Buck at the WEGs. Buck had a fabulous Sunday on his other advanced rides with 4 double clears.
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US eventing team SJ coach Katie Prudent says "higher"
Advanced A - Arthur won by leading wire to wire
1. Allison Springer and Arthur +0 29.1
2. Phillip and The Foreman +0 30.6
3. Phillip and Woodburn +0 32.8
Arthur obviously had a great weekend and he beat an excellent field in the A division. True Prospect Farm had an excellent weekend in the Advanced-A with Phillip's two and Jennie Brannigan's fourth on Cambalda. Will Coleman and Nevada Bay had a super weekend to finish in 5th and they will now get ready to fly over for Blenheim.
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Advanced B - Steph Bosch wins, Kim has a solid round
1. Steph Bosch and Port Authority +0 31.7
2. Kim and Tipperary Liadhnan +4 33.3
3. Buck and Titanium +0 35.0
Other than Steph's win, which she will tell us about in her EN blog entry this week, the story in the Advanced-B division is that Tipperary Liadhnan only had one rail. For the first time in a long time it looked like Paddy was finally working with Kim again. I have been writing that Kim and Paddy have been training well with Katie Prudent, and we saw the results of that training at Richland. I never like to make too much out of just one round, but another one rail performance at the AECs is going to make it hard to leave Paddy off the WEG squad.
Looking at the overall Richland Results, only 8 horses finished on their dressage score--Colombo, Arthur, Cambalda, Napalm, Subway, Port Authority, Titanium, and My Boy Bobby. There were 20 double-clears in the show jumping.
Katie Prudent's coursealk with Holly Hudspeth ended with a run out of the arena as the first advanced horse started. The coursewalk must have worked though, because Last Monarch continued his trend of looking more mature in the show jumping at each event. Now it's time for me to run away from Richland.
Go eventing.
why no video of Steph and Ollie?