Liza Boyd and Crack On (Shawn McMillen Photography)
This year's WCHR Professional Finals had a change in format. It was shortened to three rounds, with riders switching on two donated horses for the first two rounds, then bringing a horse of their own for the third and final handy round.
Watch an interview with Liza Boyd.
In the first round, Boyd rode Crack On to a score of 88.33 and was sitting in third place. She had the high score in round two of 91.33 on Corduroy, but still sat in third place behind Scott Stewart and John French.
The third handy round, which included a trot jump, bounce, and hand gallop, was what made such a huge difference for her. Riding Quatrain, a horse her family's Finally Farm owns with Janet Peterson, she laid down a fantastic round. She was rewarded by the judges with equal scores of 95 across the board from the three judges' positions, giving her a total of 274.66. However, she would have to wait and see what French and Stewart would do.
As it turned out, both French and Stewart had bobbles that landed them into the bottom two positions at the end of the class.
Stewart explained, “I chose Declaration (for the handy), who I’ve had for a really long time. He’s usually really, really good in the handies...until tonight. I don’t know what set him off. He’s usually perfect. He’s done really well in a lot of derbies so far. I’ll have to try again.”
French wasn't worried about the handy part of the course with Sander, who has had experience at major equitation finals as well as in the hunter ring. “I brought him knowing that if there were any tricky things, bounces or whatever, in Missy Clark’s barn he’s seen all that before,” he said with a smile. But a slip off of his lead brought the scores down.
Moving up in the final round as well from fourth to second place was WCHR Pro Finals rookie Amanda Steege of Far Hills, NJ. Steege rode Susan Darragh's Zidane in the final round and scored 88.33 for a total of 265.49.
Third place went to Peter Pletcher of Magnolia, TX. He finished with a total of 262.49, while Kelley Farmer of Wellington, FL, was fourth with 261.16. John French of Woodside, CA, was fifth with 257.83. Stewart, of Wellington, NJ, placed sixth with a total of 257.66.
Boyd, who is from Camden, SC, spoke about the format and how it helped her. “I obviously am a really big fan of the new format. I was from the very beginning,” she said. “I think that bringing your own horse in the end was very much in my benefit. If you picked a horse you knew really well you could really shine, and it definitely was in my favor.”
Boyd said that it was a “no brainer” for her to bring Quatrain to this class after his handy hunter victory this week in the High Performance Hunters. “He goes smooth through the turns and is easy to stay with like an equitation horse. But he jumped in beautiful hunter style. He was definitely the right pick for sure,” she confirmed.
While the riders enjoyed riding a familiar horse, they also remarked about the true hunters that were donated. “I loved my donated horses. They were perfect and perfectly prepared and fun to ride,” said Steege. Boyd added, “It’s great for sales horses, it’s great for promoting horses. Hopefully in the future there will be more and more of those.”
Pletcher had to make a last minute change to his horse for tonight's class. “I chose a different horse, but he wasn’t right today so I had to quickly grab the sane, safe adult hunter from Eva Bisso, which was very nice of her to let me all of a sudden at the last minute use that horse. She marched right in there and couldn’t have given a better try. I was really happy with her.”
Farmer said that a decision to make a tricky inside turn in the handy course was a make-it-or-break-it moment. “I was in a position where if I tried it and it worked, great. I was low enough that in order to move up, I was going to have to do something. We have to try something,” she pointed out.
Farmer was also very appreciative of those owners that brought horses to the class. “That’s very generous of all of them,” she remarked.
This was the fourth time that Boyd has competed in the WCHR Pro Finals and, she said, the first time she was relaxed going into it with a “good mindset.” Steege, in her first year, was “shockingly relaxed.” She continued, “The thing I didn’t expect about this class was how much camaraderie there is between the riders and show management. So many people have pulled me aside to say 'Make sure you have plenty of help. If you need help, we can help you,' and all of these guys really helped show me the way. I had a great time.”
Geoff Teall, WCHR Task Force Chairman, noted that the new format “kept everyone in the playing field.” He continued, “The new format really allows for top hunters and allows for strategy.”
For her win tonight in the WCHR Professional Finals, Boyd was presented with the “All the Way” trophy. The Far West Farms Perpetual Trophy donated by the Karazissis Family was given to Contelido as the Best Horse.
All of the riders thanked the owners for letting them use their horses in the WCHR Professional Finals. The horses in tonight’s class were:
Rounds 1 & 2
All The Right Moves, owned by East Coast Sport Horses
Contelido, owned by Georgy Maskrey-Segesman
Corduroy, owned by King's Wood Farm, LLC
Crack On, owned by Old Willow Farm & Emma Heise
Lamont, owned by Katherine Boettcher
Copperfield 39, owned by Alexis Graves
Round 3
On Q, owned by CH Farm, LLC
Declaration, owned by Fashion Farm
Zidane, owned by Susan Darragh
Quatrain, owned by Finally Farm/Janet Peterson
Aura, owned by Eva Bisso
Sander, owned by Lily Blavin