This article originally published at www.useventing.com.

Emily Beshear rose to the occasion today and produced one of only five double clear show jumping rounds in the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Division at the Richland Park CIC***. Beshear and Deep Purple Eventing’s Shame on the Moon now stand at the top of the leaderboard with a 44.7 heading into tomorrow’s cross-country phase.

“I was thrilled with her. [Show Jumping] is actually her weakest phase, but she always tries hard, and really understands the game,” said Beshear of Somerset, Va.

The beautiful show jumps at Richland Park were provided by Brody Robertson, and course designer Marc Donovan laid out what proved to be a very challenging course. Riders could not take any of the outside turn options if they wanted a chance at coming in under the optimum time.

“The time was tight, but that’s a good thing. Event riders need to ride carefully and in an efficient way,” stated Beshear. “I had to land and be very efficient with my turns, and it worked. It was good for us to be challenged in that way.”

Yesterday’s leader, Maya Black had a rail down at the first fence, knocking her down to the second place spot on a 46.3 aboard the Dofelmier’s Doesn’t Play Fair.

“I was bummed about having the first rail down, but I knew I had to brush it off and keep going,” said Black. “My plan was to just balance as much as I could around the turns to be efficient enough and make the time. There’s always room for improvement, but I’m really happy with Cody again today.”

Sharon White on Mary Ann Ghadban’s mare, Under Suspection put in one of the double clear rounds, bumping them up to the third place position on a 48.3. Michael Pollard and Mensa G had one rail, but came in under the time, securing themselves the 4th place spot on a 49.6. To round out the top five, Mackenna Shea and her own Landioso head into tomorrow with a 50.5 after jumping clear but having 7 time faults.

Full Results