CCI**
With a horse named Patent Pending, it is only fitting that Cooke is a patent attorney and litigator. The talented pair made the CCI** look effortless in all three phases. Patent Pending is a tall and solid Thoroughbred who takes his job seriously. The pair won with their dressage score of 52.80 and Cooke wore a smile throughout the competition.
"Show jumping is our strongest phase so I was hoping as long as I didn't do anything to mess it up we go through and have a nice clear round," said Cooke. "We are headed to AECs. Dallas is our home so it is a quick short trip down to AECs and I'm riding in the Intermediate there. It was a great weekend and we were happy to have all the support at a great venue."
CCI*
Stuart Black and Tre Du Kernat (Phelps Media Group, Inc. International)
"I just buried him to the triple bar," said Cliver. Even so, she was happy with the round and the result. "It was really one of our best rounds to date. I am super happy with the weekend."
Stuart Black, a top international eventing rider and trainer from Weatherford, Texas and Tre Du Kernat, a chestnut Selle Francais gelding owned by Orin Book, were in second place going into show jumping. The pair performed a flawless, clear round and moved into the lead to take the division.
"TK is a fancy boy now but he was just doing jumpers," Said Black. "He's grown up and muscled up in the short time we've had him. He always struck me as an upper level horse. He's got the mind for it. He's got the gallop. He's got the movement for the dressage."
Black prefers French horses. He said that some horses that aren't from North America, find it so different here that it takes them a while to become acclimated. But with the French horses, the weather and the terrain are similar to France. They get off the plane and are ready go to work.
"We wanted to find out what kind of horse he is," Black said. "We've kind of pushed him a bit. He's done one training, three prelims and two intermediates and I took him to the CCI* because he has to qualify to go to the next level. I've also pushed him quite hard with the dressage. I am happy how he's handled it all. He's placed well in all the events but he hadn't won anything. So, to come here and do a very good dressage test to be super, good and fast cross country and then to come out and show jump well - I'm just thrilled that he's come out and been a winner."
Black came in second place with Silent Glider and won the Training Horse division with Last Dance, maintaining an incredible dressage score of 29.6 and was second in that division with Severe Flying.
"I haven't been to Colorado in over 15 years," Black said. "I really do like the venue, they do work hard at keeping the footing right. The horses go really well here and it is a nice event, it very professional yet it is really enjoyable, too. The one star division was packed with a lot of lovely horses. They do everything they can to make it the best."
Novice 3-Day and Training 3-Day
Due to timing scores on roads and tracks and the steeplechase phases of the Training and Novice 3-Day divisions on cross-country day, the two leaders of those divisions were Angelika Beutel and Varekai for Training 3-Day and Sarah Richards and Storm of the Century in the Novice 3-Day.
Going into show jumping in the Training 3-Day Angelika Beutel form Longmont, Colorado and her Swedish Warmblood Varekai were leading with a score of 34.70. Their fault-free round clinched the win of the division.
"I only got him last year in August and I had a really good season last year," said Beutel. "I moved him up to prelim this spring and promptly broke my arm. We've only been back for a couple of shows and he's done well so we're going to Texas to AECs in a couple of weeks and then we'll see. He'll probably have a month off after that and see if we can move back up to prelim next spring.
"It was the first time I had done the 3-Day," she continued. "I loved that we got to school the roads and tracks and steeplechase. They have very nice organizers here. Everyone is professional. It is our favorite horse show. It is a beautiful venue."
Sarah Richards from Peyton, Colorado and her Storm of the Century were leading the Novice 3-Day division going into show jumping. The pair had two rails making their score 42.3. In the division, only two horse and rider combinations left all the rails intact, Janet Taylor from Fort Worth, Texas and her own Zarpazo earned the blue ribbon with a score of 37 and Amy Dalrymple from Eagle, Colorado and Tritons Echo were second with a 37.60.
"I have shirts that say USCTA- I've been around," joked Taylor. "Zar's 13. I bought him as an unbroken 4-year-old. I sent him to a guy who trains race horses- he teaches them to go. He's a good old boy. He takes care of me. I have polymyalgia rheumatica and fibromyalgia so I needed a horse that can figure it out and get me out of trouble and that's what he does. In the victory gallop I sat up and dropped the reins he immediately comes down and says, 'Okay, we'll walk out.'"
Open Intermediate
Bonner Carpenter from Dallas and her own Basco, a bay Dutch Warmblood gelding were in the lead after cross-country and had an accurate and clear show jumping round earning the pair the win and the victory gallop.
"He was feeling good today - he had a lot of jump left after yesterday," said Carpenter. "He was supposed to do the two star this weekend but when we decided to go out to California to run a three-star in two weekends, we decided to drop him down to Open Intermediate. Overall I think it went really well. It was a good prep for our CCI ** in two weekends and I really couldn't ask for it to be much better."
Open Preliminary
International rider James Atkinson who hails from Ramona, California and Landonn II OHF, owned by Dan Michaels were in the lead going into the show jumping phase. Atkinson had jumped the horse only once before competing him at this event. He had never flatted him until his dressage test. The pair earned a remarkable 32.2 in dressage maintained through cross-country. Today, with a gorgeous, fault-free show jumping round the pair won the division by 8.2 points.
"He's an awesome rider, isn't he?" said Michaels. "He's been trying to teach me and I'm very green. I didn't get on a horse until I was 45.This a special horse and we're both green and we're trying to make this leap into prelim and having a hard time. He's 10-years-old. I bought him as a yearling. I've done everything on him until this moment. It's pretty cool."
"He jumped well," said Atkinson. "He's pretty exciting. He is a really cool horse. I think we're going to go forward and get him up to California and do some stuff. He really couldn't have been any better this weekend."