When the 35th Edition of the Winter Equestrian Festival kicked off at 8:00 a.m., the sun was already high, conditions were perfect and the ground lush. The course designer this week in the Internationale Arena is Luc Musette, whose father, Jean-Paul, was national show jumping chef d’equipe for Belgium for many years until he retired to take charge of juniors and young riders. Musette was not originally scheduled to build until later in the tournament, but stepped in to deputize for Uliano Vezzani, who was the unfortunate victim of a recent robbery, during which he lost his passport and all his travel documents.

Class 1002/1.45m Jumper: $8,000 – Table II, Sec. 2(b)
With the hype already building to the Nations’ Cup here at Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, the Winter Equestrian Festival opened with a U.S. vs. Canada tussle between two of show jumping’s best known stars, McLain Ward and ‘Captain Canada’ Ian Millar.

Celebrating his 60th birthday just two weeks ago, the seemingly evergreen Millar, a nine-time Olympian, on this occasion bowed to Ward’s supremacy, but delightedly claimed second and third place riding his top-ranked horses, In Style and Redefin, respectively.

Exploiting an “in-at-the-deep-end” approach, and with jumping faults converting to time penalties, the opening 1.45 m class offered the option of speed or respect for a very open course of imposing fences, with the top-placed combinations usefully amalgamating the two ingredients necessary to finish in the ribbons. Musette was fairly sympathetic and there were no traps, and no bogey obstacle, but a few tricky rollback turns on the course riding from fences six to seven, and eight to nine.

In sparkling form, Ward, from Brewster, NY, who maintained his lead from a fourth-place draw, was riding Larioso, whom he co-owns together with Blue Chip Stock. Agility and smooth handling, rather than out-and-out speed reaped the reward, and the 31-year-old said, “It’s a horse we’ve had for a while and he’s going well. It was very, very big for the first day.” He concluded by saying, “It’s disappointing that every year we come and are kind of under the idea that we’re going to get a nice welcoming week, but it’s maximum height right off the bat. But he’s an experienced horse and he can handle it, so it’s a nice start.”

It was also an auspicious start to the season for Millar, who immediately laughed and predicted, “Getting ready to win that Nations’ Cup again,” a reference, of course, to the Canadian team’s double of jump-off victories over the United States, in Wellington and at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary last year. He continued by saying, “It’s been a later start than usual for all the reasons we know, but you adjust your plans. Do you know, we rode outdoors until just before we came down here? That has never happened before, so all the horses are very fit and ready to go. They know how to do their job, and did it.”

Millar confirmed that In Style and Redefin are currently the top horses in his barn. “In Style would be one, and the gray two, but only because of inexperience.” Although Redefin had a lighter load at last year’s WEF, Millar’s plans have changed for 2007. “He will step up and do an equal load with In Style, and perhaps even do more as we go along. Although In Style will take the lead for the last couple of weeks, and the Nations’ Cup.” Adding that he had one especially interesting new horse for this coming grand prix season, “One called Rivendell whom my teammate Chris Pratt rode last year, and you’ll see him later in the tour.”

Naturally, the 2007 Pan American Games in July is a primary focus for the Canadian show jumping team, who need a good result in Rio de Janeiro in order to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games. “It’s very critical to the momentum of the sport [in Canada], and important