Jacob Arnold wins the FEI Single Horse Division at The Little Everglades Combined Driving Event. (PicsofYou.com)

Dade City, FL – USEF 2011 Junior Equestrian of the Year, 19 year old Jacob Arnold wins the hotly contested FEI Single Horse Division for the second year in a row at the CAI-B Little Everglades International CDE held February 23-26, 2012. This year, driving Marie Quist’s Hackney Horse, Halstead’s Shale (Hal), Jacob’s win is an important finish in the second selection trial for the World Championship for Single Horses scheduled for September 12-16 in Companhia das Lezírias, Portugal.

Competing against 16 single horse entries in his first competition with Hal, Jacob had a strong 3rd place finish in Dressage with a 44.37, just 4.26 points out of 1st. After finishing 2nd on the fast Marathon, with navigator-brother, Samuel, he moved into 2nd place before Cones. Starting at just .32 points out of 1st in the very challenging cones course, Jacob had 2 balls down and .01 time penalties, which was enough to put him in first place overall. 

In 2010, Jacob won the FEI Single Horse class driving his family’s Morgan horse, Spring Hollow Dark Shadow (Shadow). With the win in 2010, having just turned 18, Jacob became the youngest person to win a CAI (International Driving Competition) in the US.

“Little Everglades Ranch is a beautiful venue for driving and I was thrilled to be in a position to win again this year,” Jacob said. “There had only been only one clear round in the FEI Cones and being the first time I had driven Hal in a competition, I was not sure how we would do. I was a bit disappointed that we had 2 balls down, but was very happy with Hal’s overall performance. The win was a great recognition of his tremendous performance this weekend.”

Marcie Quist, Hal’s owner, and Craig Kellogg, Hal’s trainer, were both present at Little Everglades and were able to witness the win and assist Jacob as he is still getting familiar with Hal. Jacob reports “Hal is very smart, talented, and well trained. I had been told me that a Hackney Horse would not quit and he did not. I was very pleased in the marathon; he gave more every time I asked.”

The next competition for Jacob & Hal is at the CAI-B Live Oak International CDE. “Live Oak is always a challenging event and will be more so this year for me since l turned over last year and had to retire,” says Jacob, “hopefully we will be able to make some progress during the time between the events.”

Live Oak is the 3rd of 4 selection events in the US, Jacob plans to compete at Live Oak and then at the final selection trial in the US, the Southern Pines CDE, which is also the National Championship for Single Horses, with a goal of making the USET Single Horse team for the 2012 World Singles Championship in Companhia das Lezírias, Portugal.

For more information on Jacob visit his webpage at http://jacobarnold.org