Allentown, N.J. – Jennifer Thompson and Funnominial CG (Alex x Phenomeen) won the USEF Combined Driving National Championship for Advanced Single Horses this week at Garden State CDE held at the Horse Park of New Jersey.
Thompson (Lodi, Wisc.) and her own 2010 Dutch Warmblood gelding took an early lead in the division, scoring a 47.11 in the dressage on Friday. Saturday’s marathon phase proved to be a very close contest, with the top three in the division separated by less than two points and Thompson maintaining her lead in the class with a 112.80 after the first two phases.
“Dressage is our strong point, and it’s always good to come away with the best performance in that phase,” said Thompson. “I feel we put together a really strong marathon. We focused on pushing for a little bit more power and a little bit more speed in some areas when we could. While we have a strong marathon, it isn’t as strong as Taylor Bradish’s, the reserve champion, but I felt that we kept her within reach. We didn’t lose too much ground going into cones. That was definitely comforting to be in the lead, and it came down to putting together a good, clean cones run, and we had only one ball down and made the time, so that sealed the deal.”
Thompson has owned and trained “Lucas” since he was a three-year-old and has brought him up from training level to advanced. The pair earned their national title fresh off a win two weeks ago in the single horse CAI3* division at the Tryon CDE.
“[My goal is] continuing our strong performances, looking at team selection for the single horse world championship next year. That would be the top goal,” said Thompson. “We’ll see how the Florida season goes and go from there. We’ve had a pretty intense schedule for the last two weeks, so we’re looking forward to downtime, enjoying the fall weather, and getting back to basics.”
Defending 2022 national champion Taylor Bradish (Windsor, S.C.) with Jennifer Matheson’s 2009 Welsh Pony cross mare Katydid Duchess secured the reserve national champion title for 2023, completing their outing on a score of 118.58. The pair had the top marathon score and tied Thompson’s cones result with just three penalty points. Raymond Helmuth (Cambridge, Iowa) and Helmuth Equine’s 2015 Dutch Warmblood stallion, Kendro,finished in third place on a 124.49.
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