Tryon, N.C - It was a wet day at the Tryon International Equestrian Center for the second day of dressage competition at the 2017 USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Land Rover and Nutrena. Marilyn Little (Frederick, Md.) and Jacqueline Mars, Robin Parsky, and Phoebe and Michael Manders’ RF Scandalous currently lead the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Final Advanced division for the USEF Open Horse Trial National Championship by less than two points on a 27.8. Little and the 12-year-old Oldenburg mare have won their last three starts at the three-star level, including The Fork earlier this spring, which ran over the same cross-country track riders will tackle on Sunday.
“She was a little fresh today, a little more fresh than normal,” said Little. “It’s her first run back so it was exciting to get her back and she was very enthusiastic. The trot work wasn’t as subtle today as it could’ve been, but I was fully pleased with the effort she made with the canter and the changes were nice. It’s good to see them this enthusiastic . . . She’s in a bit of a transition phase and I think that we saw some of that today, but I think that in the next few months with her we can get that resolved and bring the impulsion in with the quietness that she lacks.”
“I’ve done a couple of schools with her, and I was quite shocked by how bold she was, how brave she is,” said Little of how RF Scandalous has been on cross-country since competing in her first four-star at Luhmühlen in June. “I’m hoping that she is going to be as rideable as I would like her to be, but there is a fine line because I also want her to continue to come out and say, ‘We got this!’ She’s really enthusiastic this week and I don’t want to take that away from her, and hopefully she continues to just let me drive.”
The only other pair to break into the 20s was Jennie Brannigan (Reddick, Fla.) and Nina Gardner’s 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, Cambalda who are sitting in second place on a 29.6. “It was an interesting preparation for this particular horse for this event,” said Brannigan, who just returned from competing at Millstreet International Horse Trials in Ireland. “This is Cambalda and he’s super, but I haven’t gotten a chance to really work on the test. I flew in and did a jump school and then came straight here. I didn’t get to go over any of the movements. I always seem to run him in CIC three-stars and I’ve only done that test once on him and it was at the Wellington Eventing Showcase, so I definitely felt like I couldn’t go in and completely nail it necessarily, but he’s such a good boy.”
Hot on their heels and tied for third place on a 30.7 headed into cross-country are Phillip Dutton (West Grove, Pa.) with Kristine Norton’s I’m Sew Ready, a 13-year-old KWPN gelding, and Jordan Linstedt (Duvall, Wash.) with her own and Barbara Linstedt’s 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding, RevitaVet Capato.
“It went okay today,” said Dutton of his ride on I’m Sew Ready. “I made plenty of mistakes and there are always areas that I can improve on, but overall he’s a good moving horse with a nice outline, so when things don’t go perfectly he does still get decent scores.”
“After such a great test at Bromont, and [with] his dressage getting better and better recently, the plan was definitely to go in and be very competitive, which he can be consistently,” said Linstedt, “Although coming from the West Coast is exhausting on the horses and riders, and I think that took a little bit of a toll on him. I didn’t feel like he was quite as bright or it wasn’t maybe my best test yet, but with the break that he had coming back after Bromont I thought that it was still a very fairly scored test, and obviously it’s competitive, so to be up in the top three . . . I’m thrilled.”
The Adequan USEA Gold Cup Final Advanced division continues with show jumping on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. EST. Cross country, originally scheduled for Friday, has been moved to Sunday morning beginning at 9:45 a.m. EST due to the approach of inclement weather.
For more information about the 2017 USEA American Eventing Championships, visit useventing.org.