Madrid, Spain – The U.S. Jumping Team concluded a two-week tour of Europe with a sixth-place finish in the FEI Jumping Nations Cup of Madrid CSIO3*, finishing the event with a final overall score of 16 faults. The team was led by Chef d’Equipe Anne Kursinski over the course of their two-week stay, with their first appearance coming at the FEI Jumping Nations Cup of Portugal last week before traveling to Madrid to contest the competition this week at the Club de Campo Villa Madrid this weekend.

The team in Madrid saw competitive rounds from Charlotte Jacobs (Aurora, N.Y.), Daisy Farish (Versailles, Ky.), Rebecca Conway (Wellington, Fla.) and Alex Matz (Coatesville, Pa.). As the trailblazer for the team aboard Edocenta, a 2012 Oldenburg mare owned by North Star, Jacobs secured a clear round within the time allowed to start the team off strong in the first round. The track, designed by Isabel Fernandez de Cañete (ESP), was set on a beautiful grass field featuring 15 jumping efforts and an open water jump.

“I think in these two weeks they’ve grown so much. It’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to do these two weeks back-to-back at such impressive venues,” said Kursinski. “It’s the experience of riding. None of these riders have been on a team before other than maybe at Young Riders and it’s their first real experience putting on the pinque coat. There were some first-time jitters, and that’s something they have to get under their belts to be better. Seeing their confidence grow over the two weeks, with the travel, the management, all of the aspects of being better horsemen and women on the road and adding in the team camaraderie component like going to the ring for each other is really special and it’s the true developmental aspect of it.”

Farish and Gerko, a 2011 Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Lanes End Show Jumping, were the second combination for the team to test the track. The pair dropped two rails, finishing their round with eight faults, with their eyes set on improvement in the second round. Conway and Con Coleur, a 2009 Hanoverian gelding owned by Blue Hill Farm, LLC, recovered from an early stop, to finish majority of the course before they were eliminated for a second stop at the final fence, but would be allowed to return for another attempt in the second round.

As the anchor combination and without a drop score available to the team in the first round, Matz and Cashew CR, a 2008 Holsteiner gelding owned by Dorothy Matz, took to the track, and added just four faults, after finishing in 75.05 seconds, to push the team forward to the second round on an overall first round total of 12.

Jacobs and Edocenta returned to produce a calculated second trip, barely rubbing the out combination of the two-stride to add four faults and a time fault after crossing through the timers in 80.55 seconds. Farish and Gerko made quick work of their second effort, producing a clear round, and stopping the clock in 75.75 seconds, with the pair executing a well-planned and efficient ride to produce the first clear in the second round for the team.

Conway and Con Coleur started off their second round with a forward ride, taking all of the inside lines around the track to produce the second consecutive clear round for the team after their earlier elimination. Finishing the round for the team, Matz and Cashew CR, produced one of the fastest rounds of the day, taking nearly three second off their first-round time, to cross the timers in 72.94 seconds and adding a single rail to their final effort for the team. Dropping the five-fault score of Jacobs in the second round, the team concluded the competition on a total of 16. The home country of Spain took the win, with Belgium finishing in second, and Ireland taking third.

Results

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