by Nancy Jaffer | May 24, 2023
Want to be part of an important competition’s success?
Dressage at Devon is offering many opportunities Sept. 26-Oct. 1 at the Devon showgrounds in Pennsylvania.
Opportunities involve being a scribe for judges at the breed and/or performance show, serving as a ring steward or assistant steward, becoming part of the show manager’s crew and a variety of other options.
There’s always a crowd to watch top riders during Dressage at Devon. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
In addition to the job experience, benefits include free admission (obviously) and parking, a collectible pin and mug, meals and snacks, training and supervision.
It’s always a good show. Think of being able to meet so many interesting trainers, riders and horse owners–not to mention horses!
For more information, or to register, click on this link.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 21, 2023
People keep asking me about the tragic situation involving nine thoroughbreds who were euthanized at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, beginning during in late April up through May 20.
More hard questions at another venue came yesterday, when Havnameltdown was put down after incurring a non-operable left front fetlock injury during a race on the Preakness undercard at Pimlico in Maryland, where the second leg of the Triple Crown was being contested. Ironically, this is happening as racehorse deaths in the country are at their lowest level since tracking them began in 2009.
Lisa Lazarus, who the sport horse world remembers as general counsel and later chief of business development and strategy at the FEI (international equestrian federation), now serves as CEO of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). She pointed out an important factor toward addressing the issue of horse deaths at racetracks is the fact that the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program resumes May 22 under the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU).
On May 12, Lisa issued an open letter explaining what HISA is doing about this heart-breaking situation. This is what she wrote:
“Our first priority is to support efforts to better understand, to the degree possible, the root causes of the deaths last week at Churchill Downs.
Here’s what you can expect from the team at HISA and our counterparts at the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) in the coming weeks:
The KHRC is leading an Equine Catastrophic Injury Review to investigate the circumstances of and potential contributing factors to each of the fatalities that occurred. The investigations are already under way, and involve, at a minimum, interviews with the horses’ connections and security personnel and review of the horses’ racing, training, veterinary and pre-race exam inspection records as well as video surveillance. This is in addition to the mandatory necropsies (the equine version of autopsies)that will be performed to further inform our collective understanding of the circumstances as outlined by HISA’s Racetrack Safety Program. All findings will be submitted to HISA upon the completion of the review.
HISA will conduct its own, independent investigation of each fatality to inform whether additional steps need to be taken. HISA’s investigation will include the following:
- A review of the records pertaining to each horse which died, including the necropsy report, Vets’ List history, past performances, exercise history, treatment records, pre-race inspection, and video records;
- A review of Churchill Downs equine fatality rates from the recent period, the same period the year prior, and the most recently concluded year; as well as training fatality data;
- A review of racetrack maintenance records, surface measurements, and testing data;
- Interviews with the Regulatory Vet, Attending Vet, track management officials, and other relevant third parties.
HISA’s findings, including the determination of whether any rule violations occurred to refer for potential enforcement proceedings, will be made public following the investigation’s conclusion.
The findings associated with these investigations will also be recorded and aggregated along with other industry-wide data for in-depth analysis to eventually establish a baseline for determining with greater clarity factors that may contribute to risk of injury.
While these changes take time and do little to address the immediate and pressing concerns we share as an industry, we have operational safety rules in place that by most accounts are making a difference. And soon, we’ll take another critical step toward an improved, more modern sport when the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program (ADMC) resumes on May 22 under the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit.
For the first time in the storied history of Thoroughbred racing, there will be one set of uniform, consistent rules across all racing jurisdictions. Under the ADMC Program there will also be greater efficiency for all participants and real consequences for those who seek to break the rules for their own benefit and to the detriment of the horses under their care. The rules also create a rational, fair system for adjudicating penalties and taking into account environmental and other accidental contamination.
There is no doubt that the combination of the Racetrack Safety Program and the ADMC Program will make our sport safer for the horses entrusted to our care.
As we move forward from this collective low, I hope it is together, united with a renewed commitment to what matters most: the safety of our horses and our riders. We owe it to them to get this right. And we owe it to them to do it now.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 20, 2023
The Essex Horse Trials is a celebration as much as it is a competition; a time for friends and families to get together and enjoy New Jersey’s countryside while watching a special sporting event.
A fixture that dates back 55 years, Essex gets under way at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone on June 3, with the dressage phase in the morning, followed by show jumping in the afternoon and early evening. The venue changes on June 4 to Moorland Farm in Far Hills, less than 10 minutes away, where the cross-country phase will take place all day over the hills and through the water. There are new tracks for the Beginner Novice, Novice and Training levels.
The water obstacle at Essex always draws a crowd. (Photo © 2022 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
Eventing fans will recognize many of the riders competing. They include Buck Davidson (whose parents, Carol Hannum and Bruce Davidson, also rode at Essex), Hannah Sue Burnett, Erin Sylvester Kanara, Caroline Martin and some local favorites, among them Meg Kepferle and Elle de Recat. There actually may be some more boldface names by the time entries close May 23.
Essex is a revival of a very adaptable event that has developed as required over the years.
It began out of necessity. When Essex was founded, the U.S. didn’t have much to offer in the way of three-day events That meant those who wanted them on the calendar had to do the staging. In the case of the first Essex, it involved clearing land, assembling jumps and digging ditches to develop a cross-country course.
It all happened during the spring of 1968 on the Haller family farm in Bedminster–not that anyone believed at the time they were building a project for posterity.
“We were more thinking about fulfilling a need,” Roger Haller remembered in an interview 24 years ago, referring to the fact that when the Essex event debuted at his family’s Hoopstick Farm on Lamington Road, there were few horse trials in America that could develop competitors in the European-dominated sport.
Sally Ike remembers going to the farm to help put things together, along with other members of the 1968 Olympic team, who had gathered in Gladstone before their departure for Mexico. She was at Hoopstick on the evening before the first Essex was scheduled to start, while Roger still was working on one of the fences. When she asked whether the course would be finished on time, he reassured her.
Sally Ike on Roxboro at the 1984 Essex Horse Trials. (Photo courtesy of Sally Ike)
” `Oh yeah, it will be ready,'” he told her, “and it was, and it worked fine,” she said.
Sally remembered that Jill Slater, a joint master of the Essex Foxhounds, rode in the first Essex on Knockbawn, a horse who also competed in the Maryland Hunt Cup.
“It was a very different group of people,” Sally reminisced. It was also a very different event. Essex at that time was a three-day event that ran “long format,” with miles of roads and tracks and a steeplechase in addition to the three phases that remain today. It was quite an endurance test.
Sally went on to win it herself in 1984 with Roxboro, one of her many links to Essex, which she also has served as a trustee and show jumping course designer.
Essex in its heyday could rightly be called an occasion. It had moved to the USET after it outgrew Hoopstick. but. the event was held at the Team for the last time in 1998, after much of the land needed went for a golf course. Its absence stretched for 19 years, until the revival at Moorland in 2017 generated excitement in the eventing ranks. Co-organizers Ralph Jones and Morgan Rowsell are devoted to improving it every year, adding the USET Foundation venue to the equation in 2022.
Guests in the VIP section at the USET Foundation during the Essex Horse Trials can watch showjumping as they party. (Photo © 2022 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
Shelley Page, a well-known eventing organizer, has never forgotten riding at Essex in its heyday.
“I did my very first three-day event at Essex in 1980-something and I won it,” recalled Shelley, who was aboard an Appaloosa named The Magic Dragon in the Preliminary section.
“It was huge. It was the event to go to, to do a three-day event,” she observed.
“I think it is so exciting that it is back at Gladstone and its roots. Morgan and Ralph and that team have done such an amazing job to bring that event full circle. They brought it back to life and brought it back home, so to speak.”
Essex is produced with the help of 100 volunteers, part of the community spirit that energizes the event as it evolves annually. This year, there’s a new Intermediate division, a notch above the Preliminary section that was the top segment last year. Running S Equine Veterinary Services has put up $10,000 in prize money for the Intermediate. Other major ESsex backers are Peapack-Gladstone Bank and PURE Insurance.
Additional sponsors include Turpin Realty, Sotheby’s and Open Road. Essex benefits the Life Camp in Pottersville, which provides an enriching summer day camp experience for 300 youths daily for six weeks during July and August. Campers between the ages of 6 and 13 come from the greater Newark public school system, as well as from Newark Charter School Programs. After orientation on June 4, campers will be coming to Essex for a picnic, sponsored by Aon insurance. The occasion will offer the kids and their families a chance to watch the cross-country.
For those who appreciate horsepower as much as (or maybe more than) horses, the Peter Chesson Memorial Car Show will run from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. June 4 at Moorland.
Admission is $20 per car. There will be vendors on the grounds at both the USET Foundation and Moorland, as well as four food trucks. A VIP cocktail party at the USET Foundation will be held during the show jumping. Tickets for the party are $100.
For more information, go to www.essexhorsetrials.org.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 19, 2023
A property in Hunterdon County, N.J., has been quarantined by the state Department of Agriculture after one horse developed equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM) and had to be euthanized.
The horse, an 8-year-old gelding, developed acute clinical signs of the highly infectious disease on May 12. EHM is the often-deadly neurologic form of Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) infection, however, it does not affect humans and other domestic animals, except for llamas and alpacas.
Temperatures of the quarantined horses are being taken twice daily to monitor them. The NJDA is tracing and notifying the appropriate parties regarding recent horse movement.
“The Department took swift action to prevent the disease from spreading to other horses by enacting a quarantine, which stops movement of horses in and out of properties and puts in place preventive measures to contain the virus,” state Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher said.
The EHV-1 organism spreads quickly from horse to horse and can cause respiratory problems, especially in young horses, and spontaneous abortion in pregnant mares. The neurologic form of the virus can result in death. The incubation period of EHV-1 is typically 2-10 days.
Clinical signs include respiratory disease, fever, nasal discharge, depression, cough, lack of appetite, and/or enlarged lymph nodes. In horses infected with the neurologic strain of EHV-1, clinical signs typically include mild incoordination, hind end weakness/paralysis, loss of bladder and tail function, and loss of sensation to the skin in the hind end. The virus spreads readily through direct contact with infected materials.
The virus is endemic in the country and while highly infectious, it does not persist in the environment for an extended period and is neutralized by hand soap, alcohol-based hand sanitizers and sunlight.
The NJDA Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory is available to assist veterinarians with the EHV-1 testing. For contact information, go to the lab website: www.jerseyvetlab.nj.gov. Concerned owners should consult with their veterinarian prior to taking any action as the clinical signs of infection with the neurological form of EHV-1 (EHM) are common to many other diseases. EHM is a reportable disease in New Jersey. If an owner has a horse exhibiting neurologic signs or suspects equine herpes, they are directed to call their veterinarian immediately.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 17, 2023
The wonderful folks at Equiratings, whose analysis always reveals new angles on horse sport, have a take we all should have come up with–but didn’t. They put all the statistics together and found that every major eventing championship since 2021 has been won by a woman. Oh, and all the reigning winners of Grand Slam 5-stars (Kentucky and Britain’s Badminton and Burghley) are women.
Julia Krajewski became the first female eventing gold medalist at the Olympics in 2021.
Start with Germany’s Julia Krajewski (Amande d’Bneville) taking individual gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the first woman ever to earn that title.
Then the unheralded British rider Yasmin Ingham (Banzai du Loir) ended up as World Champion last year. (And while it’s not in the same time frame, I remembered the 2018 and 2014 world champions, Ros Canter (Great Britain) and Sandra Auffarth (Germany) were also female.
World Champion Yasmin Ingham and Banzai du Loir. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Great Britain’s Nicola Wilson (JL Dublin) won the European Championship in 2021 as the third female titleist in a row (Ingrid Klimke is numbers one and two). Sadly, as we know, Nicola was badly injured in a fall at Badminton last year and “Dubs” has been taken over by Tom McEwen, second place at Kentucky last month.
Speaking of Kentucky, Tamie Smith (Mai Baum) became the first American since 2008 (and the first woman since 2011) to win there last month.
Tamie Smith was saluted by the fans at Kentucky last month. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Britain’s Piggy March (Vanir Kamira) took Burghley last September, the second female winner in a row (Pippa Funnell, another Brit, won in 2019, the last time the event was run before Covid.)
This month, we had Ros Canter (Lordships Graffalo) become the fourth female Badminton winner in a row, after Jonelle Price, Piggy March and Laura Collett.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 16, 2023
A new Judy Richter Trainers’ Challenge Class is being sponsored by the Fairfield-Westchester Professional Horsemen’s Association in memory of a remarkable horsewoman, who is recalled as “a dear friend of the PHA.”
A top trainer, author and mentor to many, Judy was celebrated at a memorial service Monday at her Coker Farm in Westchester County, N.Y.
The new class is open to professional riders with no restrictions on the size of the horse or pony being ridden. Horses may be rider-owned, or leased or borrowed, but show attire is required for the rider.
The class will be run at the PHA’s summer shows, and scheduled after the upper-level equitation classes. In addition, a championship class will held at the fall medals final show, which is being held at Kirby Hill Farm in Pawling, N.Y., Sept.10.
For this inaugural year, all who participated in this class during the season will be invited to compete at the finals.
Each segment of the new two-phase class counts 50 percent. The first phase will be run over a course of 3-foot fences and include two tests built into the course by the designer. They may include a trot jump, hand-gallop jump, and halting and backing. The second phase will be held on the flat,
Awards at the championship class will include the Judy Richter Memorial Trophy, champagne and other prizes and ribbons.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 15, 2023
Mai Baum. Miks Master C. Z. Off the Record. They are four of the top seven-placing horses from last month’s Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day event.
Now they’ve been named to the U.S. squad for the Aachen, Germany, 4-Star Short this summer, along with Ariel Grald’s ride,Leamore Master Plan, who did not compete in Kentucky.
Mai Baum and Tamie Smith on their way to clinching the Land Rover Kentucky 5-star victory with a clean round in show jumpping. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Why mess with success? It will be fun to see Kentucky winner Mai Baum go for another big win with rider Tamie Smith. Miks Master C was third with Liz Halliday-Sharp, Z finished fifth under the guidance of Phillip Dutton and Off the Record (the top placing U.S. horse at the 2022 world championships), will be ridden by Will Coleman. Will also has a direct back-up in Chin Tonic, 11th at Kentucky.
It will be interesting to see how these horses fare meeting a whole group of European competitors who didn’t come to Kentucky. We’d expect Germany’s Michael Jung to be among them.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 14, 2023
The home team scored an important victory in California Sunday afternoon, as the squad won the first Longines FEI Nations Cup of the USA ever held on the West Coast. It comes after a triumph in the Mexican leg of the Cup last month, and puts the U.S. in the lead for the overall North and Central American/Caribbean Nations Cup League, with one leg of the series to go in Canada next month.
“This is a crucial step for us to qualify for the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona,” said an elated coach Robert Ridland. Winning the league would give the U.S. a spot in the Nations Cup final in Barcelona this fall, and a chance to compete there for a berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“To do it in your home Nations Cup and for the first time ever on the West Coast is a very special feeling,” noted Robert, whose wife, Hillary, runs Blenheim Equisports which hosted the competition at the Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park in San Juan Capistrano.
McLain Ward was the only double-clear in the entire competition, handling Leopoldo Palacios’ demanding course with the effervescent Contagious, who was totally on his game. The U.S. had a five-point lead over Mexico after the first round. The home team ended the California class with 12 penalties over two rounds, to 17 for Ireland, 33 for Mexico and 42 for Canada.
In the overall League series, the U.S. has 200 points, Mexico 170 and Canada 150. Ireland, which already has qualified for Paris, is not part of the North American League (obviously).
McLain Ward and Contagious.
“We definitely said ahead of time we were bringing our A team. It was an amazing performance. All four riders on our Tokyo Olympic team were part of those Nations Cups,” said Robert, referring to both Mexico and California.
McLain observed,”I thought Leopoldo set a very challenging track. When I walked it, I have to say I was a tiny bit surprised at how big it was.But it’s a five-star Nations Cup. There are huge consequences to this qualification, and that’s the way it should be.”
Laura Kraut, like several of the riders in the competition, was aboard a horse making a first appearance in a Nations Cup on the Oaks International Grand Prix field. In the initial round, the 10-year-old Dorado toppled the plank that was the first part of the troublesome vertical/oxer double, but he learned from his mistake and his determined rider, enabling him to go fault-free in the second round, which was run over the same course.
“In the first round, he definitely was impressed,” Laura said of her mount.
Laura Kraut and Dorado. (McCool Photography)
“I agree with McLain that the course was much more difficult than I was expecting, and it caught me off guard.” Dorado, she conceded, “was a little bit shy from the first round, and he could have gotten smaller for the second round, or he could have grown. He grew and rode around beautifully, like he’d been doing it a long time.
The younger members of the team, Lillie Keenan (Argan de Beliard) and Karl Cook (Kalinka van’t Zorgvliet) each had four faults in the first round. Lillie’s came at the water in the first round and then at the plank in the second round. Karl’s four faults in the first round were at the oxer that followed the plank in the combination and at the plank in the second round.
The U.S. team of Karl Cook, Laura Kraut, Lillie Keenan and McLain Ward with Coach Robert Ridland. (Photo courtesy USEF)
The tight 76-second time allowed caught six riders. Michael Blake, the Irish chef d’equpe, noted that several more competitors might have jumped clear if they had two more seconds “but there wasn’t two more seconds.”
And at the point in the course where riders would have “liked to take a breather,” he noted, they were faced with the Longines fence, the biggest on the course, which he estimated at a bit more than 1.60 meters high.
The Irish had three clear jumping trips in the second round. Conor Swail on Cup newcomer Nadal Hero & DB, Andrew Bourns and Seatop Blue and David Blake with Claude all left the rails in place, though David had one time penalty. If he had been on time, it would have cut the U.S. margin of victory from five penalties to four, but wouldn’t have changed the outcome.
As Michael Blake said of the U.S. contingent, “They would have looked the favorite on the books” for those appraising the odds.
Kent Farrington, who was on the team in Mexico, will be back for the Canadian leg of the Cup with Lillie and Karl, as well as other younger riders, Lacey Gilbertson and Brian Moggre.
“We’re going to win,” Robert promised.
“We’re not going there to just survive so we can qualify for Barcelona. It’s really important after the year we had last year (when the U.S. did not qualify for Barcelona), that we put winning back in the equation.”
With this series, he commented, “Now we’ve won it twice; we want to win all of them.”
It wasn’t just the victory that impressed, it was everything around it, the stands crowded with exuberant spectators.
“What was so unbelievable about today,” Robert explained, “is any time you’re at your home Nations Cup, there’s added importance and excitement and energy. Those wins are always more significant.
“The fans here were absolutely amazing.”
He said it’s important “to bring in the entire country and not just the East Coast, but in a big way. feeling the energy today in California is something I’ll never forget.
“We have a very strong country in a whole lot of ways, but we have to use the whole country.”
Karl agreed.
“Growing up in California, the sport’s in a different location. Everyone talks about going East or going to Europe, and that’s what you hear the whole time you’re growing up. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that it would be great if the sport was also in California.
“So, it’s great to be able to show 45 minutes from home, and it’s great to have people who are local that I’ve grown up with to be here to see sport like this. I know it helps inspire the next generation. It’s just really important for the West Coast.”
While California hosted Olympic trials in 2004 at the same venue, Robert noted that was restricted to American contenders.
“This was an international event,” like the Cups that also took place in Madrid and Great Britain’s Royal Windsor this weekend.
“This was the most significant international jumping event on the West Coast since the 1984 LA Olympics,” he declared.
“This is part of the lead-up for five years from now, when the Games are back in LA. This was a huge thing for our country and the West Coast. to have those riders step up to the plate.
“They did exactly what we expected them to do. We took the `A’ team and split it in half, Kent, McLain, Laura and Jessie (Springsteen),” who were on the Tokyo silver medal Olympic team.
“These riders have just been amazing, everyone here this week and the ones in Mexico,” said Robert.
“They all jumped on board in December when I said, `Call to arms.,'” and explained the importance of qualifying for Barcelona.
“There wasn’t one single rider who said, `I have something more important to do.'”
And now?
“Our entire team is enjoying the moment,” he told me.
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by Nancy Jaffer | May 14, 2023
Remember when thoroughbreds dominated the ranks of show jumping and eventing?
It was only a few decades ago. But they’re practically non-existent at the upper levels of those disciplines these days, though there are a few, and they deserve recognition.
In the Olympics, however, the lineage of thoroughbred ex-racehorses was not recognized, and they were only listed as “breeding unknown.”
For the Paris 2024 Games, however, any thoroughbreds competing will be documented with their lineage in starting lists and results, and this will carry forward for all FEI competitions.
The new approach is the result of discussions and an agreement among the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation, the World Breeding Federation for Sports Horses, the FEI and the International Stud Book Committee.
The issue arose because under a Memorandum of Understanding between the FEI and the WBFSH, only member stud books of the WBFSH have historically been credited, and the WBFSH only has members that specifically breed horses for the Olympic disciplines.
Jessica Phoenix and Wabbit, a thoroughbred (Line of Departure-No Kissing) were 19th at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
The arrangement was welcomed by Paull Khan, Secretary-General of the EMHF (which represents the governing bodies for thoroughbred horseracing in 26 countries) and a member of the Steering Group of the International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses (IFAR).
Citing the efforts made to encourage owners of retired racehorses to explore second careers, he pointed out, “this recognition will both further the message that thoroughbreds do go on to compete with distinction in other equestrian disciplines and prompt more thoroughbred owners to consider this retirement option for their racehorses”.
Nadine Brandtner, general manager of the WBFSH added: “The WBFSH recognises the extensive influence the thoroughbred has had on sport horse breeding and development, and that undoubtedly the thoroughbred deserves recognition.
Citing current widely publicized concerns about the welfare of competition horses, she noted, “the initiative to encourage second careers for retired thoroughbreds is a vital effort to maintain the social license to operate. We believe that it is the entire equine sector that must stand together to face this challenge, and so it is natural that the WBFSH would support this”.
The FEI’s Director of Governance and Institutional Affairs, Francisco Lima, confirmed that this development carries the full support of the FEI.
Simon Cooper, vice-chair of the ISBC, added: “The International Stud Book Committee is delighted that Thoroughbreds will now be recognized for their participation and success in equestrian sports.
“Thoroughbreds have consistently shown that their athleticism, attitude and adaptability so often make for a successful second career in equestrian sports around the world. The ISBC’s 68 Approved Thoroughbred Stud Books across the world will be supporting IFAR, WBFSH and the FEI in promoting post-racing opportunities and ensuring recognition for these Thoroughbreds”.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation (EMHF) represents the governing bodies for thoroughbred horseracing in 26 countries –www.euromedracing.eu. It is the regional body of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) www.ifhaonline.org.
The main objective of the EMHF is to develop relations among European and Mediterranean Horseracing Authorities, to foster best practice in racing administration throughout the region and to represent Europe and Mediterranean countries before the IFHA and European Union bodies.
Further information:
Dr Paull Khan,
Secretary-General
paullk
by Nancy Jaffer | May 12, 2023
McLain Ward topped a field of 21 with Kasper van het Hellehof to win the $200,000 5-star Longines Grand Prix at San Juan Capistrano, Calif.
Only McLain and Mexico’s Jose Antonio Chedraui Eguia on H-Lucky Retto qualified for the jump-off. McLain’s time of 38.31 seconds topped his rival’s 38.31 seconds.
McLain Ward and Kasper van het Hellehof on their way to victory at San Juan Capistrano (Photo courtesy USEF)
It was Kasper’s first 5-star victory, and the fact he did it over a difficult course designed by Leopoldo Palacios made it all the more impressive.
“Leopoldo is one of the most seasoned and one of the great course builders in the world over the past two decades. He has a super feeling,” explained Ward.
“He didn’t have a huge class today and we do have the Nations Cup coming on Sunday, but there were some strong combinations and he had to build at a 5-star level.”
McLain is tuning up for the all-important Nations Cup of the USA, which will count toward the U.S. team qualifying for theNations Cup finals in Barcelona, Spain, this fall. The U.S., which has yet to for make the cut for next year’s Paris Olympics, could earn a place for the French Games in Barcelona, where one Olympic spot is on offer. But first, the team has to qualify for Barcelona.
“The most important part of this week for us is the Nations Cup,” McLain emphasized.
“We have to qualify out of our league, so these three Nations Cup – the first in Mexico, which we were successful at and won; here in San Juan Capistrano and then on to Langley (British Columbia). Our backs are against the wall. This is a must-do. I think all of the best riders and supporters of horses in our country are trying to come together and get this job done.”
Riding on the U.S. team this weekend with McLain is Laura Kraut, his teammate for the 2018 gold medal World Equestrian Games squad; Lillie Keenan and Karl Cook.
