by Nancy Jaffer | Jul 1, 2021
“It’s always so hot for this show,” I heard a rider say as she walked her horse toward the ring during the Summer Days dressage show at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone yesterday.
Well yes, because it’s summer in New Jersey. Now if it were called Autumn Days, that would be a different matter.
“This doesn’t feel super, super hot to me,” said Technical Delegate Andrea Davenport, citing a “nice breeze,” but she admitted, “I might be a little bit biased because I live in Mississippi.”
It was impressive to see how riders and their mounts coped with temperatures that started in the low 80s and went into the 90s as things progressed at the two-day competition, presented by the Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association. There were a lot of faces glowing with both perspiration and smiles as competitors rode in the historic arena.
Even as temperatures soared, “The wonderful thing about this show is that there is so much history here that people still want to participate. We all strive to be at a place like this,” said show manager Lisa Toaldo, a dentist who is a former ESDCTA president.
“It’s one of my favorite shows to run. I love supporting the USET Foundation.” Lisa emphasized.
At the same time, she noted how grateful she is for all the volunteers. The show couldn’t run “if it wasn’t for them out here in the heat, taking time away from their own schedules.” In return, they get gas money, food and little souvenirs, such as an ESDCTA pin.
Summer Days is becoming a tradition on many calendars.
“We come every year. We love it. The footing is nice, the people are so friendly, It’s an honor, these are prestigious grounds with lots of history,” said trainer Kathryn Mills of Lucky Shoe Farm in Hellertown, Pa.
She had done a lovely running braid job on the neck of Bugatti, an unregistered Friesian who she suspects may have some Dutch harness horse in his ancestry.
Bugatti’s running braid job. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
After finding him as a completely untrained five-year-old, Kathryn handed him to her assistant, Emily Shewell, saying “Here’s your project. See what you can do with him. Five years later, he’s showing Fourth Level and doing some Prix St. Georges work. They’re planning on going to Dressage at Devon this fall.
Emily Shewell and Bugatti. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Bugatti, who earned 66.795 percent in Fourth Level Test 1, “is a giant teddy bear,” according to Emily, who says, ““He loves every person, every horse, every dog. He’s a sweetheart.”
Summer Days usually is held in July, when one suspects it could have been even warmer this year, but it was moved into June because the Olympic dressage, para-dressage and eventing horses were to quarantine in July at the Foundation stables before heading to Tokyo. That didn’t happen at nearly the last minute due to the lack of suitable flights to get the horses to Japan from the U.S. (they are quarantining in Germany instead) but the show went ahead with the new date.
With the heat, jackets were optional and there were some scratches, yet even so, the show wrapped up into the late afternoon as scheduled. Some classes were a competition among a group of horses, with as many as six entries. Others had only one entry, perhaps someone who wanted a judge’s opinion on the progress of their horse, or was using the show as a qualifier for the GAIG/USDF Regional Championships or the 2021 Col.Bengt Ljungquist Memorial Championship.
Alice Tarjan of Oldwick was looking to qualify for Regionals on Serenade, who earned 75.217 percent in the Grand Prix. The 8-year-old Hanoverian mare won the Lövsta Future Challenge Grand Prix in Florida this year and was the national 4-year-old champion early in her career. The American-bred Serenade was purchased as a foal from Maryanna Haymon in North Carolina; Alice has an eye for spotting equine talent in the youngsters..
Alice Tarjan and Serenade do their version of airs above the ground in the Grand Prix. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Serenade is so graceful in the arena. Alice agreed with me that if Serenade were a person, she would be participating in ballroom dance competition.
Last month, Alice finished sixth in the mandatory observation trial for the Olympics. Her ride for that competition, Candescent, is back in work after a break, but she hasn’t been in enough classes this year to qualify for the U.S. Equestrian Federation Festival of Champions national championships at Lamplight in Illinois next month. Alice is hoping she’ll get a wild card nomination for the competition.,
It’s always fun to see what exhibitors will come up with for their musical freestyles, and I had a feeling what Kim Herslow would do with the Lusitano Elvis HI in the Intermediate I to music. Can you guess? You’re right, it was a compendium of Presley’s hits.The best part comes at the end, with the announcement that “Elvis has left the building.”
That phrase often was used by announcers at the conclusion of Elvis’ concerts in order to disperse audiences hoping in vain for one more encore. The freestyle was put together by Boy de Winter of Music-Motions in the Netherlands, a musician Kim is bringing to her Upper Creek Farm in Stockton this September for a symposium with Linda Zang..
Kim Herslow and Elvis have “left the building.” (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Kim has been working with Elvis for four years and advises, “He definitely wants to be a player. We’re having fun out there.” She got a good score of 71.600 percent and is looking toward Lamplight and Dressage at Devon, as well as returning to Florida in 2022 for the first time in two years. After Devon, she wants to focus on moving up to the I-2 and the Grand Prix, “all in the right timing for him.”
As a Lusitano, he is a different ride than a warmblood, Kim pointed out.
“You have to understand how to balance them correctly. That’s the challenge with them because they’re so willing to do however you ride them and there’s a lot of movement. It took me awhile to learn with this horse,” said Kim, who has been riding him for four years and focusing on teaching him to use his core and back more without bracing his neck.
The array of breeds at Summer Days made me realize once again how any type of horse can adapt to and benefit from dressage. A case in point is Solasta, an off-the-track thoroughbred who got a very credible 69.583 percent in First Level Test 3 with owner Krysia Potter of nearby Lebanon. She got the 11-year-old for $2,500 when he was five, after.the Storm Cat grandson raced 42 times and earned $100,000.
Krysia Potter and Solasta. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Kryisa is the daughter of Pam Potter, a well-known New Jersey jumper rider from a few decades back. An amateur who sells insurance for a living, Krysia. says she’s primarily a hunter/jumper rider who is her own trainer. Solasta does all that (and eventing too), but for her side-trip into dressage, Krysia works with trainer Carolyn Laurent.
Of Solasta, to whom she has promised that he will never be sold, she said about his time in dressage, “He prefers to jump. But this is great for our jumping and it helps build everything else we need in between the fences.”
Krysia is going for a U.S. Dressage Federation bronze medal and would like to end the year at 1.15-1.20 meters in the jumping.
Fontenay, a Hanoverian by Furst Jazz, impressed the judges enough in the USEF Four-Year-Old test to earn a whopping mark of 86.2 percent, a big improvement over his still very respectable score of 71.300 they day before when he seemed a bit overimpressed by his surroundings.That was understandable, considering it was his first time being ridden at a show.
Katryna Evans and Fontenay. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The youngster is owned by trainer Cesar Parra, but he handed the reins over to his senior trainer, Katryna Evans, because at 58, he understandably doesn’t want to be sitting on youngsters.
“I’m getting too old to come off,” he laughed.
“I think this is the best horse I have had in my life so far. This is like the horse with a dream, the best I could find in the world last year.”
Cesar, a Pan American Games and Olympic veteran based in Readington, said the horse earned 9s in the walk and trot and 8.9 in the canter. He came to the U.S. just three weeks ago, but Cesar is hoping to take him to Lamplight “if he’s up to it.”
Four years ago, Cesar made a commitment to having Americans work for him. Katryna, a native of Colorado, spent six years in Germany and got a degree from Warendorf. “She rides like a German,” said Cesar.
For Summer Days results from day one, click here
For day two, click on this link
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by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 24, 2021
At 11 p.m. on a frigid December night, as far north in Germany as you can get without reaching the Danish border, Mary Gadek Bancroft and trainer Holly Payne Caravella found an exciting eventing prospect.
The conditions weren’t optimum for trying the eye-catching grey gelding. It was pitch black outside, where, inexplicably, someone was noisily banging on equipment, and there were only two fences, a vertical and an oxer, available in the indoor ring. Yet the Holsteiner they came to see had them at hello.
Holly and Charm King have rapport. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
“He looked like a big pony. There was just something about him,” Mary observed.
“He was cool. He had a great jump. He had a great attitude and was super athletic,” recalled Holly, who was pointed toward the horse by Francesca Pollara, the same agent who works with eventer Will Faudree.
“We took a little bit of a gamble on him because obviously, it wasn’t like we could take him cross-country schooling,” Holly pointed out. She had decided on making the visit after watching a video of him show jumping and while she saw 10 other horses on that quick trip to Germany in 2016, he was the real reason she and Mary got on the plane.
Meanwhile, the horse had enchanted them with his “overgrown pony” looks and winsome expression. Not for nothing was he called Charm King.
“He bats his eyelids, and people do anything for him,” observed Holly, but the 10-year-old gelding has the ability to pay back for the attention and bananas he gets. Last weekend, for instance, he went wire-to-wire for his first Advanced horse trials victory, when the field at the Horse Park of New Jersey included Olympians Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton, as well as several other big names. Also in the lineup was Lillian Heard, who had ridden Charm and done “an awesome job” when Holly took a pregnancy break before giving birth to her daughter, Harper, in January.
Holly and Harper. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
As Holly pointed out about Charm King “He lived up to his name, the most appropriate name for a horse I’ve ever had.”
His breeding is classic. He is by Cassito, descended from Cassini I, and out of a mare by the thoroughbred Heraldik, known as a successful sire of eventing horses. Heraldik’s name also appears in the bloodlines of Michael Jung’s superhorse, La Bioesthetique Sam, among many others.
Holly brought Charm to Aiken, S.C., in 2017, signing up for a Training Level event before taking him for a cross-country school. But she wound up scratching from the event, because introducing him to cross-country revealed he wasn’t ready for that kind of test in competition.
“He was so spooky. He was just over-jumping; jumping everything four feet in the air,” she explained. Worried that he would scare himself, she waited a little longer to compete Charm, training him to jump across fences and keep galloping, helping him learn to brush through the brush jumps, for instance, rather than launching himself over them. In September of that year, he won a 1-star in Virginia and two years later, topped the 3-star Short at Plantation Field in Pennsylvania.
A couple of times, Mary noted, Charm shut down on cross-country, “and it turned out it was all about allergies. He couldn’t breathe. It took a lot to figure out,” she said, giving credit to his team, which includes Dr. Greg Staller and farrier Sudie Donatasky, as well as groom Elle de Recat.
Holly rode her veteran, Never Outfoxed, while she was pregnant, and after she and her husband, Eric Caravella, welcomed the baby, she waited only until the beginning of March to get back into her job in earnest. She had tried to remain as active as possible in order to stay in shape through her pregnancy, and that worked.
“I think my first day back, I rode five horses. I was just going to jump back into it,” she noted.
That’s typical of Holly, 38, who comes from an eventing family. Her brother, Doug, is the traveling alternate for the U.S. Olympic eventing team with Vandiver. Growing up in Tewksbury Township, the two pushed each other to achieve, and were members of the Somerset Hills Pony Club.
The Payne family in 2012: Doug, Richard, Marilyn and Holly.(Photo © 2012 by Nancy Jaffer)
Their mother, Marilyn Payne, has been a judge at two Olympics and still competes at the lower levels, as well.as running a training business. Holly likes to say Mary knew her before she was born. Mary rode with Marilyn and spent time with Holly and Doug as they were growing up.
After Holly graduated from college, she began teaching Mary. Eventually, Mary bought into the Never Outfoxed syndicate. When Holly flew to England to do the Burghley 5-star with Fox, she stayed in a house Mary and her husband, Ian, owned there, where a conversation began about buying another horse.
Mary, a former president of the Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association, says Holly “has an incredible talent for understanding a horse, and they know she understands them.
“She’s very effective in telling them what she wants and guiding them. They look for it. She’s so one with the horse.”
Mary has had a chance to ride Charm, remembering the time she took him to the Somerset County Park Commission’s Natirar in Peapack for a gallop.
“It was the fastest I’ve ever gone, it was so much fun,” she said.
Holly Payne Equestrian is based at Hart Farm in Tewksbury, located just a few minutes from Marilyn’s Applewood Farm, where she lives with her husband, Richard. It was the always-knowledgeable Marilyn who asked Holly whether she would compete in the Horse Park’s horse trials. Holly didn’t even know the facility was having a June event. She had planned to go to the Bromont, Quebec, event this month, but it was cancelled due to Canadian Covid restrictions. Since the Essex Horse Trials in July isn’t offering Advanced, Holly envisioned a long break from competition until Millbrook in August. But the June horse trials filled the bill, especially since she had finished fourth in the 4-star Short at the Horse Park’s Jersey Fresh in May, so it was familiar territory for Charm.
Holly and Charm at the Horse Park of New Jersey. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Although he was fit, there was no opportunity to school cross-country beforehand due to a variety of circumstances. So when Holly walked Morgan Rowsell’s course on Sunday she thought, “I don’t know if this is the best idea. I kind of thought it would be a lot softer. It was kind of a move-up course; it was hard enough.”
They had no problem with the fences. All of the 26 entries had time penalties on the route, but Charm collected just 6.8 to add to his winning dressage score of 26.81 penalties. With no show jumping errors, they ended on 33.6 penalties to stay ahead of Buck Davidson and Cooley Candyman (35.9).
Charm will do the American Eventing Championships in August at the Kentucky Horse Park, where he will goAdvanced.
“You don’t get many opportunities to run on that terrain until you show up for the 5-star,” said Holly, who may do that Land Rover competition next spring if Charm is ready. But first, she’ll be at the 4-star Long at Morven in the fall with her ever-improving mount.
“Eventually, I hope he’ll be a team horse. That’s the idea. We’re trying to bring him along slowly and make sure he has a really solid foundation,” she said.
Charm is easy in some ways, and not quite as simple in others.
Holly and Charm show jumping at Fair Hill. (Photo © 2019 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
“He has a cheeky factor,” Holly advised, so in preparing for a dressage test, she always he’s the first horse Harper rode. He is a pet at home and you can put him in your pocket.”
Working him, she noted, is what “brings out the attitude. If you keep him in first gear, he just stays there.”
Holly/s strategy is to “keep him happy and confident. I think he has a big future ahead of him. He’s a very special horse.”
Whatever destiny is in store for Charm, he will always be loved.
“He’s game for anything. He’s just the sweetest boy, a total cuddlebug and a total cookie monster,” chuckled his groom, Elle, who also noted that he has grown in his competing role, becoming “a lot more confident and knowledgeable and self-assured.”
The best part, though, she said, is watching him with baby Harper.
“He immediately goes so gentle and Harper loves him,” continued Elle, speculating that Charm is “going to be her unicorn when she gets older.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Jun 12, 2021
The observation event for U.S Olympic dressage team hopefuls wasn’t officially a selection trial, but last night’s results in Wellington, Fla., yielded a clear indicator of who is on top–with no surprises.(Check out the On the Rail section on this website for the announcement of the team).
Adrienne Lyle won both Wednesday’s Grand Prix and last night’s Grand Prix Special to music on Betsy Juliano’s Salvino, earning more than 80 percent both times.Her score of 81.830 is an American record for the Special, ahead of Laura Graves and the now-retired Verdades, who clinched an 81.717 in 2018.
What really counts, though, is that scores of 80 percent and above are an important key to getting a medal in Tokyo, and in the process of getting her mark, Adrienne collected a bundle of 10’s for several movements, including piaffe and the passage-piaffe-passage transition.
Adrienne Lyle and Salvino
“I just wanted to be able to put in another solid test with him,” Adrienne said, explaining her strategy for the night.
“I had one of the best feelings I ever had in the warm-up. The piaffe-passage went super secure.” She noted there was a slight mistake after the first pirouette when Vinny sat so hard that he went to jump into the one-tempis down centerline.
But he quickly recovered and she didn’t stress about it.
“He’s only human,” she chuckled..
“He went right back to business. He’s the horse you want with you down in the trenches. I feel like if I start to slip up he’s there to catch me.” He came out feeling fresh and fit. That’s a huge test in this heat and humidity.”
The Special will be the competition that decides the team medals in Tokyo, while the Grand Prix determines only which nations go on to the key battle. To simulate the conditions in Tokyo as much as possible, the competition was held under the lights, and everyone dealt with temperatures in the 80s.The music for the Special is a new wrinkle, but it’s just background melody and has no relation to a rider’s score. It adds a little extra interest, but the freestyle will remain a more important vehicle for music and how the horse’s performance relates to it..
The selection of the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, usually the base for hunters and jumpers, provided a change of venue from the Global grounds down the street that are like a second home to the dressage horses during the winter circuit, so selectors could see how the horses reacted to a new venue. The VIP area at PBIEC drew a crowd of about 800, which was respectful during the performances and cheered enthusiastically as each competitor left the arena.
Steffen Peters also appears not only to have earned his ticket to Japan, but he did better in the Special with Suppenkasper than his more conservative performance on Wednesday, getting nearly 80 percent with a score of 79.532 for a personal best in the Special to finish second for owners Akiko Yamizaki and Four Winds Farm. Three judges marked him at more than 80 percent.
Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper (Leslie Potter/U.S. Equestrian)
“I really went for those extensions, that paid off…super honest, the changes were clean, really good pirouettes.” commented Steffen.
“You want a clean test, a reliable horse to go to Tokyo,” added the Olympic multi-medalist, who feels Mopsie can handle the conditions he will encounter there.
He noted, “I came around that last corner and said, `Let’s imagine we’re at the Olympic Games.’ Even today, I didn’t really have to push him.”
He switched places with Wednesday’s runner-up, Sabine Schut-Kery and Alice Womble’s Sanceo, who was consistently close to her Wednesday score of 78.978 with a 78.298, also a Special personal best for her. She was wearing the lucky tailcoat of Ali Brock, who rode in it on the bronze medal team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Sabine Schut-Kery and Sanceo (Taylor Pence for U.S. Equestrian)
So if all goes well when the horses are vetted, that would be the three-member team for Tokyo (I’m not a selector, but it’s pretty obvious.)
U.S. Equestrian Federation Dressage Technical Advisor Debbie McDonald was thrilled by the way things went during the event.
“I can’t even tell you, I’m super excited. I think we’ve got three extremely strong horses, very capable of going over 80 percent. I don’t think we ever had this kind of depth before. I think it’s exciting for U.S. dressage to have this happen right now,” she said.
Originally, the team candidates were slated to go to Europe during the late spring, but the Herpes outbreak there cancelled that concept and this was a very fortunate Plan B.
“ I think it was the smartest thing we ever could have done. I don’t think any other country has been able to duplicate what we have,” she said, referring to the heat and humidity.
“Hopefuly, when we get there, it’s going to pay off. By the time we get to Tokyo, watch out!”
There is also a spot for a traveling alternate, which should go to Nick Wagman on Beverly Gepfer’s Don John. As was the case on Wednesday, he finished fourth, but improved on his 75.652 percent Grand Prix score with a bold ride that left him all smiles as he netted 76.043 percent. The alternate spot is important, because there is a provision for substitution if necessary at the Games.
Olivia Lagoy-Weltz finished fifth as she did on Wednesday, a touch ahead of her Grand Prix score with 75.170 percent on Rassing’s Lonoir, owned in partnership with Maryann Macphail.
Alice Tarjan of Oldwick was sixth once again with her own Candescent, a striking black mare with an impressive front leg reach, but her score suffered due to a break in the extended trot. She still had a very respectable 73.404 for her first time in contention for an Olympic berth, less than 1 percent behind her Wednesday Grand Prix mark and remained a standout in the field of 14.
The heat, humidity and bright lights didn’t faze the ebullient Candescent.
“That horse is a war horse,” observed Alice.
“I was thrilled with her. She was fantastic all week and she really rose to the occasion. The horse really liked it much better than Global somehow. She was much more settled. It’s a bigger showgrounds. You can hack around during the day. She definitely was happier there.”
The event demonstrated that the 11-year-old Hanoverian mare is on the way to reaching her potential.
“All season, it was like you get glimpses of what you could have, but you could never put it together. But this week, I thought she put everything together a little bit, so that was really exciting,” said Alice, an amateur who often selects her horses as youngsters from videos and brings them up the levels herself.
Six American horses are set to go to Europe for pre-export quarantine before the team and alternate head to Tokyo. Although Candescent was sixth in the observation event, Alice noted there will be more to the decision about which horses go abroad than just what happened at PBIEC. The horses in the top six who do not go to Japan could ship back home or “stay on in Europe for competitions if that is part of their plan,” according to Hallye Griffin, the USEF’s managing director of dressage.
Alice Tarjan and Candescent
Alice hasn’t shown in Europe, but she isn’t expecting anything in terms of being included on the trip, pointing out some other riders are ranked ahead of her in the big picture of the selection procedures and their horses have more experience in CDIs than Candescent.
What means the most to her now is how the event demonstrated that Candescent is on the way to reaching her potential, though her owner emphasized, “I’m not in a rush.”.
“All season, it was like you get glimpses of what you could have, but you could never put it together. But this week, I thought she put everything together a little bit, so that was really exciting.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 9, 2021
Just call him Champ.
Boyd Martin completed his sweep of the two U.S. spring eventing championships today at the Jersey Fresh International Horse Trials, where he came from behind in the 4-star Long on Luke 140 to win the division, taking the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation National Challenge Trophy for that level. At the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, where he finished fourth aboard On Cue as the highest-placed American two weeks ago, he claimed the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s national 5-star title.
Boyd Martin and Luke 140 over the Jersey Fresh International logo fence on their way to victory. {Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer}
Jersey Fresh, presented by B.W. Furlong and Associates, was the last of the U.S. Olympic observation and selection trials, so now selectors can get to work deciding on a team and alternates who will be announced at the end of this month or the beginning of June. It’s possible Luke,a 10-year-old Holsteiner, may have earned himself careful consideration with an impressive performance; the fact that he’s young could also be a help in the sweltering heat and humidity of a Tokyo summer.
“He’s fit and sound and I don’t think this has knocked him around at all,” said Boyd, who is sixth in the world eventing rankings.
Boyd blamed himself for not enabling Luke to have a better score than the 32.4 penalties he collected at the Horse Park of New Jersey.
On cross-country, where Boyd incurred 6.4 time penalties for finishing 16 seconds over the 10-minute optimum time, the 41-year-old rider conceded, “I could have pushed him a bit harder. I had a horse that was full of energy and wish I took more chances. I set up a little bit too much at a few of the fences.”
Boyd and Luke on cross-country. {Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer}
At the same time, he said, “I don’t think the run took anything out of him, and he just pranced out of his stall this morning like he hasn’t done anything.”
Luke, who was standing third coming into the final phase, had only 0.4 time penalties in show jumping, where Boyd noted he added an extra stride between the second and third fences. But the horse performed superbly.
“Something in his DNA just pings him up into the air,” Boyd observed.
“My job’s just to keep him relaxed and remember the way. and he pretty much jumps clean every time. He’s an awesome horse to have after a grueling cross-country.”
The Chris Barnard-designed show jumping course was “big and technical,” said Boyd, noting the degree of difficulty was increased with a tight time allowed and because “the ground’s a bit shifty.”
Double-clears in show jumping were achieved by only three of the 41 horses who started today, whittled from the original field of 55.
Brendan Furlong of presenting sponsor B.W. Furlong and Associates gives a giant check for $5,000 to Boyd Martin. He probably won’t be able to deposit that through the drive-thru window.
Going into that final segment, the division’s leader was Californian Tamie Smith. She won the dressage on Danito, with En Vogue second; then the horses switched places after cross-country.
Earlier in the day, Tamie won the 3-star Long with the interesting Argentine-bred Solaguayre California, and she looked to be a favorite for collecting another blue ribbon with one of her mounts in the 4-star Long.
But Danito had two rails down and 1.6 time penalties, putting him fourth on 41.5 penalties. Things went even worse for Tamie as the competition drew to a close, Last to go with En Vogue, she had three rails and 0.4 time penalties to finish third on 39.5 penalties.
Asked why En Vogue had her rails, Tamie said, “I think she tried her guts out yesterday and I think it’s hard when you’re not on super-great ground.”
On show jumping footing like the fluffy mix at the Kentucky Horse Park, she said, “They can really trust that the ground feels good when they’re landing.”
Tamie Smith and En Vogue. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
This afternoon, it was “a little stingy after they ran 10 minutes (on cross-country),” she pointed out, while adding En Vogue’s show jumping can be “hit or miss.”
The Horse Park has been trying to raise money for more modern footing, but in lieu of that at this point, the base has been redone and they had a footing expert on hand to make the grand prix ring’s surface as hospitable as possible.
Tamie kept things in perspective, noting she still was pleased with her finish.
“Five years ago, I would have been doing backflips to have two in the top five at a 4-Long; my expectations have just risen a little bit,” commented Tamie, who believes (and I think righrly so) that she is the only grandmother to have completed the 5-star course at the Kentucky 5-star. Her daughter, Kaylawna, presented her with a granddaughter, Kennedi, five months ago.
Second place in the 4-star L went to the horse who bested En Vogue in Kentucky’s 4-star Short, Oskar, ridden by Jersey Fresh regular Alyssa Phillips. His score was 38.5, including 4 penalties for a pole down.
Alyssa Phillips and 4-Star L runner-up Oskar. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
“He jumped phenomenal, and I couldn’t have asked him to be better,” said Alyssa, who hopes to try another 4-star L with him this fall.
“The cross-country course was more technical than it walked. He learned a lot after yesterday and he came out today and jumped really well.”
The weekend was a highly successful one for Jersey Fresh, which was cancelled last year because of the pandemic. (Click here to see coverage of cross-country at Jersey Fresh.)
When the U.S. Equestrian Federation eased its Covid protocols and decided to permit fans to attend shows, the event hopped right on it and got a great tailgating crowd for yesterday’s cross-country over a route designed by Morgan Rowsell, who had advice from the competition’s former course designer, Mark Phillips. Morgan also served as co-organizer with Jane Cory.
Adam Furlong, president of the Horse Park board, noted when he was asked for his thoughts on the success of the 2021 Jersey Fresh, “Last year was a really tough year for every person on earth, so you have to keep it in the context of thinking about that.”
Although the park had to be closed down for a couple of months in the spring of 2020, Adam noted, that after that, everyone was happy just “to be able to reopen the Horse Park last year and run events successfully, albeit with very restrictive protocols, It was a tighten-your-belt kind of year.
“This is a great sense of relief and seeing the other side of the finish line, returning back to normal,” he continued, citing how good it felt “having spectators here and the enthusiasm for it.
“Everything we do here is rider- and horse-focused, so to see so many (horse) trailers here is the ultimate stamp of approval from the riders. We’re very grateful for them coming back this year, and the sponsors coming back as well.’’ In addition to B.W Furlong and Associates they also include Zoetis and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The Horse Park will be hosting another event June 19-20, featuring Beginner Novice through Advanced.
by Nancy Jaffer | May 8, 2021
You might have thought the 4-star Long competition at the Jersey Fresh International Three Day Event could be a rematch between Tamie Smith on En Vogue and Alyssa Phillips with Oskar, who overtook Tamie’s lead from dressage and cross-country in the show jumping phase of the 4-star Short at last month’s Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event.
Tamie Smith and En Vogue lead the 4-star Long at Jersey Fresh. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
But after today’s cross-country at the Horse Park of New Jersey, it looked like Tamie vs. Tamie. Danito, who was first after dressage, had eight time penalties over Morgan Rowsell’s course, while En Vogue collected only 2.8 time penalties.
“I couldn’t have asked them to be better, they were really amazing,” said Tamie.
“Danito is a little green and I started off a bit slower and just gave him time to get into the rhythm of the course. I was able to kick it up a couple notches throughout. If I could have come out of the box straight away like that, he could have been really close to making the time.”
En Vogue has 27.1 penalties total, while his stablemate is on 31.9. And could Boyd Martin be any closer with Luke 140? That’s mathematically impossible, because his mark is 32.
Boyd Martin is a picture of determination on Luke 140. Look at his expression! (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The division, which is an Olympic selection trial at the event presented by B.W. Furlong and Associates, drew an amazing 55 starters. It ends this afternoon with show jumping.
But don’t count out Phillip Dutton on Sea of Clouds who made a meteoric rise after dressage, where he was tied for 29th, when he finished 14 seconds under the optimum time of 10 minutes on cross-country. Now Phillip is tied with Karl Slezak on 33.6 in fourth place. Anyone watching Phillip could see he was really booking it. He was annoyed that a glitch in the start box for the Kentucky 5-star left him with 5.2 time penalties on Z, putting his eighth, so at Jersey he made sure nothing like that would happen again.
Phillip Dutton poured on the speed with Sea of Clouds to move up 25 places after cross-country at Jersey Fresh. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Tamie also leads the 3-star Long at Jersey with Solaguayre California (26.7) while Phillip is right behind her on Quasi Cool with 27.4.
The finals of that division will also play out tomorrow, but two sections wrapped up today. The 4-star Short went to Elisabeth Halliday Sharp and Cooley Moonshine, (32.8), a 9-year-old in his first 4-star season, with Boyd one penalty behind on Long Island T, who rerouted after a cross-country fall in the 5-star at Kentucky.
Liz Halliday-Sharp and Cooley Moonshine won the 4-star S. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The 3-star Short went to Cosby Green on Buck Davidson’s former rider, Copper Beach (33.2).
Check back to this website tomorrow for details on the competitions that are doing their show jumping on Mother’s Day.
Spectators are welcome at the Horse Park, with tickets available at the gate. There was a great crowd today–how refreshing to see people enjoying the outdoors, tailgating and spending time with friends. Kentucky was not allowed to have fans attend under U.S. Equestrian Federation Covid protocols, and it left a big hole in the proceedings.
Local New Jersey favorite Holly Payne Caravella was fourth in the 4-star Short with CharmKing. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Morgan was understandably happy with the huge entry, especially since the competition was cancelled last year because of Covid.
“People trust us with their valuable horses and their horses that they potentially are trying to get ready for Tokyo,” said Morgan.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more. The footing is great and the rain didn’t come and everybody’s riding well and the frangible pins are keeping people out of trouble. We’ve got some vendors, a lot of parking spots are full, that’s what we like to see. It sets us up for next year.”
by Nancy Jaffer | May 3, 2021
She was meant to be an eventing horse, or perhaps go out in the hunt field. But once Candescent’s potential was glimpsed by Alice Tarjan, it was obvious that neither of those destinies would be in the mare’s future.
The four-year-old Hanoverian Alice imported from Europe after viewing a videotape obviously was going to be a dressage horse, her new owner realized almost immediately.
Alice and Candescent. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
“As soon as she came off the plane and left quarantine, it was like, `Oh my gosh, the horse is a freak.’ She’s super scopey.”
Seven years later, Alice and Candescent have been put on the short list for the U.S. Olympic squad in their discipline.
A total of 12 riders were named with 15 horses. They include Adrienne Lyle with Salvino, number one in the standings (Adrienne was also named with Harmony’s Duval); multi-medalist Steffen Peters and Suppenkasper, number two; and Olivia Lagoy-Weltz with Lonoir, a prospect she trained up from Third Level. Others on the list are,Sabine Schut-Kery and Sanceo, who, like Candescent, is a horse the rider has brought along through the ranks and Nick Wagnman, who has two horses on the roster, Don John and Ferano.
Candescent was ranked number 13, and with Alice, is number 395 in the FEI (international equestrian federation) standings, having made a huge leap up the ladder from number 545 last month. See, Candescent can jump after all!
While Alice is under no illusions that she’ll be heading for Tokyo to ride with the flag on her saddle pad, there are plenty of big competitions on the horizon to point toward, including the world championships in Denmark next year and the Paris Olympics in 2024. Meanwhile, she’s looking forward to the mandatory outing for the short list riders in June at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Club in Wellington, Fla.
Alice and Candescent have established a close relationship during years of training. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
“It’s definitely fun to have made the list. What an honor to be listed with all those people. Almost everyone on that list is a team rider,” noted Alice, who has never been on a team.
Candescent’s selection is a tribute to her owner’s patience and skill, since she is “not so easy to bring along. She’s a special one, I’ll say that,” Alice noted.
“She’s a bull on the ground, she’s a bull under saddle. They call her `the monster horse’ for a reason. She has no respect for people or anything basically,” Alice recounted.
“She just does what she wants.”
When Alice first saw the mare on the video, she was intrigued. Candescent is by Christ 3, who has produced jumpers as well as dressage horses.
“I wanted a horse that was black with four white socks,” explained the Oldwick resident, “and it’s not easy to find a jumper that is black with four white socks. Her immediate thought was, “Maybe it could jump.”
The mare’s coloring is a throwback to Alice’s childhood pony, Licorice, black with four white socks, and so she has a fleet of black horses with white socks, as we’ve recounted her fixation here previously.
Candescent’s talent has been impressively on display for several years. In 2018, Candescent and Alice won both the amateur Intermediate A and B competitions during Dressage at Devon, then went on to take the A and B classes at Devon the next year.
In 2019, Candescent had three straight victories in the U.S. Dressage Federation Championships in the amateur grand prix category. She won the USEF Grand Prix National Championship in Illinois last year, and this year, highlights included a win in the Grand Prix Special in Wellington last month.
Candescent missed an April outing at the new World Equestrian Center in Ocala when she sustained a cut requiring stitches in a trailer mishap, but Alice had planned to rest her for a while anyway. She’s back home in New Jersey now, before heading for Florida again.
Alice is looking forward to the mandatory short list outing, and competing under the lights in a new venue. During the Florida season, the horses show at the Global grounds, about a half-mile from PBIEC. Happily, Candescent isn’t put off by a new location.
“She doesn’t get bothered by a lot,” said Alice, who works with trainer Marcus Orlob of Annandale.
“It will be fun to do, and interesting to see how it plays out.”
Candescent at the dressage championships. (Photo by Susan J. Stickle)
Alice was intrigued by the fact that she was a member of the Somerset Hills Pony Club when she was growing up, as was Devin Ryan, the only New Jerseyan on the Olympic show jumping shortlist, where he was named with Eddie Blue. Now Alice is waiting to see if Doug Payne, who also belonged to the club and used to help her with Licorice, will be named to the Olympic eventing short list. He was 12th at the Land Rover Kentucky 5-star last weekend with Vandiver, but the fifth-best American (foreign riders filled seven spots in the top 12.)
While Kentucky was a U.S. Olympic selection trial, there’s one more test in that category before the short list is named. It’s the Jersey Fresh International Horse Trials, which gets under way Thursday at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown. Read more on this website in the story below, or at this link.
