Laura Chapot was the only one of 22 competitors to finish fault-free in the Devon Horse Show’s final jumper class, the $74,000 Idle Dice Stake, as a tricky interplay of light and shadow just before sunset foiled other attempts at a clear round
That meant there was no Saturday night jump-off at the show, which ends today with breeding classes.
Laura Chapot and Diarado’s Flying Dutchman. (Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer)
“The shadows do play a part. The Hygain fence, the second-to-last jump, really caught a lot of people,” said Laura. “I noticed coming to it, the sun was really glaring off that jump. I think that made it really hard, because it’s difficult for the horses to judge that,” noted the winner from Neshanic Station, N.J., who was aboard Diarado’s Flying Dutchman, a horse she has ridden for 18 months.
Second place went to the fastest 4-faulter, Stephen Bluman of Israel on Biblou du Perron.
Laura said her son of Diarado is not the typical, long-strided horse she usually ride, but rather, he’s “very bouncy, so it’s really easy for him to add strides”
During two previous classes in the Dixon Oval, where enthusiastic spectators always jam the rail, “he was a little bit backed off going down the sides of the ring by the crowd, so he was staring at them a little bit.”
“I knew coming to that one line that was by the crowd, I was going to add a stride to the combination, so he had time to really think there. I don’t know if anyone else did that, but it wouldn’t have been a normal plan for any of my other horses. I know for him he’s just so easy to bounce up a stride and then he has time to process the jumps,” she said.
“I think with him, my thought is to keep him thinking about what he’s doing and not getting overly excited. He’s got all of the ability to do it, he just has to take his time when he gets there.”
She noted, “He has so much adjustability, I know I always have to think about what’s the best thing for him, rather than my normal ride that I like to do. He really has a lot of talent and it’s just a matter of making it more consistent. When I got him, he really hadn’t done all that much. He’s really starting to become a lot more rideable and more into my style of going.”
She was complimentary about the work of course designer Olaf Petersen Jr. of Germany, saying he “always builds very good courses and I really enjoy them because they are very fair. They aren’t tricky, he just builds challenging things and questions to solve but there is nothing trappy.”
It was a good show for the Chapot family. Laura’s older sister, Wendy, was adult amateur jumper champion earlier in the week.
Laura many times has been leading jumper rider at Devon, but the honor this time went to McLain Ward. The Little Big Man trophy given for the open jumper championship is named after one of Laura’s best horses, and it too, was McLain Ward’s territory, going to his ride Contagious, winner of Thursday’s featured Sapphire Grand Prix of Devon—named in memory of his greatest horse.