World’s richest show jumping class ends an unusual horse show summer

Summer used to be a time of seemingly endless horse shows, week after week of grands prix and hunter classes in North America; big shows, smaller shows, take your pick. It was always the occasion for partying in the VIP area, seeing old friends, making new ones, picking up ribbons and prize money, buying and selling horses, the usual rites of the season.

But Covid-connected restrictions, rules and regulations changed all that. It became harder to find a show when such big names as Lake Placid. Spruce Meadows, the USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals and the Hampton Classic scratched due to the pandemic. Many of the smaller fixtures didn’t run either, unable to cope with the demands of offering a competition in these difficult times. Meanwhile, U.S. show jumpers couldn’t venture to Europe and the Europeans couldn’t come over here.

As the old song goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got, until you lose it.” The tune came out in 1961, when no one could have dreamed of what is happening now, but the sentiment really applies these days after so many things we took for granted have vanished.

Labor Day always would mark the unofficial end of the summer show season for exhibitors, who then started looking toward the indoor circuit and the equitation finals as they headed into the fall.  And now–the indoors?

This year, some classes from the Pennsylvania National and Washington International shows will be outdoors in Tryon, N.C., after an attempt to move them to Tampa, Fla., was scuttled. The National Horse Show in Kentucky announced last week it will have the use of outdoor rings and a covered arena as well as its usual home in the Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park. Outdoor venues are deemed less of a Covid risk, but they can be chilly at the end of October.

Last weekend’s HITS championship show in Saugerties, N.Y., however, is a survivor that didn’t take a step backwards. It dug in and offered what will likely go down in history as the richest show jumping grand prix of 2020, the AIG, with $500,000 in prize money, as well as six-figure purse hunter competitions and smaller classes with good prize money.

The Covid no-spectators rule meant only those involved with the show were watching in person, but anyone who was looking at the livestream also got an eyeful. The grand prix actually had international flair, attracting the world’s number one horse/rider combination, the aptly named Explosion W and his rider, Ben Maher of Great Britain, with shorter odds to win if you were betting than Kentucky Derby favorite Tiz the Law, who lost at Churchill Downs the day before.

But Ben and his glorious chestnut lived up to expectations in the field of 50 to take the top prize of $150,000 over another British rider, Amanda Derbyshire and Cornwall BH with a margin of more than five seconds in the jump-off. Both are based in the U.S., of course, so the travel bans didn’t matter..

Although it was only the second grand prix of 2020 for Ben and his mount, they demonstrated they still deserved all their accolades from 2019.

“Obviously, we’re in a different year; we’re not all going like we normally do in big grands prix week on week,” he said.

“I rode a bit of a slower first round by mistake and was just inside the time,” Ben observed. But he recouped during the tie-breaker, noting, “Everything went my way today and really made up for a long summer, as it has been for everybody.”

Amanda said she has never finished ahead of Ben and Explosion, but considering the elevated status of that duo, she was pleased enough with what she got.

“I’ll take second,” she said happily.

McLain Ward hasn’t shown as much as usual without Spruce Meadows and a European tour. But he flew in from the Traverse City show in Michigan for the AIG, in which he finished seventh on Noche de Ronda, noting that when he landed at La Guardia airport, “it was less crowded than Home Depot.”

He’ll be taking off again this week, as several others in the HITS lineup are doing, heading back to Michigan for the American Gold Cup.

Devin Ryan, who wound up 12th in the grand prix on Eddie Blue, was grateful to HITS President and CEO Tom Struzzieri for the chance to jump for big money.

“Tom’s always sort of had that niche to throw money at us. That can make it or break it for a lot of us,” Devin said.

“That money during the circuit gave us something to jump for regardless of amount of entries that showed up. That’s one thing that Tom’s always been good about is the prize money; he stood behind it.”

In the hunter ranks, Jennifer Jones took Highlighter to the honors in the $250,000 Diamond Mills class over Amanda Steege and Lafitte de Muze.

“She did the hunters for the first time this summer,” Jennifer said of the chestnut mare, purchased originally as a jumper.

“During Covid, we put the aluminum shoes on and turned her into a hunter and she loved it. She has a mentality more for hunters, she’s quiet, she likes to eat, she’s a fun horse,” Jennifer continued, noting she and owner David Raposa were pointing toward the Diamond Mills all summer.

“She’s done an amazing job,” Jennifer said of Highlighter. “She’s trying to do her best, she’s a great, great horse.”

After four rounds, her score was 364, with 358.50 for Amanda, who was all smiles after getting her ribbon and check.

As she put it in a tribute to her consistent mount, “Every day with you and every class we have together brings me so much joy!

“You are the most talented, driven, smart, powerful yet sweet, caring, humble guy I know. The amount of joy you bring to me, your owner, Cheryl Olsten, all of the people that know you is hard to describe.”

Amanda had a winner of her own in the $15,000 Green Hunter Prix with Niki Holtzman-Hayes’ PHIL.

“To know him is to love him and we are so thankful for the endless laughs and smiles he brings to the whole team,” she said.