The former runner-up becomes the winner at the Talent Search Finals

Luke Jensen was second last year in the Platinum Performance/U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East, but for 2023, the determined rider could not be denied the top spot.

The championship, which enjoys extra prestige because it is held at the historic U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone, N.J., drew 46 riders for three days of intense competition.

A working student for trainers Missy Clark, John Brennan and Maggie Gampfer at North Run, Luke’s junior days are behind him, but he picked the right way to end his equitation experience Sunday before going on to “step up to a higher level” and a career as a professional.

Riding at the USET Foundation made his victory even more important.

“I love coming to this facility,” explained Luke, saying he has “a great affinity for the history of the sport. I enjoy watching and trying to learn from what people have done before me. It’s very special to be successful here. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Luke, who last year won the Dover Saddlery/USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals, was second in the ASPCA Maclay and also owns a team silver from the North American Youth Championships, vied with Joe Craver, a Talent Search first-timer, for honors in the initial two phases, the flat and the gymnastics.

Joe, who rides with Stacia Madden at Beacon Hill, earned 91 points for each of the first two segments aboard Franco, while Luke was just a point away, on a score of 90 with Morgan Wilsberg’s Calina M, who is only seven years old but certainly was up to the challenge.

“She never didn’t answer the questions we asked,” said Missy, who initially heard about the mare from Christian Coyle and was so impressed she is in the process of buying her.

“I had a really good feeling about Luke’s partnership with Calina. Even though the mare is green and had never done equitation before joining our stable a month ago, I didn’t focus on that because it never entered my mind she wouldn’t do it,” Missy noted.

The gymnastics phase is often a deal-breaker for some riders in the Talent Search, but that was not the case this year. The course had been designed by judge Ronnie Beard and U.S. Show Jumping Coach Robert Ridland, who was supposed to judge but got sidelined with Covid after coming back from the Barcelona Nations Cup final by way of Paris to visit the Olympic venue at Versailles. He was replaced by his assistant, Olympic medalist Anne Kursinski.

“What we tried to do was make it so it wasn’t so trappy, so we could get a little bit of their style and how they would present things,” said Ronnie about the gymnastics, referencing some previous editions of the Talent Search.

“This time, the gymnastics were not so controversial, they were just very easily done. That actually made today (Sunday) much more important. It’s amazing how close a lot of the scores were.”

In the Sunday morning jumping segment, Luke moved up to a score of 94, but so did a fellow Texan and friend since childhood, Carlee McCutcheon, who had been marked at 85 in the first two phases.

Carlee, a member of the famous reining family, does both sports but is focusing on jumping going forward.

“I’d like to do this at the highest level and I’m ready to go to work for it,” declared Carlee, whose mother, Mandy McQuay McCutcheon, won the USET’s Rolex Talent Derby when she was a teen.

Noted Carlee, who plans to turn professional, “just having a family that is in the horse business makes a huge difference. It’s a big advantage for me. They understand what I’m doing, they understand the ups and downs of it.”

Joe, a high school senior from North Carolina, had a 92 for the morning jumping and Amira Kettaneh of New Hampshire, who is headed for the University of South Carolina’s riding team, was marked at 92.5 with the grey mare, Gossip SA.

Luke’s total after three phases stood at 413, while Joe’s was just two points lower. Carlee was on 400.5 and Amira, 403.8.

The water obstacle on the jumping course stood on its own going into a line, so riders had to catch it just right, yet it was not the problem it often has been in previous Talent Search finals. The time allowed was snug, but fair, and you could say the same for the deciding Final Four rounds, with a 60-seconds TA.

“All three phases asked questions that were going to improve the riders who participated,” said Missy.

The Final Four is the unique test that determines the top order of finish. It is modeled on the way it used to be done at the show jumping world championships, where the four best-scoring riders would take each others’ horses over the same course.

The world championships dropped the format, but it’s still alive and exciting at the Talent Search.

“To ride a horse for two minutes and prepare to jump a course, it’s tricky, but that challenge at the same time makes it my favorite part of the week,” said Luke.

All the riders, who started on a clean slate, did fine on the new, shorter course aboard their own horses. But when Amira switched to Carlee’s Chacco Star, she had a knockdown and a refusal, which added up to 8 jumping faults and 19 time faults.

Joe ran into trouble with Luke’s Calina M, also in the second round, having a knockdown at the third fence and a couple of tight approaches to wind up with a 4-fault total.

There were no other mishaps, but it was obvious that Amira, who rides with her mother, Leigh Kettaneh and Andre Dignelli of Heritage, would be fourth and Joe third, though he got a bonus when his mount, the perky gray, Franco, won the title of Best Horse of the finals.

So it was between Luke and Carlee, who is trained at Stonehenge by Max Amaya and T.J. O’Mara (a previous Talent Search winner).

There turned out to be just three points between them, with Luke finishing on 375 and Carlee on 372.  The mistakes by Joe and Amira were expensive; Joe’s total was 324 and Amira’s 310.

Ronnie and Anne were pleased by the way the riders performed.

“Overall, the level of all them was higher than it’s been in the past. I thought it was wonderful to see everyone handle the water much better than ever before,” said Anne.

“I also thought that they’ve learned to make the time allowed a lot better. There used to be so many more time faults and now everybody was being very efficient. That’s very important in today’s world with show jumping.”

To that point, a single time fault kept the U.S. from qualifying for the Paris Olympics during the Nations Cup final last weekend in Barcelona, with the team’s last chance to make the 2024 Olypics coming later this month at the Pan American Games.

The purpose of the Talent Search is just what the name says; to recruit talent for U.S. teams going forward.

Robert Ridland, who was finishing his Covid quarantine at a hotel by the Newark, N.J., Airport, watched the Talent Search on the livestream.

He said it “looked great, and succeeded in doing exactly what its purpose has always been…to seek out potential riders for future international teams.”

On Sunday, he “judged” while watching the competition on his laptop.

“I ended up with exactly the same Final Four riders and in exactly the same order as Anne and Ronnie pinned them. And Anthony (D’Ambrosio) did an excellent job as the technical delegate. Overall, it was a great Talent Search Final!”

Missy, whose students now have won the Talent Search eight times, appreciated the judging, noting “the whole event was overseen by two of the best. I really thought all three phases asked questions that were going to improve all the riders who participated here, whether they won or didn’t.”

Discussing Luke, she said, “he’s very understated. His compassion and genuine love for the horses always comes shining through, because the horses all respond to him in such a positive way.” He’s such a hard worker, she noted, that sometimes in the evening she has to tell him it’s time to go home.

Another of Missy’s working students, Callista Smith, won the Hollow Brook Wealth Management Sportsmanship Award.

Callista finished last in the Talent Search because her horse wasn’t quite right when he came out of the stall Sunday mornning, so she scratched. But she spent the rest of the day helping other riders.

“I can’t say enough about how awesome she is,” said Missy.

“She’s an incredible human being, the hardest worker, has the best attitude and disposition, is a wonderful student a complete team player and is always appreciative. She’s truly one in a million.”

The Talent Search Finals West in California last month went to Camilla Jerng, trained by Susie Schroer.

Click here for complete results of the Talent Search.