The highlight of the considerable jumping action in Wellington, Fla., last week was the Palm Beach Masters, a splendid fixture at Deeridge Farm that culminated in a riveting Longines FEI Nations Cup with a hard-fought victory for the home team.
The winning U.S. Longies FEI Nations Cup team of Margie Goldstein Engle, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden and Jessie Springsteen enjoy a champagne spray session with coach Robert Ridland. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
Amazingly, however, it was just one of three shows in the area offering jumper action. Meanwhile, a five-minute drive away from the Masters, the Winter Equestrian Festival showcased the hunters, with several surprises in the $100,000 USHJA/WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
As hunters dominated the action at PBIEC, WEF had its share of jumpers utilizing the Equestrian Village, home of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, where a national dressage show also was under way.
Down the road at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center, the Turf Tour offered jumper competition at lower heights for another group of participants. All this after we’d barely had time to take a breath from the previous week’s WEF marathon menu of eventing, show jumping and international-level dressage!
As 2016 Olympic show jumping course designer Guilherme Jorge pointed out to me when I mentioned (whined about?) the demands of this schedule, at least I didn’t have to deal with airplanes and hours of travel to attend everything. Good point. And anyone who didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to see such great competition if they were in the neighborhood, so to speak, really missed out.
Where do I begin to tell you about it all?
With the Nations Cup, of course, since it is the only qualifier held in the U.S. for the Nations Cup final that runs in Spain this fall.
Deeridge is the Jacobs family’s estate, where no expense is spared for its show series. The VIP area offers views of both the grand prix field and sand arena, along with an ever-changing buffet featuring lots of lobster, steak, stone crab claws and other delicacies. Naturally, there’s plenty of champagne to go with it.
The grandstands that were at the end of the ring last year were taken down in favor of picnic tables with overhead netting for shade from the sun. The idea, according to Lou Jacobs, was to make food service from the booths behind the tables more accessible, noting the stands were never full except on the Sunday. The venue always had a clubby feel, but this change definitely made it more intimate.
Di Lampard, the British team manager, marveled at the footing in the grass arena “like a magic carpet to walk on, let alone to ride on. It’s a fantastic venue to come to.”
The Brits had only a three-woman team, while the seven other squads competing enjoyed the luxury of a drop score because they had four members.
Even so, the British women were tied with the Irish men on 4 penalties at the end of the first round over the Alan Wade-designed course, where the size of the fences was emphasized over technical questions. The U.S. was tied with Mexico and Israel on 8 penalties at that point.
Oh, and there was a heart-stopping moment when Margie Goldstein Engle went flying off Royce after finishing her 4-fault trip in the first round of the Cup, as the stallion spooked at someone putting a plastic bag over a speaker to protect it from a rain shower.
Royce was on his own at the Palm Beach Masters after he spooked and unseated Margie Goldstein Engle. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
She was back on her feet quickly, but I cringed, because she had told me she fractured her sacrum and coccyx in a fall from Indigo last month. Margie is no stranger to injury, so she soldiered on and came back in the second round with a fault-free performance to match those of teammates Jessica Springsteen (RMF Zecilie) and Laura Kraut (Confu).
“She’s tough,” was the comment I got from everyone I talked to about Margie’s comeback.
The U.S. squad’s fate waited on Britain’s second-round effort. A fault-free trip from Amanda Derbyshire on Cornwall BH would have given that nation the title, but a knockdown at the second fence triggered a jump-off.
Beezie Madden, who didn’t have to go in the second round on Darry Lou because there were already three clean rounds for the U.S, was called into service for the one-on-one tiebreaker. Alexandra Thornton on Cornetto K represented Britain admirably, but her clean trip in 36.34 seconds was far off Beezie’s mark of 33.11.
Beezie Madden put the U.S. in the winner’s circle with Darry Lou. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
Beezie, who rode before Alexandra, explained her winning strategy this way: “I’d seen her do a few beautiful jump-offs with that horse. I wanted to really make sure I didn’t get beat on time. I didn’t want to be too cautious and have a rail or leave the door too wide open.”
Beezie also mentioned she is not officially retiring from championships after the Tokyo Olympics this summer, but she is going in a different direction to develop young horses.
On the other hand, she added about the championship question, “I’m not going to say ‘no’ if I have the right horse, but it’s not going to be our goal, our focus, so it’s probably not that likely. If you’re not that focused on it, the likelihood of it happening isn’t that high.”
A big takeaway from last weekend is that there certainly is remarkanle enthusiasm for show jumping. Exhibit A involves the full fields for all the shows here, as well as Youth Nations Cups at Deeridge.
“We’ve never had as many applications for spots on Nations Cup teams during my years,” said U.S. Coach Robert Ridland.
“The interest in the sport, the interest in the team, is higher than ever,”
A number of riders even jumped in shows at two different locations over the weekend. Notably Jessie Springsteen, who competed in the $213,300 Longines Grand Prix at the Masters last Friday, motored over to WEF that evening for a victory in the $137,000 grand prix a few hours later with her mare, Volage du Val Henry.
Jessica Springsteen went from being in the ribbons at the Palm Beach Masters Grand Prix during the afternoon to winning the WEF grand prix that night.. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
Noting it was a “busy” (understatement) week, Jessie said after her victory at Equestrian Village, “I actually wasn’t even going to show here and (instead) focus on Deeridge, but she (her mare) jumped so well the last week I decided to come back. I was fifth in the grand prix at Deeridge, so I was kind of coming off of that momentum for tonight.” She added that it “gave me a little energy boost.”
The Hunter Spectacular went for the second year in a row to Tori Colvin on Brad Wolf’s reliable Private Practice. But an anticipated showdown with 2019 WCHR Hunter of the Year Lafitte de Muze came to naught after he had a knockdown at the third fence.
Hunter Spectacular winner Tori Colvin with Private Practice. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
Tori called the class “a blast, because we are able to ride under the lights and in the International Arena. They don’t host many hunter classes in this arena anymore, so to be able to go back in this ring is a lot of fun.”
The runner-up was Californian Katie Taylor, who rode Gabrielle Sokolow’s Kindred for the first time that morning. Quite remarkable. She moved up from third after the first round to second place, but couldn’t surpass Tori’s 182.16 points with her total of 178.82. Still, she fulfilled a long-held ambition by riding in the Spectacular.
“I’ve always wanted to be a part of this class,” said Katie.
“We were going to send my horse out here for this but it was a lot to send him just for the week.”
So Katie needed a horse, and after taking 10 jumps with Kindred, she “just loved everything about him.”
McLain Ward and Noche de Ronda, who won grands prix twice in less than a week.(Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
That hits the high points of the last week, but here’s one other news note: McLain Ward and his wife, Lauren, today welcomed Madison, an 8-pound baby sister for their older daughter, Lilly. So that’s half of a future Nations Cup team right there.
McLain was a big winner all the way around this month, taking the WEF’s $401,000 Fidelity Investments Grand Prix Feb. 8, then six days later winning the Longines Grand Prix at Deeridge, both with Noche de Ronda. Congratulations are due all the way around!
