Wet weather and muddy conditions couldn’t keep a determined Jan Byyny from riding two gritty cross-country rounds and propelling herself into first place aboard Task Force and second place with Waterfront in the Jersey Fresh CCI***, May 31-June 4, Allentown, N.J.

Byyny had planned to ride Task Force, a 14-year-old, Australian Thoroughbred (Blue Vein–Chicola Craft), at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** five weeks earlier, but a schooling accident prevented them from going.

“He was playing and slipped in the last jump school,” said Byyny. “He hyper-extended his shoulder.”

Although they finished the jump school, the next morning he was dead lame. It turned out that he’d pulled all the muscles in his shoulder.

“He was really close to being sound before Rolex, but he had a terrible shoulder injury to the other shoulder [in 2002],” said Byyny. “I was afraid of ruining him, so he just had a week of hand-grazing.”

But Byyny, Purcellville, Va., wasn’t ready to give up her dream of competing in the World Equestrian Games, so she headed out to Jersey Fresh with “Jedi” and Waterfront.

Byyny was in contention from the beginning, scoring 45.4 points for third place with Jedi behind Darren Chiacchia on Windfall (39.3) and Mara Dean on Nicki Henley (40.9).

But Jersey Fresh would turn out to be an old-fashioned cross-country competition, not a contest of dressage and show jumping. Although John William’s course was slightly ramped down from last year, there were still plenty of tricky elements to keep riders on their toes.

There was also the weather to take into account. For weeks the ground in the mid-Atlantic region has been rock hard because of an unusually dry spring. But on Thursday night the heavens opened in New Jersey and the course was soaked.

Then it rained again all night Friday, and forecasters started to warn of flooding and major storms on Saturday. Riders and organizers alike began to wonder if cross-country might need to be pushed back to Sunday to avoid the worst of the weather.

So when Saturday dawned foggy and humid, but not raining, the show went on in typical eventing fashion, and riders knew they were in for a muddy day. It didn’t help when the rain sluiced down once again over the lunch break. Byyny, 38, set out as the second rider on the three-star track with Waterfront, a 10-year-old English Thorough-bred by Kuwait Beach. She took advantage of their early ride time to come home clean with the fastest cross-country time in the division, 32 seconds over the optimum time.

“Waterfront is very competitive and very cheeky,” said Byyny. “Everything is very easy for him. He doesn’t feel fast, but he’s a relaxed galloper with a big stride.”

But her real test came at the end of the day when she had to ride the same course in muddier, chopped-up ground. Although ground crews worked tirelessly to keep the footing in good shape, 40 horses coming through had taken a toll.

“The conditions were much harder for my second horse. The footing was deeper and more slippery,” said Byyny. She praised the organizers for deciding not to aerate the course beforehand as some riders had re-quested when the ground was still hard.

Still, she prevailed and turned in the second-fastest time of the day with Jedi, moving herself up into first place. Waterfront moved up to second from 14th with his speedy round.

Many of the three-star horses looked exhausted by the end of the course, but Byyny felt that both her horses were fit enough for the test.

“I still had acceleration up the hill with both horses [after the last water],” she said. “The footing takes a lot out of them. I wasn’t going for time, but I wanted to give them a confident ride. I tried to stay in one lick, keep them comfortable.”

The last time Byyny rode Jedi in similar wet, sticky footing was at the Burghley CCI**** (England) in 2004. They had a frightening crash at the next-to-last fence, and Jedi broke four ribs, punctured a lung and fractured his pastern. So she was a bit relieved to make it through this time without incident.

But they didn’t come home unscathed. “Jedi hit a post with his hind foot,” said Byyny. “He had a big laceration on his right hind pastern. We put staples in last night and then took them out because they were causing him pain. He just laid down and made himself comfortable.”

The ground jury held Jedi at the third horse inspection to examine his wound, but when he trotted up sound they let him go on to show jumping.


And The Rails Came Down
The effects of the heavy footing were perhaps most visible in the show jumping. Horse after horse pulled rails as they jumped around without their usual vigor over Sally Ike’s course.

Only three horses in the three-star jumped clean, and of those three, only two did it without time penalties. Eight horses of the 25 who show jumped had four or more rails down.

But Byyny managed a clear round with Waterfront and insured that she would win with one of her horses. Jonathon Holling jumped the other double clear with Direct Merger.

By the time Task Force went, Byyny had a reasonable cushion, so the rail down and 2 time faults couldn’t keep her from her long-awaited victory.

“I’ve never won a reasonably big event before,” she said, grinning. “This sport is a long, steady road. I’ve just been at it; I have good horses, good coaching and a great support staff. I finally put all the pieces together this weekend. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

Byyny credited her coach Phillip Dutton, as well as Karen and David O’Connor, for all they’ve done to help her. She also thanked the team selectors who encouraged her to do whatever she needed to prepare for the WEG after she missed her run at Kentucky.

“The selectors told me to do what I thought was best,” said Byyny. “It was great not to compete in Kentucky and come here and win. It was the preparation that I needed.”

Byyny plans to ride Task Force at the mandatory outing for the WEG team selection on July 18 at the New Jersey Horse Park. If she isn’t chosen to ride on the team, then she hopes to return to England and try her luck at Burghley instead.

Bonnie Mosser also has her eye on England after a superb go in the three-star with Close The Deal. The pair finished third to Byyny.

“There’s not a jump out there he won’t jump,” said Mosser after her clean cross-country ride moved them up to third. She hopes to take “Bob” to Blenheim or Burghley this fall.

She just started riding Bob last fall after his owner, Rebecca Polan, was convinced by her parents to find a “real” job.

Tieback surgery held up the combination briefly last fall, but Mosser and Bob had an active spring, completing two CIC three-stars and winning the advanced division at the May Plantation Field Horse Trials (Pa.).

Bob almost didn’t make it into the sport horse world. Out of a jumper mare by Art Deco, he developed an infection as a weanling and his legs blew up so quickly that they actually split open. The resulting scars convinced his breeder that he could never go to the show ring, but the Polans saw talent and purchased him.

Rebecca started riding him when he was 5 and took him up to the two-star level while training with Mosser. She was ecstatic about his top-three finish.

“I’d love to be able to do this some day,” she said. “But I’m thrilled to see Bonnie do so well. I’m still keeping in touch with him by doing trot sets occasionally.”

Riding a warmblood cross is new to Mosser, and she commented on the importance of fitness, especially for show jumping after a grueling cross-country round.

“I was fortunate that my horse was fit enough and fresh enough to keep a good rhythm,” she said. “The top horses were fitter.”

They did have the last rail down, but Mosser blamed herself for pulling a bit at the last minute.

Mosser also thought that having steeplechase might’ve helped the 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood cross go a little faster cross-country. “He spends a little more time in the air and has more hang time over the fences,” she explained. “When I gallop him at home, the second gallop is so much faster.”


Third Time’s The Winner
Mosser used to train with Dutton and still makes her home in Unionville, Pa. So does two-star winner Kate Ditchey, who is currently training with Dutton.

“I was very pleased for her to win,” said Dutton, who came third in the two-star on Tru Luck. “She’s a good, hard-working girl who wants to ride well and correctly. She’s willing to put the time in.”

Ditchey, 23, was riding in her third two-star with Belmont, and all she really wanted to do was complete. They pulled out after dressage at Radnor (Pa.) last year because of the mud, and then sore feet prevented them from running cross-country at the Virginia CCI** in November.

“It’s great to win, but I really wanted to finish the event,” she said. The rain made it a bit of a d�j� vu for her after Radnor, but she got the best footing of the day because she was the first rider on course.

“The ground was so hard before that it wasn’t bad that it rained,” said Ditchey. “I didn’t have a chance to see [how the course rode], so I just played around on the grass. I was nervous about the turns, but he was fine.”

Ditchey was third after dressage (49.60) behind Becky Holder on Glorious Joy and Kim Severson on Tsunami, but she moved up to first when she ran clear and just 2 seconds over the time.

The cross-country basically rode the way she expected it to, although the tight roping surprised her on a few turns. “He tripped going into the second water, but he wanted to keep going,” said Ditchey. “He started to feel a little tired at the drop to the house [23-24AB]. If it had been much longer it might have been a problem.”

Less than 4 points separated the top three before show jumping, and Ditchey was worried about choking.

“I don’t consistently show jump clean,” she admitted. “I just tried to keep my hands down and ride forward. I rode him earlier in the morning to practice getting him in front of my legs and half-halting.”

But they did jump clean, one of only five combinations to do so in the two-star. And she’d been given a cushion when both the second and third-placed horses dropped a rail.

“My legs went numb before I went in so I stopped for a second to regroup,” said Ditchey. “Going into it I was a bit nervous because I was placed well. Now I know I have the ability not to choke. I felt like he was really solid.”

Ditchey is an animal science major at the University of Delaware. She hopes to graduate at the end of the summer and find a job near Unionville so she can continue working with Dutton.

“He makes you get it done,” she said. “Just go out there and ride.”

The only rider in the top three of either division who doesn’t regularly ride with Dutton was second-placed Wendy Bebie in the two-star. She trains with Jim Wofford and Kim Keppick.

Bebie hoped to contest the three-star with Phoenix, but she failed to qualify when she went off course in the show jumping at The Fork CIC*** (N.C.). So the adult amateur from Round Hill, Va., dropped down a level at Jersey Fresh.

But that disappointment didn’t stop her from having a great time at the three-day with her 14-year-old Selle Francais (Shafoun–Nazareth II).

“I had a great go,” said Bebie about her cross-country ride. “Phoenix was really brave. He was having a great time out there. He tries so hard. He’s a very talented athlete and very safe, which is the key thing for an amateur.”

Bebie is a former prosecutor for the U.S. attorney, but now she mainly focuses on her three children and her riding.

What’s Going On With Windfall?
The leaders after dressage, Darren Chiacchia and Windfall, did not have their best go in the Jersey Fresh CCI***. Chiacchia ran into trouble at the last water when Windfall stopped twice at 26B, a corner in the water and then hung a leg at 27B, a bounce out of the water. Chiacchia ended up on the ground but remounted and quickly finished the course.

Chiacchia had a similar go at Rolex Kentucky, five weeks prior when Windfall led after dressage but stopped at three separate fences on cross-country before Chiacchia pulled him up.

“We’re really scratching our heads,” admitted Chiacchia. “I don’t think it’s unusual for a horse to not have a great go. He went brilliantly around three quarters of the course. We jumped in and turned a little bit off the stride [to the corner], but I expected him to leave the ground.”

Chiacchia mused that the Trakehner stallion ran fewer horse trials this spring in an attempt to save his legs and that might have made the difference in their preparation.

“The only time he came out was to really be used,” said Chiacchia. “Horse trials are a prepping ground. Looking back, I might have had an event where we go slow and work on rideability.”

But Chiacchia isn’t ready to give up on Windfall yet. “It was very disappointing, but he trotted up like a youngster the next day,” he said. (Windfall wasn’t presented at the formal horse inspection on Sunday morning.) “He’s certainly not done. He’s won more competitions than he hasn’t in the last three years. He’s far from over and still young at heart. We’re giving a lot of thought to the [FEI] World Cup Final in Malmo [Sweden].”