They all put the pressure on Reed Kessler. Rider after rider jumped clear rounds in the final round of the USEF National Individual Junior Jumper Championship, Oct. 10 in Harrisburg, Pa. Sitting on top, Kessler had just a two-fault cushion lead over Lucy Davis.

“I was pretty nervous. Normally, I don’t get nervous, but as soon as Lucy went clean, I felt the pressure,” Kessler said. She kept her cool on Ice d’Ancoeur and turned in a clean round of her own to clinch the individual gold medal.

“It feels great. I feel like I’ve done everything I came here to do. My horse went beautifully. Yesterday, in the first round of the Nations Cup, I didn’t give her a very strong, accurate ride and she was awesome. It’s a long weekend for the horses—four rounds—and she was just as good today as she was the first day,” Kessler said.

Kessler had won the first round of the individual competition, the speed class on Oct. 9. She followed that up with 4 faults in Round 1 of the team competition and a clear round in Round 2. Kessler was on the Zone 2 team, which took bronze the night before in the Prix Des States competition, run in a Nations Cup format. The team had to make some last-minute plans after Katie Dinan, who was slated to ride with them, had a fall in junior hunter class and suffered a concussion.

“Jackie Lubrano stepped in at the very last minute, so our team was a bit chaotic. As soon as Katie fell off, Jackie was on her cell phone arranging to get her horse shipped here. Jackie had no preparation and she really deserves to be applauded for that,” Kessler said. “Bronze was great, but we were a little bit down. To bring it today was awesome.”

Just Enough
Kessler’s ride, Ice, gave the crowd a tense moment with a hard rub at one fence, but it didn’t rattle Kessler. “Ice likes to rub the jumps,” she said. “You can put it down down to 3’9” and she rubs them; you can put them up to 5’3” and she rubs them. I think she likes to see exactly how high the jump is, then just scrape over it. She’s in jump-off mode constantly, so she doesn’t waste time in the air. She only jumps as high as she needs to to clear it.”
   
Kessler bought Ice, a 13-year-old Selle Francais mare, in November from French rider Marie Pellgin on the recommendation of her trainer, Katie Prudent. “Katie had known the horse for a while and she always loved her. Last year, while we were showing in Europe, I tried her. The first time I rode her, I thought ‘She’s so weird! She hangs her legs and she switches leads,’” Kessler said. “But Katie kept telling me she was great. I tried her again in November in Switzerland and it was even worse. It was blizzarding and freezing cold and we were in an indoor, and she was bucking and running sideways. But she always went to the jump.

“She’s definitely a different ride. I have another horse, Flight, who’s won this class before with Addison Phillips. They’re complete opposites. Flight is so easy—he doubles as my equitation horse. He’s an easy, floating ride. Ice is very quirky. She’s on every single lead, she doesn’t like it when you leg her–she’s bucking, she’s darting left and right. And her style is unusual. She jumps high, but she jumps like a deer.

“But she’s very careful, and it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it happens. I feel like I’ve gotten to master her, but it did take some time to get used to. Mostly because I’ve had so many nice, easy horses that just went along by themselves, to have Ice, who really requires a lot of riding, she’s definitely more difficult than my other horses.”

Kessler hopes to move up to the grand prix level with Ice next year.

Lucy Davis, who clinched Zone 10’s victory in the Prix Des States competition the night before, finished in the individual silver position on True Love, while fellow Zone 10 team member Saer Coulter rode Chalan to the bronze.