Kirstie Dillon was a little nervous before her show jumping round on Tasmans Devil in the Junior/Young Rider CCI* at the Virginia Horse Trials, held in Lexington at the Virginia Horse Center, today, May 23. She knew she didn’t have a rail in hand, and she had an unexpected and unusual stop in warm-up.
But Dillon, 18, kept her nerves in check and helped “Tas” to a double-clear round and the win over Bonza Twist of Fate and Teresa Harcourt.
“We went out there and he was great!” Dillon said. “Especially after that stop, I was like, ‘I think I need to ride a little harder to get over those jumps.’ ”
Out of the 14 riders who show jumped today, only six had no jumping faults. The top four placings stayed the same, with Imogen de Lavis and Brisco Bay finishing third, and Elizabeth Aboody and Legend VII taking fourth. Simply Ben and Kaylin Dines moved up from seventh to fifth.
Dillon, Columbia, S.C., and Tas, an 8-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred, finished on their dressage score of 51.2 penalties. Dillon said the cross-country course rode smoothly, and that her horse recovered quickly despite the hilly terrain. Though she was worried about fences 18 A and B, a wide barrel jump to a skinny with brush on top, Tas easily negotiated the combination.
“He was great in warm-up, and he just went through everything,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure I had his shoulders coming through the turn [between 18 A and B], so we didn’t have an easy glance-off.”
Rebekah Simmons Rides Free And Clear To CCI* Win
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Rebekah Simmons and Free And Clear were another pair to win their division, the CCI*, on their dressage score. After the leaders Rachel Dwyer and Filou pulled six rails and had one refusal in show jumping, Simmons and Free And Clear jumped up to first on their 42.7 penalties.
“He was a very good boy from the get-go,” Simmons said. “Show jumping tends to be our weak phase, but he tried his heart out, and I was really, really proud of him for that. I think it was the best I’ve ridden him in show jumping.”
Show jumping proved influential in the CCI* division, with only 7 teams out of 20 putting in double-clear rounds. Chequers Macon and Mara Dean moved from third to second, Wendy Masemer and Likolina moved from fourth to third and Hidden Promise and Nina Fout went from fifth to fourth. Dean also took fifth on Fun Maker with a double-clear show jumping trip, moving up from 12th after dressage and then eighth after cross-country.
It was a show of firsts for Simmons, Mars, Pa., and Free And Clear—it was the horse’s first CCI* and Simmons’ first CCI* victory. Simmons, 26, has had the ride on Colleen Hofstetter’s Free And Clear for just over a year. They won their novice division at last year’s spring Virginia Horse Trials and have moved up the levels easily.
“He can tend to be a little difficult in the way that he’s not always the bravest if you’re not right on top of him,” Simmons said. “This weekend you would never have thought that. He was really brave, taking the bit and pulling me to the fences. It was really pleasing to ride that.”
Unbelievable And Cindy Wood Coast To First In Classic Preliminary Three-Day
For Cindy Wood, the win in this year’s Virginia Horse Trials Classic Preliminary Three-Day Event was the realization of a long-held dream—Wood, 49, has wanted to win a three-day event since she first saw the Rolex Kentucky CCI*** in 1979. It was especially meaningful for Wood because she was riding her own Unbelievable, an 8-year-old Connemara/Thoroughbred she bred and raised.
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“He was an orphan foal because his mother colicked, so my husband and I bucket fed him. I’ve done all the training on him, brought him up through the levels, and he’s just been a horse-of-a-lifetime,” Wood, Newark, Md., said of Unbelievable. “He’s the classic amateur horse. He takes care of me.”
This year’s Virginia Horse Trials was the third three-day event for “Lee.” He did a training three-day and then completed the CCI*, as a long-format, at the 2009 Virginia Horse Trials.
“Last year we had a couple of rails and a little time on cross-country,” Wood said. “My goal this year was to finish on our dressage score. Since I did the long format last year, he’s been a different horse cross-country. Very much full of himself, bold, just ready to rock and roll.”
Wood accomplished her goal, and she and Lee finished on their 33.3 penalties from dressage, leading the division from start to finish. Tintin and Kevin Smith took second in the small division—only six competed—and Brittany Bridges and Derrymor were third. None of the six who started cross-country earned any jumping faults over the course.
“I was a little worried about the trakehner, because I have issues with them,” Wood said. “I buried him in one a long time ago, and I always have to think about that. But he went over it. All the combinations he just locks on. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”
Full results available on the Virginia Horse Trials website.
