“She just kept winning,” judge Geoff Teall said of Kimberly McCormack’s rides in the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals.  “Her first round was fantastic, her second round was equally fantastic.  And in the test, she had all the pressure in the world on her and she was great.  It was hers to lose, and she won it.”

For a blog of all the action of the day’s competition, held Oct. 21 in Harrisburg, Pa., at the Pennsylvania National’s junior weekend, see the blog I kept of the class here, which details what went on in each round.

McCormack, trained by Missy Clark and John Brennan, had to wait until 252nd in the order in the field of 292 riders that started.  Jessica Springsteen, who went 40th, led the class throughout the day, until McCormack put in a flowing trip that took over the lead. 

The judges designed an interesting first-round course that tested the riders’ accuracy and adjustability without any tricky gimmicks.  For the second round, they used the same exact track, with the fences in the same locations, but changed the fences themselves.  For example, the line from fence 4 to 5AB in the first round was a square oxer out of the corner, with either a tight five or long four strides to a two-stride combination of plank verticals.  Most riders in round 1 chose to hold for the five strides to the plank verticals.  But in Round 2, in the same line, they had to jump a vertical at fence 4, and the combination at 5AB was of two square oxers.  With the changes in the fences, the riders were more likely to opt for the forward four strides to 5AB.

”We wanted to see if the riders understood how to ride different types of jumps, instead of just riding lines according to the strides they walked off,” said Julie Winkel, who judges with Teall. 

Most of the 19 riders called back for the second round answered the questions well.  Springsteen went for brilliance over caution in an effort to impress the judges, and picked up a rolling hand gallop to a single oxer.  When the distance didn’t come up, her horse stopped, and she was out of the running.  McCormack solidified her lead with another fluid round.

After Round 2, Winkel and Teall called back six riders for a final test.  While the first two courses weren’t overly complicated, the test was.  Riders had to immediately hand gallop a single oxer across the diagonal, then counter-canter around the end of the ring to a vertical out of the corner.  Then, on a straight line of about eight strides, they were to perform a simple change through the walk, and then jump the oxer at the end of the line.  Then, they trotted two oxers set four strides apart, and were expected to trot both the oxers.  They then had to counter-canter around the end of the ring again, to a combination, and halt and leave the ring at the walk.

“We wanted to test a lot of their flatwork and transitions,” Winkel said.

“And we wanted to get away from the changing horses concept for the testing,” Teall continued.  “It seems like they change horses all the time now, and we really wanted to give them a chance to show their training.”

Addison Phillips, who had moved up from 13th to sixth with a lovely second round, tested first and did well, other than a difficult transition to the first counter lead.  Jacqueline Lubrano got the walk for the simple change in the line a little bit late, and didn’t have time to re-establish a canter before the fence.  Her horse stopped, and she went over his head. 

Shelby Wakeman got the first counter lead late in the turn, and then never really walked for the simple change.  Then, in the final turn, she kept asking for a flying change to the counter lead.  Her horse would switch to the counter lead, then swap back to the true lead, and she never really established the counter lead.

Hannah Selleck rode very impressively yet again.  She walked to get the first counter lead and held it well through the turn.  From the walk in the straight line, she nicely picked up the canter for three strides before jumping the next jump. 

Tina DiLandri answered all the counter-canter questions perfectly, but her hand-gallop to the first jump was conservative.

McCormack started with a nice hand-gallop and got her counter-canters through the walk.  She got the walk in the straight line early, and walked for a few strides before picking up the canter again and jumping the jump at the end of the line well.

McCormack’s test was good enough to hold onto the lead, while Selleck’s impressed the judges enough to move her ahead of DiLandri and into second.  Wakeman took fourth, Phillips fifth, and Lubrano sixth.

“I know this horse really well, and he loves this ring,” McCormack said.  She’s ridden Sundance in three Medal Finals before this year’s.  “The course really suited my horse.  He loves to go left, and a lot of the turns were to the left.  And he has a really big stride, but he comes back really well.”

Selleck, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., was a little wide-eyed at her top finish.  “I was very shocked.  In the test, I just wanted to start out a little bright to the first fence.  My horse is very good at counter-canter, but no good at doing flying changes to get it, so I chose to get the counter-canter through the walk.

“I was a little nervous because my horse just started doing the equitation this year.  In the first round, I was just trying to keep him relaxed.”

For DiLandri, there was only room for improvement at Medal Finals.  “Last year here, I crashed through all the jumps,” she said with a laugh.  “My horse is just 7 this year, so he’s still learning.  He’s great in the counter-canter, but he got a little fussy with his mouth in the test.”