Ian Millar said he felt 10 years younger after anchoring the Canadian team to a thrilling win the $50,000 CN Samsung Nations Cup. The class, held Friday evening under the lights, was a highlight of the U.S. Cosequin Finale CSIO, on March 10-14, the last week of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla.

“I can’t tell you how sweet a night like this is. I aged after the first round and got younger after the second!” he quipped.

Millar, 57, was riding in his 103rd Nations Cup, joining Eric Lamaze, Ainsley Vince and Harold Chopping for the victorious effort. And, as has often been the case, it all came down to Millar’s last round.

Millar’s first round in the Nations Cup “wasn’t pristine,” he said. His horse, Promise Me, stopped at the Cosequin vertical, giving the veteran rider 4 jumping faults and 2 time faults, Canada’s drop score for the first round.

“He’s never done anything like that in his life. In lighting like this, you never know quite what they’re seeing,” Millar said.

At the end of the first round, Canada was tied with the U.S. team at 8 faults each. In the format where only three riders return for the second round, with all the scores counting, the Canadian team had a difficult decision to make. After much discussion, they decided that Millar, Vince and Chopping would jump again.

The first two U.S. riders to jump the second round, Beezie Madden on Authentic and Laura Kraut on Allegiance, each had 4 faults at the open water jump.

“We’ve been here a little bit too long [on the six-week WEF circuit], jumping these waters. The more you jump the same water jump, sooner or later you’re going to end up in it,” said Frank Chapot, the U.S. chef d’equipe.

Vince rode her veteran Catch 22 to a four-fault second-round score, while Chopping, on Kathleen, turned in a brilliant clear round, their second of the night.

Before the final riders, Can-ada had 12 faults and the U.S. had 16. And Norman Dello Joio put the pressure on  Millar by jumping clean on Glasgow.

“I was definitely watching the score, because I did not want to leave it to a jump-off. I would say that that [the U.S.] team would probably have more speed than we would. It would have been a real foot race, and I didn’t want to have it get to that,” said Millar. “Going last like that is always a difficult ride; the level of difficulty goes straight up.”

But Promise Me didn’t touch a rail and clinched the Canadian win.

Chopping Returns

With one of only two double-clear performances that night, Chopping, who had last been on a Nations Cup team in 1996, made a triumphant return to the Canadian team. “It was great to have Harold back,” Lamaze said.

Chopping had been based in North Carolina, but he took a position at Silver Oak Stables in New Hampshire in June 2003. He found Kathleen, a 9-year-old, Holsteiner mare then being ridden by Mario Deslauriers, for his new owners last year.

“This is a relatively new horse for me. I’m having just as much fun as you can imagine making her up. This is a spectacular horse; she’s scopey, brave and careful. There’s no hole in her,” Chopping said. He plans to spend the summer at Spruce Meadows (Alta.) developing Kathleen.

Chopping isn’t counting out being considered for Canada’s one individual Olympic spot, but he’s philosophical about it. “I would only want to go if she absolutely feels ready. That’s a different type of experience for a horse’to jump at that level’and I really don’t want to do that unless she’s absolutely ready, and 9 years old might be a little bit too young,” said Chopping.

“I think that it’s so important that when you’re making them up, that you don’t get to that last step too soon. This horse might have a lot of really good years ahead of her, and there’s no need to rush that.”

Vince and her veteran Catch 22, now 17, will be Canada’s representatives at the FEI World Cup Final in Milan, Italy, on April 22-25.

Hungry Canadians

Victory in the Nations Cup came as a refreshing highlight for the Canadians, whose international performances have been lacking for the last decade. They finished 10th in the 2002 World Equestrian Games, and their sixth-placed finish at the 2003 Pan Am Games failed to qualify a team for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. They can send only one individual representative.

“It only makes this sweeter,” Millar said of the drought. “We’re real hungry.”

Canadian Chef d’Equipe Danny Foster was even brighter. “The bigger thing is that we really are developing a nice depth in horse-rider combinations. Even beyond the Olympics, we’re starting to see some real depth, and I think we’re going to be heard from a lot in years to come,” he said. “I think we’re building something that will continue to grow, and we’re going to have a lot of people to choose from. We’ve had a couple of slow years lately, waiting to rebuild, and now it looks good for us. This is proof we needed to keep our confidence up.”

The Argentinean team, comprised of riders who live in the United States, rallied to third place with 24 total faults after Eduardo Braun on As Di Villagana and Federico Sztyrle on Who Knows Lily posted second-round clears.

The Mexican team was just behind them with 28 faults. The French team settled for fifth with Henri Prudent, Yannick Patron, who rides for Windsome Farm in Wellington, Yann Candele, who rides for Eric Lamaze in Canada, and Eric Navet, the 1990 World Champion-ships individual gold-medal winner who spent the winter in Wellington training Marley Goodman.

The Irish team didn’t fare well, with three of their riders on borrowed horses and Kevin Babington as their anchor rider on a young horse, Sydney. Two individuals each from Australia and Colombia also competed.

Carling King Turns On The Speed

Still Irish eyes had reason to smile on Sunday, three days before St. Patrick’s day, when Babington and Carling King prevailed over a strong field and a tough course to win the $100,000 Cosequin U.S. Open Jumper Championship.

Only three’Babington, Millar and McLain Ward’jumped clear over Jose “Pepe” Gamarra’s first-round course. A tricky triple combination and a testing last line were the meat of his course. The triple combination was off a turn away from the in-gate, and the A element was a triple bar, 4’9″ high and 5’9″ wide. Two strides to a vertical were followed in another stride to a 4’9″ high, 5’6″ wide oxer.

“I thought the triple was a real test. You needed a brave, bold, scopey horse to jump into that combination. If your horse had any question in its mind when you turned away from the in-gate, you weren’t getting through that combination clean. It separated the men from the boys,” said Ward, who finished third on Sapphire.

Three combinations jumped clean around the course but kept themselves from the jump-off by collecting 1 time fault’Chopping on Kathleen, Eric Hasbrouck on Sitah, and Sztyrle on Who Knows Lily.

Millar, as the 24th in the order, was the first to record a faultless first round, so he was first to jump off. He shaved the turns on Promise Me, including an inside cut to angle an oxer, but he wasn’t galloping too fast, finishing in 47.62 seconds.

“I had to jump clean. Any time there are three in the jump-off, if you fault, you give your competitors a present,” Millar said.

And Babington was prepared to turn on the speed.

“I saw Ian’s round, and I thought that if I gave it a shot, I could beat him. I knew McLain was behind me, so I knew that if I went slow, I would end up third, so I figured I’d go for it,” Babington said. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever gone on him.”

Carling King has been a very consistent performer at the international level, but he isn’t known for his turn of foot. Still, they shaved almost 5 seconds off Millar’s time, stopping the clock at 42.70 seconds.

“I’m so excited about how my horse handled the speed. He’s not the fastest of horses, but I think he would have been hard to beat today,” Babington said.

Carling King most recently topped the $75,000 PDP Capital Masters Cup in Wellington on Feb. 29, but he did so by collecting 6 faults in a two-horse jump-off.

Ward looked to be on the pace to challenge Babington, but after Sapphire pulled a rail at the third jump-off fence, he let off the gas a bit and cantered home in 44.19 seconds.

“I got [to that oxer] a little bit quicker than I thought I was going to, and she put in a good effort, but it was a big oxer,” Ward said.

As the last to go in the first round, Ward and Sapphire only had a two-minute break before the jump-off started, then had to jump again right after Babington and Millar

“I think my horse was a little out of breath. She’s a young mare, so to jump around a big first-round course like that takes a lot out of her mentally and physically. She probably could have benefited from a moment’s rest, but we didn’t have that,” Ward said.