After a whirlwind of a summer, he makes a triumphant return to Pennsylvania.

Phillip Dutton and his string of horses have been doing a fair amount of globetrotting in recent weeks, and not without success. He picked up third place at the Richland Park CIC*** in Michigan, flew to England to finish fourth at the Burghley CCI**** and then went immediately to Illinois to rake in a collection of ribbons at the Bit Of Britain/USEA American Eventing Championships.

But he didn’t get a win until he returned home to Chester County, Pa., for the Plantation Field CIC***, Sept. 18-20. With four horses entered in the premier division, Dutton, West Grove, Pa., had excellent odds of claiming the new True Blue Girdwood Trophy, donated by Dutton and his wife, Evie.

“True Blue Girdwood, who was a phenomenal event horse and sort of started me on this road in this country many years ago, died last year,” Phillip explained. “So this will be an annual trophy that we donate in his honor. It was pretty neat to be the first one to win it.”

Phillip did the winning with Inmidair, and he also placed third in the CIC*** with Waterfront. Both horses belong to Jan Byyny, who’s been out of competition for the past two months with six broken bones and several torn ligaments in her foot.

Byyny, Purcellville, Va., has been keeping her horses fit herself by riding without stirrups, while Katie Prudent helps her with jump schools, but Dutton’s kept them campaigning so they’re qualified for fall CCIs.

“I’ve helped her with both horses for awhile, so we’re on the same page about what they need to do,” Phillip said. “She’s healing quickly, and she’s obviously a very determined girl, so I think she’s got a pretty good chance of riding Inmidair at Fair Hill [CCI*** (Md.)] and a really good chance of riding Waterfront at Pau [CCI**** (France)] as well.”

Phillip, who’s taken on Karen O’Connor’s Mandiba while she’s recovering from an injury as well, has also been juggling extra-curricular commitments. He serves as the Plantation Field CIC Event Committee Chairman and is a founding member of the Professional Riders Organization, which sponsored the Plantation event for the first time.

“It’s been a hectic time,” Phillip admitted. “As soon as I came back from Chicago, we got into some promotional work for the lead up to this weekend. This was a good learning curve for PRO and the organizers.”

In addition to organizing a live commentary for the weekend and a crowd-pleasing bareback puissance “half-time show”—in which Phillip also rode—PRO also contributed $15,000 in prize money for the CIC divisions. Next year, they hope to sponsor a series of events.

“We’re trying to get more crowds in to watch, more recognition for the owners and a little more prize money, so that if you’re on an advanced horse, he might actually be able to pay his way instead of you putting even more money into him to compete,” Phillip explained. “Hopefully, a series could be an opportunity for a sponsor to get recognition across the country, with all the best riders in the country competing in it.”

Many of those riders were on hand at Plantation, and Phillip noted that he could have ridden better against them, especially on Waterfront, and been more competitive in the dressage. Inmidair started the weekend in fifth place on a 46.2, while Waterfront was 10th (50.7). But double-clear cross-country rounds with both horses helped them gain some ground.

“The goal was really just to give Inmidair a good experience and a good fitness run before he gets to go to his first CCI***,” Phillip said. “The Unionville area is renowned for its hills, so it’s certainly a good fitness course. I thought [course de-signers] Denis Glaccum and Tremaine Cooper did a good job. They use the hills to your advantage rather than being too hard on the horses.”

“J.R.” slipped into the lead on his dressage score and added nothing to it on Sunday in show jumping. The 10-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding of unknown breeding competed at the lower levels with Nicole Shinton, Kyle Carter and Will Coleman, but Byyny was the first to show him above preliminary in the United States.

“He’s still a work in progress, but he looks like he’s going to be an incredibly good horse,” Phillip said. “He’s a very good mover on the flat, and he’s quiet horse and is an exceptional jumper.”

Putting Jam On Top

Bruce Davidson didn’t have far to travel for his advanced division win with his crowd favorite mare, Jam.

Davidson’s Chesterland Farm—the former home of the Chesterland CCI***—lies just across the field from the Walker family’s Plantation property.

“The logistics of the whole thing still have some tweaking to do, but it’s great to watch,” Davidson said of the new fall festival. “It’s a great venue. They’ve made huge strides, and I have nothing but applause for everything they’ve done.”

Davidson and Jam, a 13-year-old Thoroughbred mare (Snar—Toitay) had close to 1,000 spectators cheering them around the cross-country course on Saturday to their victory in the 22-horse division on a score of 39.8.

The win was particularly satisfying for Davidson because it came on the heels of a perplexing disappointment. At the Richland Park CIC*** in August, Jam had an uncharacteristic elimination for three refusals on cross-country.

“We don’t know what happened,” Davidson said. “We’ve never, ever had an issue. But she’s been bred three times this summer, and I think that in the process of that I perhaps didn’t appreciate how much I’d played around with her hormones, which have never been an issue before.”

But after the embryo transfer procedure, Jam started on Regu-Mate for the first time, and her attitude significantly improved— a fact she proved at Plantation by winning the first phase on a mark of 33.8.

“It’s helped her in the dressage, in her back and in the ability to accept the bit,” Davidson said. “She’s more and more connected. She’s a new and improved Jam, and that’s hard to do, because she was pretty wonderful to begin with.”

Horse trial divisions show jumped before cross-country, and Jam was one of 17 advanced horses to incur time faults in the new grass arena. She and Davidson slipped to second place, behind Dornin North and Jimminy Cricket, with 2 penalties added.

Davidson’s gray mare tacked on another 4 time faults to her overall score on Saturday, but she made easy work of Glaccum’s course. North clocked in 9 seconds slower, dropping to third and handing the victory to Davidson. And just 1 point behind him in second place, having moved up from an initial tie for 11th, was his son, Buck, with Titanium (40.8).

“He was brilliant,” Bruce said of Buck, who’s currently based in Riegelsville, Pa. “He’s been having a great year, and it’s because he’s a hard worker, and he deserves it. All the Chesterland horses went well on the weekend and had fun, and I appreciate everybody that helped us do it.”

The Chesterland group also included Bruce’s Rock On Rose, who finished sixth in the advanced division (44.9) with Boyd Martin in the irons. Martin’s been riding the 9-year-old Thoroughbred mare for Bruce since the spring.

“But I still ride Jam,” Bruce said. “And Cruise [Lion] is sidelined for the moment, but I ride him, and I ride Petite Flower. I have other things that I’m doing too—I have a 4-year-old stallion named Celtic Lion who’s really an exceptional young horse. That’s who I’ve bred all my mares to. So I don’t want to do more than I can handle, but I still want to compete and have a good time.”

He and Jam will be looking to have a good time at the Fair Hill CCI*** in October.

Another Vicarious Victory

As it had for Jam, Plantation proved the perfect rebounding venue for the CIC** division winner as well. Lesley Grant-Law’s Java struggled to focus in the dressage at Richland Park in August but was back in winning form in Pennsylvania.

“He’s just 7, and he’s going through that stage where he thinks he knows everything,” Grant-Law said of the Hanoverian gelding by Letgas Star. “He doesn’t always. He’s never a tense horse or worried, he can just be cocky and a little bit full of himself at times, which was the case at Richland. He was much more on the job this time and a little more focused.”

Grant-Law broke her leg this spring and is now eight months pregnant, so her husband Leslie Law has been campaigning her horses this summer.

“I can’t wait to have the kid and get my horses back!” Grant-Law said, laughing. “I’ve watched more horses being ridden in the past five months than I probably have in my entire life. And it’s been very nice to watch them, but I’m ready to be riding them again.”

The Laws, who split their time between Bluemont, Va., and Ocala, Fla., got the heads up on Java from their friend and show jumper Ian Silitch, who’d seen the then-4-year-old at November Hill Farm in Keswick, Va., heading toward a career in the hunters. But he thought the gelding might be more naturally inclined to event.

“I think he was always just a little bit more forward-going than what they wanted,” Grant-Law said. “Lucky for us! This is definitely a horse I want to keep around.”

Grant-Law competed Java through the preliminary level herself, and Law began competing the horse in May. At Plantation, he rode Java to second place in the dressage (47.5), and they added nothing to their score in the jumping phases.

“He always seems to perform well in the jumping but doesn’t always hold it together in the dressage,” Grant-Law said of Java. “He just clocked around the cross-country. We were a bit concerned about the coffin, which had a bounce of double ditches with one stride to a skinny, but he just went straight through and galloped around well within the time.”

Java could have lowered one pole in Sunday’s show jumping and still won, but he left all the rails in their cups.

“It’s always nice to have a rail in hand, but luckily he didn’t need it at the end of the day,” Grant-Law said.