Las Vegas—April 17  

By the time Rich Fellers and Flexible entered the ring for the second round of the Longines FEI World Cup, three other Americans were already through to the jump-off. The crowd roared to greet them, hoping to see their streak of success continue, as they picked up a gallop and headed to the first fence. The audience went quiet as he clocked around the first half of the course.

When it came time for the pair to tackle the triple combination, which had caused considerable trouble for some of the class, the crowd couldn’t stay quiet anymore, clucking and clapping along with each fence, and screaming as “Flexi’s” hind end cleared the C element. Silence, then a renewed roar as they cleared the final vertical and went through the timers.

Has anyone told Flexi he’s 19?

“He’s always fighting for me, that’s what he’s all about,” Fellers said of his longtime partner.  

Returning for the jump-off, Flexi hit the first fence and the rail clonked to the ground, an error Fellers thought might be due to his decision to not jump the horse in the warm-up prior to the short course.

“As he’s getting older, I’m trying to do less and less to save his energy. I was on the fence—do I jump him, do I not jump him?” Fellers said of his jump-off warm-up plan. “Do I jump one big vertical? Because the first fence was not an easy jump off the turn. He was still breathing a bit from the first round because he went quite late, and I made the choice not to jump the [warm-up] jump.”

Rail or not, Fellers is happy with Flexi’s performance.

“I am so proud of him; he was spectacular,” Fellers said. “I think he fought against the odds in there for sure. That kind of track with a horse of his age is amazing.” They might not have won the day—they placed fourth in the class—the result was good enough to put him into a tie for the lead in the class. He and Flexible will go into the final day on a score of 0 faults.

But it was Switzerland’s reigning Olympic champion Steve Guerdat who put in a double-clear and quick effort for the win in Friday’s class. Guerdat and Fellers are tied for the lead in the point standings going into Sunday’s final round, a spot Guerdat has occupied before at finals.

“Well in 2012, I was I think third or fourth going into the final [day], and we ended up jumping off with Rich. The year after I was sixth or seventh going into the final, and I ended up jumping off with Beezie, I lost out. Last year I was leading going into the final and I messed it up again,” Guerdat said with a laugh. “So it would be about time to try to finish with a win.”

The winner of Thursday’s speed leg, Bertram Allen of Ireland, had a rail in the tricky triple combination in the first round. But he and Molly Malone V were the fastest 4-faulters in Round 1 and placed seventh in the class, keeping him in contention as he’s standing in third in the overall standings.

Beezie Madden and Simon jumped from 15th to fifth in the rankings with a second place finish the class—a class she lost by less than half a second when Simon slipped in a turn in the jump-off.

“I ended up angling the liverpool and making quite a neat turn to the skinny, and he lost his footing a little bit there,” Madden said of her jump-off. “I lost a little momentum there, so I ended up doing an extra stride than I had originally planned to the double, which probably wasn’t a bad idea anyway,” Madden said, laughing. “I was a little rattled after that, so I wasn’t as fast as I needed to be to the CWD [oxer], but the rest I think went well.”

A bold and previously untested track into the triple combination worked beautifully for Lucy Davis and Barron—they left out a stride to the A element, and had just the last fence in the jump off down for third place. Davis is now tied for fifth going into Sunday’s class.

“I actually planned when I walked it to do six,” Davis said of her track to the triple. “Then when I watched it and saw people struggle with the six [strides], my trainer [Marcus Beerbaum] and I decided to switch to five, because my horse has a really big stride and a lot of scope, so I really had to trust that 5.”

After posting a clear first round, Mclain Ward and Rothchild had a miscommunication in a turn to a vertical in the jump-off, resulting in a refusal. They cleared it on a second attempt, and added a rail and 10 time faults to their final score, ranking them in fifth.

Ranked third after Thursday’s speed class, France’s Patrice Delaveau couldn’t find his stride in Friday’s round, getting a few awkward distances before Orient Express Hdc stopped at fence 6. They cleared it on their second attempt, but a sticky distance into the triple resulted in a stop at the B element and elimination for Delaveau.

The jumping horses will have a break on Saturday as the dressage riders take to the Thomas & Mack Center arena for the freestyle competition. 

See all the Chronicle’s coverage from the Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final.

See complete results of the class and the overall standings.