Two U.S. riders stand within the top 10 following an influential cross-country day at the Les Étoiles de Pau CCI**** in France. Erin Sylvester and Lauren Kieffer both produced clear jumping efforts over Pierre Michelet’s demanding track and will head to into the show jumping in competitive positions.
Germany’s Ingrid Klimke and Horseware Hale Bob retained their leading position after jumping clear and finishing 2 seconds over the optimum time to collect 0.8 time faults, they head into the show jumping on a score of 40.1. Co-leaders after the dressage, Great Britain’s William Fox Pitt and Parklane Hawk withdrew prior to the start of cross-country.
“Sadly the hard ground at Pau meant William did not finish the cross-country with [Seacookie TSF] today, and he did not run ‘Parker’ for the same reason,” said Fox-Pitt on his Facebook page.
Out of 34 starters, there were 14 jumping clears. Joseph Murphy was the only double clear on Electric Cruise, moving up from 10th after dressage to second.
Sylvester (Unionville, Pa.) and her own and Jill Tallman’s No Boundaries climbed 23 places up the leaderboard after only incurring 9.6 time faults, and they sit seventh following the cross country on a score of 68.9.
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Land Rover USEF Competition Grant recipients Kieffer (Ocala, Fla.) and Team Rebecca LLC’s Veronica added 27.2 time faults to their dressage score to maintain their top 10 position and go forward to the show jumping on a score of 71.4 in ninth place.
“So proud of [Veronica]; she was brilliant,” said Kieffer. “Wish I had gone faster, but that was my fault, not hers. She was a champ and full of run at the end.”
Sharon White (Summit Point, W.V.) and her own and Richard Weber’s Wundermaske collected 40 jumping penalties and 23.6 time faults on the cross country and are in 21st place on a score of 112.3.
See the live scores on the Pau website.
