Sally Cousins is used to rushing from horse to horse to get five or more ridden in a day. But at the Plantation Field Horse Trials, April 14 in Unionville, Pa., there was another reason to rush: getting out on cross-country before the sun went down.

Leaving the start box around 7 p.m. for the last of three back-to-back “sunset cruises” around Plantation’s intermediate cross-country was a first, even for a seasoned vet-eran like Cousins.

With a major nor’easter threatening the East Coast, organizer Denis Glaccum decided the day before to squeeze the two-day competition into one—and with the last of the 300-plus entries not scheduled to show jump until 7:20 p.m., adding cross-country after that put the final riders of the day in a race against sunset.

“I think we were fortunate that it was overcast, because the shadows could’ve been a problem,” Cousins said. “But even on my last horse, I thought it was fine.”

Glaccum said he wasn’t too worried about running out of daylight because he’d been taking note of the sunset for several weeks, ever since the event accepted a record 324 entries. But he’d been watching the sun to figure out how late he could schedule show jumping; cross-country wasn’t supposed to run until Sunday.

The day before the event, however, with weather forecasters predicting the nor’-easter that ultimately pummeled the East Coast over the next two days, Glaccum knew that leaving the schedule alone undoubtedly would force cross-country to be cancelled.

“I woke up Friday morning from a terrible nightmare, thanks to Mary [Coldren, steward, who had called Thursday to suggest changing the schedule], and knew that all we could do was run it in one day,” Glaccum said.

Longtime volunteer and newly appointed assistant event director Sarah Connell started organizing volunteers for a long Saturday, with dressage starting before 8 a.m. and cross-country scheduled through 7:30 p.m. They put a notice on their website and sent e-mails to competitors to alert them of the change.

“I was only worried about running out of light if we had a hold [on cross-country] or a major issue,” Glaccum said.

But things went smoothly, running slightly ahead of time, and thanks to the schedule change, riders enjoyed near-perfect weather for the one-day.

Cousins jumped easily around cross-country and had only one rail among her three rides. She led the open intermediate from start to finish on Top Deck II, adding 7.6 time penalties to her winning dressage score of 33.1.

“I’ve had him for several years, and he’s very competitive at that level,” she said. “He’s just a good old campaigner.”

“Agador”—nicknamed after the maid in The Bird Cage—isn’t aimed at a three-day, she said. “I just ride him in horse trials for fun.”

She took third and sixth places in the division, too, on Troy and Joule, respectively. Troy, one of her advanced rides, likely will head to the Jersey Fresh CCI*** (N.J.), she said.

Philip Dutton and Loose ‘n Cool slipped into second place with a dressage score of 36.2, to which they added 6.8 time penalties for the fastest round in the division.

In the young riders intermediate, Nate Chambers and Rolling Stone II galloped away with the win on the strength of a lovely dressage test and the day’s fastest cross-country round. Although no one made time in either intermediate division, Chambers came the closest with 2.8 penalties.

“In the dressage, he could’ve been more engaged with his hind end, but he was so obedient. He was just a pleasure to ride; I had a lot of fun today,” Chambers raved about “Rollie,” an 11-year-old Hessen Warmblood.

But Cayla Kitayama and four-star veteran Esker Riada were close behind with a 35.2, and when Chambers dropped the last rail in show jumping, he also slipped into second place—for a few minutes.

Proceeding from show jumping straight to the cross-country start box, Chambers laid down a fast, clean round aboard his longtime partner to reclaim the lead. They have been working with Mara Dean and Phillip Dutton, and Chambers said he felt that work gelling in their confident trip.

“I didn’t ride as well as I could have, but I felt all the jumping training with Mara and Philip coming out,” he said. Chambers is aiming Rollie for the Jersey Fresh CCI** .

Both he and Cousins complimented the Plantation Field crew for deciding to run the event in one day and pulling it off on such short notice.

“I think that Denis and his crew really deserve a lot of credit for making that happen,” Cousins said. “I had great runs, and I had a ton of students who had a good time.”

Melissa Roddy