Wellington, Fla.—March 22
Yesterday was not Chappy’s day. In the $15,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby, hunt-and-go format, at the Winter Equestrian Festival he pulled a rail and swapped a few times to put in what rider Greg Crolick described as “probably his worst class” in the four years the two have been together.
“He was a little distracted,” said Crolick. “Never spooky, but he just jumped jump 1 and never looked at jump 2 kind of thing. He just wasn’t focused.”
So that afternoon after the show was over Crolick took him out for a light ride, circling the perimeter of the grass field outside the fence, then Crolick took him out to graze for 25 minutes near the ring.
That strategy worked, and Chappy came back today focused and ready to roll in the $50,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby, scoring matching base scores of 90 with three high options in the classic round to lie in a three-way tie for second heading into Round 2. In the handy round Crolick took all the chances he could, scoring a maximum handy bonus of 5 from both panels of judges with all four high options and base scores of 93.5 and 94.
In Ken Krome’s classic round, set on the grass derby field across the street from the main show grounds, Crolick opted to skip one of the high options early on course as sometimes it takes Chappy a few jumps to sharpen up. Choosing the lower option put him on a bit of an angle to the out of that line, which made Chappy pay attention, Crolick said. The handy course started out with a serpentine for the first four jumps, which suited Chappy just fine.
“I was able to get a good little hand gallop up to jump 1, and I just tried really hard to not let that change for the whole course,” said Crolick, 52. “The tighter I can turn, and the more galloping I can do to it, the better it was.”
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Chappy, a 14-year-old Mecklenburg gelding (Chacco Blue—Chakira Z) owned by Carole Chase, won this class four years ago, and last year he won week 11’s hunt-and-go derby.
“He’s a horse, so every once in a while he has a little mistake here or there, and every once in a while I have a little mistake, but he can definitely hold his own,” said Crolick, Clarkston, Michigan. “He’s gotten better and better. Four years ago I’d only had him for two months, and he was quite green, but obviously he could jump really, really well. He’s come such a long way. We had great results last year, and then to be champion at the National [Horse Show (Kentucky)] was a really huge step for both of us.”
To prepare for his pair of derbies Crolick entered Chappy in one 1.15-meter jumper class earlier in the week, a strategy that works well for him on derby weeks. Crolick said that Chappy can get bored easily and a spin around the jumper ring keeps him interested and gives them a chance to school when they aren’t being judged.
Crolick runs Greg Crolick Stables with his wife Jessica Crolick, and he tries to balance his horse time with time with his kids, Ava, 14, and Brady, 11. He says he’s only able to do that thanks to the hard work of everyone on the team.
“It always takes a village for sure, from the incredible owner I have in Carole Chase and her husband, Kevin—they’ve been so supportive of this horse and seen him be brought along at a high level—and my team,” he said. “That’s Katie Hogan, which is my sister-in-law, and Emily Trice, and plus all the guys we have there. It’s huge to have a really good support system that work really hard, day in and day out, with early mornings and long nights. They just work so incredibly hard to get to this point, for sure.”
Follow along with the Chronicle on Instagram and Facebook, and check out more from the last two weeks of competition at the Winter Equestrian Festival in the April edition of the magazine.
