Is it the mountain air? The stunning vistas of “big sky country”? Or maybe it’s just the change of scenery that brings out the best in Pascal and Jennie Brannigan, who came out on top of the five-entry CCI4*-L division at The Event at Rebecca Farm in Kalispell, Montana, July 17-21. They also won Rebecca Farm’s CCI3*-L division last year.

“I go to Rebecca Farm every year,” said Brannigan, who is based in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. “It’s been a really big staple in my horses’ careers to kind of tell me when they’re ready to step up, and being able to handle the travel and whatnot, it’s huge. And we just love this event.

“It’s special for me, too, because I lived in California, and I’m very close with [organizer] Sarah Broussard and so many people that run it, like [event secretary] Christina Gray and all the California people. It’s just really fun for me to feel like I’m coming back home to the West Coast, even though it’s nowhere near the West Coast.”

This was just the fifth start at advanced for Pascal, a 9-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Pasco 17—Z-Corrada I, San Patrignano Corrado). The handsome gray made his debut at the level this spring at a very tough Stable View (South Carolina), followed by outings in April and May at Fair Hill (Maryland) and then a ninth-place finish at the Bromont CCI4*-S (Quebec).

“I thought with how he jumped around [at Bromont] that he would be ready for Rebecca,” Brannigan said. “And I really wanted to go because it’s Ian Stark’s last time designing [the cross-country course] there.”

The pair began tied for first with Karen O’Neal and Clooney 14 on a 33.8 in dressage. They added just 2.4 time penalties on cross-country, despite it being unusually hot—temperatures climbed as high as 98 degrees, just 1 degree shy of the record for Kalispell on the date.

“I think the cross-country and the length of it and the heat was definitely [a test] for him,” Brannigan said. “Towards the end of the course, I was glad that we were closing in toward the end. He really showed a lot of heart.”

Only two of the five combinations jumped clear, so Brannigan held the lead going into show jumping with a 10-point cushion ahead of second-placed Ashley Adams and Charly. Pascal left all the rails up and added just 1.6 time penalties.

”He show jumped brilliantly, so I thought that was really fantastic,” Brannigan said. “He’s only 9, so he’ll definitely be doing more four-stars. I let the horses tell me when they’re ready to do something. I had a gut feeling he was ready to do this, and I think it’s a great step in his career. He’s done two [CCI3*-L events]. I think he was ready for it, but I don’t think I would have wanted to do it any sooner. I think it was the perfect place. Obviously, Ian’s a great designer, and it was certainly challenging enough. I think I learned a lot about what kind of horse he’s going to be because of the heat. I kind of thought at 8.5 minutes, 9 minutes, ‘Oof, is he going to still want to keep going here?’ And he did. I was just relieved that he came back and jumped so well on Sunday.”

Brannigan has only had the ride on the gelding since early 2023, as he was originally purchased for her former assistant, Alexa Lapp.

“ ‘Pasco’ was a 4-year-old in Germany when I was on the Nations Cup team for Boekelo [in 2019] with Stella Artois,” Brannigan said. “We were looking for a horse for [Lapp] and one of my business partners’ place in Germany was quite close to where the team was doing their pre-training at in Holland. So we went to go look at young horses, and Pasco was one of them.”

Lapp developed Pasco through the CCI3*-L level before deciding to take a hiatus from riding. “So I rode him to sell him, and luckily Erik Duvander helped convince my owners that I needed him,” Brannigan said with a laugh.

The horse is owned by The Pascal Syndicate, which includes Lapp, Tim and Nina Gardner, Brittany Rhodes, Beth Lendrum, Norma Murray and Brian Murray, chairman of the board of directors of Montana Equestrian Events, Inc.

In a post on social media the Monday after the event that celebrated Alexa Thompson’s win in the CCI4*-S with Just To Be Clear, Brannigan noted that she always encourages people to make the trek west to compete at Rebecca Farm because it’s such a special event. This year, she added, she enjoyed the event even more because she catch-rode a horse in the CCI2*-L (Mia Edsall’s True Story, who finished fifth), volunteered, and gave a talk to young riders. “It’s taken me a long time to figure out how to compete and be comfortable enough to enjoy these things,” she wrote.

“I really feel like, as time has gone on and obviously I’m getting a bit older, I’m in my late 30s, and with that comes with maturity,” she elaborated after the event. “With the experience, you just kind of learn to relax. I feel like I’ve become a better and better human at these competitions, and I really support my fellow riders. And I really mean it. It’s not fake. At the long formats, I used to kind of freeze and not want to talk to anyone and go into a little bit of a hole, which is really the opposite of what my personality is like, at the normal competitions. I think I’m my true self now.”

Brannigan also noted in her post that over $1 million has been raised by the event to help fight cancer through the Halt Cancer at X program, which Broussard established in 2012 in memory of her mother—and the event’s founder—Rebecca Broussard, who died in 2010.

“A huge thank you to everyone that puts on Rebecca Farm, and the Rebecca Farm travel and training grants I think are really special,” Brannigan wrote. “I’m glad we’re trying our best to live up to [Rebecca Broussard’s] image of what this event was supposed to be.”