Tyler, Texas—Sept. 25   

Jacob Fletcher had a mission when he sent in the entries for his two advanced horses to the Nutrena/U.S. Eventing Association’s American Eventing Championships.

“I thought, ‘This is Area V’s last time to host the AECs for a while. We can’t not let somebody from Area V try to win it one of these years. We can’t just let Buck [Davidson] and his crew come and win it every year!’ ” he joked.

And he did well on his promise by putting in stellar cross-country rounds on his two gray geldings, maintaining his dressage lead in the Adequan Advanced Gold Cup Final on Atlantic Domino (31.6) and finishing a slow and steady round on Fly Away Ferro to sit 10th (50.6).

Davidson is a rail behind him though on Wundermaske, a horse he’s competing while his regular rider, Sharon White, is recovering from a back injury.

Young rider Caroline Martin moved from seventh after dressage to third on Quantum Solace with the only double-clear round.

While the advanced division was small with 11 riders tackling Mark Phillips’ twisty course, Fletcher was thrilled with both his rides.

“[Atlantic Domino] just came off a really good [CIC***] round at Richland [Park (Mich.)], but I’ve had a few 20s in the past, so I thought when I came here, even though it’s kind of a prep for Galway [Downs CCI*** Calif.)], if I was in a position after the dressage, I’d kick on and give it a go,” he said. “He developed a little bit of a left drift going around the cross-country, and it got me off my initial line on the backside of the fences a few times, so I had to whip around a few times, and it got me a little long a few times. He was really good, and he’s such an honest horse.”

Fletcher, 21, got the ride on the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse when he was a working student for Kevin McNab in England at the end of 2013. “Domino” had been produced to the advanced level by Tanya Kyle, and Fletcher moved up the levels quickly with him in 2014, contesting two CCI***s. But it wasn’t until this year that things finally started to click.

“He’s really good at his job,” he said. “He may be a once-in-a-lifetime horse. I don’t think he’s the scopiest thing you’ll ever see, but he’s a workman, and I think if I ride him well, he should be up in the standings week in and week out because he’s so rideable and does the job.”

Fletcher, North Little Rock, Ark., said he was most proud of Fly Away Ferro, a horse he’s produced up the levels. He admitted at one point when the gelding was going training level, he thought about retiring him to a field because he was so difficult.

“He’s quite tricky mentally,” he said. “I was thinking today, ‘Oh I could be a second faster at every fence,’ but as far as producing him mentally, he’s going to be much better the next course I go to if I want to kick on more if I took a little more time here because it was twisty and with the big, scopey ones it would have felt pretty funny if you hauled around it.”

Davidson was happy with how “Patch” went, especially considering it was only his third event on the gelding, and he’s only ever ridden him at those competitions, save for the few cross-country schools he did on him when he was a 4-year-old while White was recovering from a broken pelvis.

“It’s kind of fun to climb back on him at the advanced level. He’s a really, really nice horse and hopefully Sharon gets healed up quick and gets back on him soon,” he said. “He has a tendency every once in a while to want to go home [on course], but he jumped very well. The course wasn’t very difficult, but you really had to twist and turn, and he’s a good horse for that. I just hope my friend gets better, and her horse will at least not be going much worse by the time she gets back. Sharon’s done a great job training him.”

Tidbits From A Few Cross-Country Leaders

Tristen Hooks – leading the amateur preliminary division on Learning To Fly (26.9)

Hooks and her Holsteiner gelding held onto their dressage lead with a double-clear. “I have to give a big thanks to one of my friends, Heather [Drager], who went first and said, ‘The [second] water doesn’t work in a bending line, four-stride.’ I guess the first couple of riders, even Leslie Law, tried to do it, and it did not work out well at all. That was my plan, so thank you Heather! Then I went and watched and knew I needed to go for it, because left is his run-out direction, and I did not want to do that. He was a rock star. His jump into the water was as solid as he’s ever been. We had a little bit of a delay [due to Jennifer Burk’s fall], and it’s a little nervewracking to hang out an extra 40 minutes at the startbox, but we just walked, and he was cool as a cucumber, and he just demonstrated to me again that he has more skill than I give him credit for!”

Ashley Hays – leading the training amateur division on Call It Courage (23.2)

“I’m very happy with him. He was pretty game out of the startbox. It did take us a couple of fences to get our rhythm today. He was a little taken aback by the Interstate next to fence 2, so we kind of jumped that a little bit sideways, but after that he was on it. He was very grown up out there today, and that’s what I’ve been going for.

“There were quite a few lines where I was like, ‘Why did I do the training?’ They were not easy on us. The first water, the skinny out was kind of facing the mound, so I knew I needed to have him between my leg and my hand. I probably actually overrode that, but warming up, I made sure I jumped everything in angles because we had quite a few angled lines out there.” 

The pair have two rails in hand tomorrow for show jumping. 

“My goal for tomorrow is to not pick at him, because that’s my worst habit. I pick, pick, pick to them, and if I just go out there, hold my shoulders, basically steer, let him have his course, because tomorrow’s his day. I better not ruin it for him!” she said.

Tamra Smith – leading the preliminary horse division with Fleeceworks Royal (28.4)

Smith moved up from fourth after dressage when Leslie Law, who held the top three spots, had trouble on all of his mounts. “She was super! She came right out of the box and has always been super brave—she was exactly that! The course was fairly challenging, and she made it easy,” she said. “Definitely the most influencial combinations were the second water, a drop to a skinny to a corner. It was proving to ride a lot more difficult. I was a little bit concerned with having Leslie be first out and having trouble right away. We were all like, ‘Whoa!’ For her it rode perfect. She’s very brave and bold. My biggest thing is to get her more rideable. She easily made the time—right out of stride to everything, and I’m thrilled with her!”

Tomorrow will be a busy day with novice and beginner novice running cross-country and training, preliminary, intermediate and advanced crowning champions. Stay tuned for more action! 

Full results and course maps can be found here.