Handyman Hughie kept Phillip Dutton’s winning streak at the spring advanced horse trials alive at Morven Park, April 1-2, in Leesburg, Va. Dutton has already won divisions at Pine Top (Ga.), Red Hills (Fla.) and Southern Pines (N.C.) on his string of mounts.

Handyman Hughie, a 10-year-old, Thoroughbred gelding (Poker Hand–Miss Spectrum) owned by Anne Jones, completed the Foxhall CCI** (Ga.) and Bromont CCI** (Canada) in 2005, finishing third and second, respectively. This was his third career start at advanced.

In Dutton’s words, their dressage was, “still green, but good,” with a score of 41.3 to put them in the middle of the pack at 11th. They went on to jump one of only four clean show jumping rounds in the division to move up to seventh. “I’m happy with how he jumped,” said the three-time Australian Olympian.

The weather was beautiful for Sunday’s cross-country, but concern for the ground, which hadn’t seen substantial rain for more than six weeks, along with the need for many competitors to start at the CIC-W*** at The Fork (N.C.), the following weekend, led to 15 of the original 22 riders scratching before the final phase. Dutton scratched Amazing Odyssey and Lucky Stripe, who were in fifth and 14th.

“They’ll run next weekend [at The Fork],” Dutton said. “There was no need to run them cross country this weekend. At this point, we aren’t aiming Handyman Hughie for a spring three-day, so he ran the cross-country at Morven for the experience.”

His inexperience showed at the first substantial question, the Leaf Pit (fence 4AB-5). A doubletake at the B element, a sharp drop, caused him to stub his toe on the ground line and gave the crowd a reason to gasp. The pair quickly righted themselves, completing the rest of the combination with ease, and continued around the course without any further hiccups. Time penalties of 11.2 were added to their score, putting them solidly in the blue-ribbon position.

Up To The Challenge
Young rider Alexandra Zavoyna and her partner Merloch clinched the win in open intermediate, division 1. A steady dressage test with a score of 39.7 put them in a tie for sixth in the field of 27.

“I was a little concerned about the dressage this weekend, because we had to do our test in a small ring in the indoor,” said the 17-year-old from Unionville, Pa. “He handled it really well; I was very pleased with him.”

Show jumping that afternoon required a bit of extra effort from the pair. A little leftover March wind kicked up, causing havoc.

Jumps were falling without the aid of any hooves, and many a rider had their round interrupted by the need to replace rails that the wind had dislodged. As Zavoyna started her round, a plank from the third fence, an oxer, was blown out, landing in front of the jump. The height of the jump was unchanged, but the new ground line widened things considerably.

“No one noticed that the plank had fallen, and I wasn’t whistled to stop,” she said. “When we got there, I just dropped my hands and kicked. It felt like we soared six feet. He was fabulous.”

A rail at the next fence added 4 points to their score, but they still moved up to fourth going into Sunday’s cross-country.

“The cross-country was quite technical, with lots of turning questions,” Zavoyna said. “I came to Morven with the plan of using this as a schooling weekend and not going for time. I looked at it as a challenge. He was absolutely fabulous. Being in the open instead of a young rider division, the win was wonderful.”

Zavoyna, who trains with Bonnie Mosser, has been riding Merloch, a 9-year-old New Zealand Sport Horse, since he was imported in 2003. They were members of the gold-medal one-star team from Area II at the North American Young Riders Championships last year. Their goal this year is to make it back to the championships, this time in the two-star division.

Exciting Prospects
The blue in the second division of intermediate went to two-time Canadian Olympian Stuart Black and his mare, Fleeceworks Starlight. They took the lead after the dressage with a score of 25.6 and never looked back.

“She’s by Cavalier Royale, and she’s got big movement,” said Black of the 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse. “She’s much more developed, mentally and physi-cally, than she was last season. It showed in the test.”

A clean round over Tremaine Cooper’s show jumping course kept the pair, from Bluemont, Va., in first going into the cross-country. “She’s a clean, careful, powerful jumper,” Black said of his round on the U.S. Eventing Association’s 2004 Mare of the Year.

The pair breezed around the cross-country, adding only 5.2 time penalties to their score and clinching the win. “Mark [Phillips] has been a big help, adding control to our cross-country. The course was a bit tricky but rode well,” Black remarked. “Our sessions with Robert [Dover] have improved our flatwork. We had a fantastic year last year. Let’s hope this year goes even better.”

Last year included placing 10th and eighth in the CCI***s at Foxhall (Ga.) and Fair Hill (Md.). Now they are headed to the Rolex Kentucky CCI****. “We’ve had a slow start this spring and needed a few horse trials to get things together,” said Black.

Black has another exciting prospect in Mystere du Val, a 6-year-old, Selle Francais gelding owned by Guy and Beatrice Reyherme. He finished second at Morven in his first attempt at preliminary. They won the dressage in division 2 with a 23.8, but three rails and 1.2 time penalties on the cross-country put them in second.

“This is a wonderful horse,” enthused Black. “He’s definitely one to watch for in the future.”