Bromont, Quebec – June 11   

Before this weekend, Kylie Lyman had never contested a CCI***, but at the end of cross-country day at the Jaguar Land Rover Bromont CCI, she’s suddenly found herself on top of the leader board with Lup The Loop.

If that wasn’t enough, she’s also standing in third with Sacramento, giving her two out of four horses in the division to jump double-clear across Derek Di Grazia’s track.

“My first thought was just to get the job done today,” she said. “I also couldn’t help but want to be competitive, and I felt like we had done our homework beforehand. I felt like we were prepared to go out and do our jobs. I didn’t want to be satisfied with just getting around. I’m very thrilled that they both stepped up to the plate so well.

“They sort of helped me out a couple of times, and they could not have been better. I expected it to look huge, and I expected to be nervous, but I know with all the Derek courses I’ve ridden, I feel like they suit my style of cross-country riding,” she continued.

The leader board shuffled considerably across all divisions, but especially in the three-star.

Kylie Lyman and Lup The Loop. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Riders were universal in their praise of Di Grazia’s course, which was big but galloping. An optimum time of 10 minutes proved hard to get though.

Dressage leaders Buck Davidson and The Apprentice added 14.4 time penalties to fall to seventh, and second-placed Will Faudree and Pfun picked up 20 penalties. Jennie Brannigan and Catalina added 10 time penalties to give Lyman the lead with “Loopy,” an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Joan Nichols.

“Jackson,” a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Cristin O’Hara, is coming off a win at the Jersey Fresh CIC*** (N.J.), and he moved up six places after dressage.

“They both have completely different attitudes, but both of them are big, galloping horses, and I can sort of get in trouble with their strides getting too open and too long, so it’s easy in that way that I know I have to get them back in the combinations and not get a little overzealous,” Lyman explained. “Loopy is a bit lazy and hard to get motivated, whereas Jackson just shows up to work every single day, and he’s the overachiever. But they both tend to go about their business as soon as they leave the start box, so they’re pretty dependable that way. I couldn’t have asked for two better horses to go out and do my first three-star on. It’s taken awhile to get here, but I’m happy with what I had today, and it was worth waiting for.”

Lyman last competed at Bromont in 2011, then moved to Ireland to get more riding experience. She moved back to the U.S. in late 2014 and has been slowly bringing along a string of horses ever since.

Ryan Wood and Woodstock Bennett. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Ryan Wood also brought along his CCI*** horse Woodstock Bennett, who jumped double-clear today to moved from sixth the second. Fresh off a win at the Jersey Fresh CCI*** (N.J.) with Powell, Wood is finally reaping the benefits of carefully producing several youngsters, including “Bennett,” who he’s had since he was four.

The 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, owned by Wood and Curran Simpson, has completed the CCI* and CCI** at Bromont, so the three-star was the next step.

“He was pretty awesome out there,” he said. “He saved me a couple of times, but he was on the job looking to go between the flags. I was sort of thinking leaving the start box that it’s a long way for his owners to have come for me to not get around, so I’m glad that it all came together.”

Wood is also leading the CIC*** with Frankie, an off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding with a special story.

“He was really awesome. It was one of the best cross-country rounds I’ve had in a long time,” he said. “He was coming off [Rolex] Kentucky where we had a fall at the water early on. He’s pretty seasoned to be prepared for Kentucky, so he had a week off after that, then we ramped him back up for this, and he felt like he was on target today.

“He’s just a little Thoroughbred that looks pretty unassuming without tack on, but he’s got a big heart, and he’s a champion. He won a couple of hundred thousand dollars as a racehorse. He wants to do the right thing,” he added.

Wood picked Frankie out of a field as a 5-year-old in Aiken, S.C.

Ryan Wood and Frankie. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“The lady who had [five Thoroughbred] horses brought a trailer load of them over. They’d all been in field for six months or longer. They were a little wild and wooly. It was at the end of the day and we were running out of daylight, so we had to do a process of elimination, putting them on the lunge,” he said. “If they moved all right then we progressed and lunged them over a little jump. If they jumped all right then I got on. There was two I got on, and Frankie was the best under tack.”

Frankie’s price was $1,000, but having just moved to the U.S. from Australia, Wood was “pretty hard up at that point.”

“I offered her $500, and she called her husband, and they declined and put him on the trailer. She was driving down the driveway, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll go one more try,’ so I ran up there and knocked on the window as she was driving out, and I startled her, and she put the window down, and I said, ‘Would you do $500 and I’ll give you a couple of free jump lessons,’ because she was into eventing, and she said, ‘Deal,’” he recounted.

Boyd Martin’s invitation to stay at Peter Barry’s nearby farm might have just been rescinded as he grabbed the lead in the CCI** over Barry by just .5 penalties.

“Last time I get invited to stay at your place!” Martin joked with Barry.

“He’s staying with me no more!” Barry said with a laugh.

Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Barry was leading the division on Long Island T, but 8 time penalties dropped him to second. Martin and Christine Turner’s Tsetserleg moved up from third to first with a double-clear round, and Martin’s other mount, Stephen Blauner and Nancy Hathaway’s Bonito, is in third with a double-clear.

Both are new rides for Martin. Michael Pollard formerly rode Tsetserleg to the CCI** level, while Bonito came from Germany with one-star experience.

“Michael’s done a wonderful job at producing him, so I didn’t have to do much but ride him around,” said Martin. “Bonito’s a little bit greener. They’re both very talented horses so I wanted to bring them up here because I feel like this event’s a real test, and you know if you can get around the two-star here you should have a three-star or four-star horse.”

Barry agreed, adding, “It rode a little bit like it walked. I think it’s great for horses coming here, and I think more horses should come here. It’s such a nice event. It’s an education. There’s a lot of land, there’s a lot of galloping, and it’s a wonderful course I find for young horses. The horses come out of it happy, ears pricked. It was the biggest Ludwig’s ever done. He felt good. It was a good run, he could go forward.”

Wood also praised the courses. “Derek is just the master about building questions that encourage positive riding and being able to hold your line,” he said. “The terrain is pretty tough here. You’ve got up and down and around, and the jumps are big and bold, but the horses finish and they feel awesome. It’s really great to ride around his courses and finish and feel like you’re ready to go on to the next step. To make it compulsory for course builders to spend some time with him, I think would be a way to go because he’s just brilliant.”

For full results, click here.

The final horse inspection begins tomorrow morning at 8 a.m., followed by show jumping at 10 a.m.