A month ago, the Chronicle talked to Will Simpson after he’d won four grand prix classes in a row as the HITS Desert Circuit in Thermal, Calif., got underway. That seemed like a pretty remarkable accomplishment.
Now, he’s won seven at Thermal. He’s lost the “consecutive” modifier, but that in no way detracts from the magnitude of the accomplishment. This past week, Simpson and The Dude topped the $34,000 FEI HITS Desert Classic on Feb. 19 and then the $30,000 SmartPak Grand Prix on Feb. 22.
“Will has ramped up the sport of jumping here and it’s been good for all of us,” said Eduardo Menezes after placing second to The Dude on Thursday. “We are all going faster and going after him and that has made us all better. This is why we show these horses, wanting not only for the win, but to be a part of a good win. Winning and being the only clear is nice but it’s just not our sport—this circuit has been anything but dull. We will continue to try to catch him.”
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Simpson’s success on The Dude and other horses in his string like Katie Riddle has injected a lot of excitement into grand prix days at HITS Thermal, and Simpson says that carries over for his entire team. “He is wonderful to have in the barn and has added some real excitement for us,” Simpson said. “It’s like a heated battle that we are all having so much fun with. All day long everyone keeps saying stuff to me in great fun, that they will do this or do that to catch me. It’s great sport and it’s what we are here for. I live for this stuff, and when you finally have a superstar horse it gets pretty sweet.”
Simpson, however, is trying hard not to let the blue ribbons blind him from the task at hand. “I come out and do my job diligently. I am so fortunate to have a great team in the Heidegger family [which owns Monarch International] and amazing guys in the barn who have everything running just right. We are all working overtime to keep everything going along smoothly. He is a young horse and we are careful with him. But he sure loves this and I don’t want to get ahead of him.”
Simpson sat out Saturday night’s $50,000 Purina Animal Nutrition Grand Prix CSI-W, which was won by Katie Dinan on her great little horse Nougat du Vallet. However, he did coach Hannah Heidegger to second place behind Dinan on Monarch International’s Geledimar.
