Allentown, N.J.—May 14

It was a somber day at the Jersey Fresh International, as riders, fans and volunteers learned of the death of Philippa Humphreys and Skyler Decker’s horse Inoui Van Bost at the end of a long cross-country day.

The CCI*** and CCI** divisions completed their cross-country, while the CIC*** and CIC** divisions show jumped this morning and wrapped up with cross-country.

The leading riders of the day were solemn in their discussion of their rides, but walked us through their weekends so far.

Read on to hear from the day’s winners and leaders.

Ryan Wood and Powell – Leaders of the CCI*** (46.0)

Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Wood and Powell are just hanging on to their lead over Boyd Martin and Welcome Shadow and Phillip Dutton and Indian Mill (46.3) because of 2.4 time penalties.

Ilona English’s 10-year-old Oldenburg gelding is contesting his first CCI***.

“He was awesome,” said Wood. “He saved me at a couple of spots around the course. He’s a big horse, and he’s got a massive stride. He was quite good on his minutes up until about 7 minutes. It’s a bit of a twisty, climby track the way you always seem to be turning and going uphill, which is pretty taxing on them. I fell behind on that seventh minute, and didn’t quite get the time, but still was able to sneak in .3 ahead of Boyd and Phillip!”

“I’ve never been in this position before, so I’m pretty happy to be going for the win. I’ll just do my best and see what happens,” he said.

Frankie Thieriot Stutes and Chatwin – Leaders of the CCI** (44.5)

Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

Stutes came from California to get more experience against tougher competition. She and Chatwin, an 8-year-old Oldenburg gelding, are nearly undefeated at the intermediate and two-star level.

“I just thought it would be really good for us to come out here and get some more exposure with some different competition. The West Coast is phenomenal, but I wanted to do a two-star that was a difficult two-star with him, and I felt that this was definitely the one to do that at,” she said. “I thought it was quite difficult. I think the whole way around it kept coming at you. When I walked it, I thought it was a very hard course, and not any one particular fence or combination, but the longevity of the course and the fact that at the end there were some really technical combinations that short-strided distances.”

Stutes got some advice from a few riders as she warmed up, including Phillip Dutton. “Some of the great people in the warm up reminded me, and said, ‘Frankie, you have a great horse, just go ride your horse, and you’ll do great.’ I tried to take it one jump at a time,” she said.

Kurt Martin – Winner of the CIC** with DA Calimero (52.4)

Photo by Kimberly Loushin.

Martin moved up from 14th after dressage to win with Debbie Adams’ 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, who he’s catch-ridden in the past, but just arrived at his barn to campaign last week.

“I thought he was really brave and really listened the whole way. I’ve only had the horse a short time, so we weren’t totally certain. He flew around and didn’t have a bad fence. It was a great ride,” he said of “Squid.”

Martin’s friend Lauren Kieffer suggested him as a rider to Adams.

“It took a little bit of time [to get to know him,] said Martin. “I think they just ended up trusting me with the horse. I was in Florida, and I catch rode it a couple of times, and Debbie was riding it every day. Then they sent it up last Wednesday to me. It’s a good horse. It’s ready to go. They’ve done a good job.

“He’s pretty hot. He’s a real go-er, very quick footed,” he continued. “I think it’s great to ride something so different from your own horses. To ride that is more like riding a very quick-footed show jumper—the turns and just the way you get to the fence. You rock him back, and he’s right there. It’s not so much about a distance, it’s just you put him in a balance, and it’s a really fun horse to ride. It made it pretty easy.”

Kylie Lyman – Winner of the CIC*** with Sacramento (55.9)

Photo by Kimberly Loushin.

Lyman recently reconnected with the 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, owned by Cristin O’Hara. He was the first horse she brought along when she moved to Ireland in 2011, but he was a sales horse.

A year ago, O’Hara asked Lyman to take the ride back.

“Our first three-star was at The Fork [N.C.,] and he’s just gotten better and better as we’ve went, and it’s been really exciting just to have him back and continue on our partnership, which I didn’t think we’d be able to do,” said Lyman.

Tidbits

• John Williams’ courses rode tough, especially the arena questions. After problems in the morning in both CCI divisions, the corner in the CIC**, 11a, was removed, and the corner in the CIC***, 16b, was removed.

• In the CCI**, five riders retired on course. Two of those riders retired at fence 8abc, the down bounce wedge. The final combination on course, 22ab the triple bar to a cordwood also saw the only three rider falls of the division.

• In the CCI***, seven retired on course with the most problems coming from fence 12ab, the corners in the ring. Three riders fell and another faulted there. Fence 24abc, The Hollow saw two refusals and another rider retired there. Two riders fell. Jennie Brannigan, withdrew from the division after parting ways with Stella Artois in the CCI**. She later withdrew the rest of her horses, citing on her Facebook page that she wanted to be cautious after hitting her head.

• Seven riders fell on the CIC** track and two others were eliminated for picking up three stops on course. Five riders withdrew after show jumping while two elected to only compete in the dressage portion of the competition.

• The smallest division of the weekend, the CIC*** saw one retirement—Ronald Zabala-Goetschel and Wise Jolliyat after they picked up a stop. Dressage leaders Caroline Martin and Effervescent dropped to third after show jumping and then received a technical elimination on the cross country.