United States Eventing Association

46 Horses Accepted at the 2018 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event First Horse Inspection

The start field for the 2018 edition of the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event is even smaller following the first horse inspection as one horse was withdrawn from the hold and one wasn’t accepted.

Five horses were sent to the hold box and then accepted upon reinspection: Spring Easy (Caroline Martin), Paddy the Caddy (Erin Sylvester), Qorry Blue D’Argouges (Colleen Loach), Polaris (Sara Gumbiner), and Sound Prospect (Alexandra Knowles).

Johnny Royale, ridden by Joe Meyer, was sent to the hold box and Meyer decided to withdraw him from the competition. Mettraise, ridden by Erin Sylvester, was sent to the hold and then not accepted upon reinspection.

Two additional horses had withdrawn before the horse inspection; Pebbly Maximus, ridden by Caroline Martin, and Revitavet Capato, ridden by Jordan Linstedt. So, there will be 46 horses moving forward to dressage.

Dressage gets underway tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. with Buck Davidson and Park Trader. This will be the first four-star since the removal of the dressage multiplier. According to USEA’s partner, EquiRatings, “The result of the removal of the multiplier is that dressage scores will be more tightly bunched going into the jumping phases and at this level, cross-country will the most influential phase - with dressage just behind and then show jumping (dressage is still the main influencer when you look at the sport across all levels).”

“We are going to see much lower scores in the first phase, a 45 in the old system is a 30 now,” continued EquiRatings.  “So expect those top horses to be scoring in the twenties. If you want to break a course record, you need to hit the TEENS in the first phase with Bettina Hoy’s 2009 score on Ringwood Cockatoo being translated to a 19.2 opening score in the new system. Big opening scores won’t be enough at this venue, it will be about finishing on that score. Make no mistake, this will be a test of who can add the least to their dressage score. Every second lost on the cross-country course, and every pole down, is likely to see snakes and ladders on the leader board that we are not used to. Even the day before it begins, the data is suggesting this promises to be one of the most dramatic Kentuckys in recent years.”

While you are waiting for the action to get underway tomorrow catch up on all of the photos from today’s horse inspection, including some outtakes! Haven’t had a chance to see who is competing this year? We have you covered with a full roster of facts!

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