United States Eventing Association

Millbrook, N.Y.—July 26—Arielle Aharoni had a quiet confidence about show jumping today at the Millbrook Horse Trials, despite jumping last as the overnight leader in the Advanced division with no rails in hand aboard her own, Christina Aharoni, and Filly’s Hope LLC’s Cooley Baltic Sea.

While two rails down in their last start at the Maryland International CCI4*-S in June wasn’t ideal, “Crunchy” jumped clear in his first CCI4*-L at Tryon (Mill Spring, North Carolina) in May.

Arielle kept her cool under pressure today with a crowd of people lining the ring, and the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Baltic VDL x HHS Cheerio) kept all the rails in their cups to take the win.

“He came out in a fabulous mood,” said Arielle. “He felt really strong when I was warming him, body-wise. Usually in warmup I only do eight fences. I think I did maybe six today. I was like, leave all the good jumps for in the arena. Everything rode to plan.”

At home, Arielle works on keeping Crunchy strong behind with lots of hill work, flat work with Heather Mason, and show jumping work with Olympian Chris Kappler.

She describes Crunchy’s jumping style as very strong, but he can be somewhat challenging.

“He really uses his neck and his hind, and that’s kind of why he was for sale, because he was just popping people a little bit over the fence, so you kind of have to follow it. But you know he, knock on wood, keeps the rails up 99% of the time,” she said. “He jumped 1.45-meters before when he was over in Europe. If you just kind of leave him alone, he does the job, which is very nice. We just do the homework at home and then let him do his thing when he gets to the shows.”

Arielle has the USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feed (Lexington, Kentucky) as her next goal, then the US Open of Eventing in October. She called the win this weekend “confidence boosting.”

“When you [win,] it definitely keeps the momentum going, and then you have bigger and bigger goals that you want to achieve,” she said. “And I think that motivation really keeps the wheels turning. It's been a good season so far.”

Ema Klugman (AUS) came to Millbrook this weekend with a handful of horses, and her best finish came aboard the Chiraz Syndicate’s Chiraz, a 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Cayado x Asquetta). The pair jumped a double-clear round in the Advanced division to maintain their overnight second-place standing.

The Maryland-based Klugman and Chiraz are longlisted for the Australian World Championship team. Though it’s unlikely they’ll be called up, Klugman said she’s honored to have been chosen.

She brought her horses to Millbrook to work on some changes in her training and put those ideas to the test in competition.

“Honestly, it wasn't my main goal to try to win the event or be competitive. I was actually just really working on training him, and I was very happy with how that turned out,” she said. “I think if you ride them well, usually then the results will just come instead of trying to necessarily go for it. I'm really pleased with him. He felt very fit. He was very energetic today. I rode him for quite a while this morning because he was really pretty wild, even after yesterday.”

Klugman has been working on the gelding’s straightness, which can be lost a bit due to his scope. “I thought he jumped super. He made it feel very easy,” she said. “He could have gone for a jump-off.”

Klugman also finished fifth with her own FVF Wildflower, a 9-year-old Oldenburg mare of unrecorded breeding in the mare’s first Advanced.

Kiersten Miller had a strong weekend riding two horses in both her and their first Advanced. She finished third with her own 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood mare (Indoctro x Lysienne II) Mama Mia with a double-clear show jumping round. She also finished 10^th with her own Rosconnell Alto, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Tabasco van Erpekom x All Clover).

“I've had Mama Mia since I was 16, and we're going on seven years now,” said Miller. “She definitely has her own way of going, and she's just special. She'll give you the world, and now that we have a partnership, she literally will do anything for me. So going in this weekend, I just wanted to get around and everything because it's been a long time coming. I have been going Intermediate now for I think four or five years—just a couple of setbacks along the way. So, it was everything and more this weekend. The dressage test was awesome. She was all there for me, and we were second after dressage. And then she went around perfectly yesterday, and then today she fought again for me. I still haven't processed it honestly!”

Miller, 23, works with Tim Bourke at his Virginia base and opted to come to Millbrook this year for a third year.

“Every year I've just love it,” she said. “I love the cross-country. I love all of it. Honestly, it's low key in the barns. The horses are very happy, and then it's well maintained out on the cross-country. The course designer is awesome. It's just it's a good atmosphere.

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