Aharoni and Cooley Baltic Sea Make Easy Work of Millbrook's Advanced Cross-Country
Millbrook, N.Y.—July 25—There was a lot of work to do on Morgan Rowsell’s Advanced cross-country track at the Millbrook Horse Trials today, but it was no problem for Arielle Aharoni and Cooley Baltic Sea.
They were the fastest of the 15 pairs to jump, adding 2 time penalties to their dressage score of 33.9, and they jumped up the leaderboard from eighth into the lead. Of the starters, seven finished without jumping faults. Dressage leaders Lauren Nicholson and How Easy GG jumped a good clear in the gelding’s first start at the level, but 24.8 time penalties dropped them to seventh place.
“Crunchy” has been at the Advanced level for about a year and a half, and he finished third in the Tryon International CCI4*-L (Mill Spring, North Carolina) earlier this year. Aharoni brought him to Millbrook as a prep run before the USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds (Lexington, Kentucky) in August.
“I always try to come out to Millbrook. I love this venue,” she said. “Especially a little bit farther south, the ground's pretty hard, so we try to come up north as much as possible as the summer rolls on, and we love Millbrook, so I always try to have a group that comes here. [He felt] really good. It was easy for him. I know it was hard. There was a lot of work to do. I'm not saying it was easy goings out there, but he made it feel easy.”
Aharoni’s been paired with the 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Baltic VDL x HHS Cheerio), who she owns with her mother, Christina Aharoni, and Filly’s Hope LLC, since March 2024. He’d been campaigned to the three-star level in England by Wills Oakden.
Arielle’s five-star horse, Dutch Times, had recently been injured, and she only had young horses in the barn when Crunchy came up for sale in Florida where he was with Jordan Crabo.
“We weren't really looking, but his ad came up, and I was like, ‘No, we need to go sit on him.’ There were thoughts of maybe getting another horse, but not serious. Then we went and sat on him, and we loved him, so we couldn't say no,” she said with a smile.
She describes him as “100% pony. He's spoiled. He knows he's all that. He gets what he wants. He's quite funny. He has a lot of personality and a lot of opinions.”
Arielle’s hoping to compete in the US Open of Eventing at Morven Park (Leesburg, Virginia) in the fall, then if all goes well, she feels Crunchy will be ready for a five-star next year.
As for tomorrow’s show jumping at Millbrook, she’s crossing her fingers for a clear round. She won’t have a rail in hand over second-placed Ema Klugman and Chiraz.
Ema Klugman (AUS) and the Chiraz Syndicate's 13-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Cayado x Asquetta) Chiraz, moved into second place from fifth, while Ariel Grald and Annie Eldridge's Hanoverian mare (Diacontinus x Lady Revens) Diara remained in third place.
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