United States Eventing Association

Local rider Buck Davidson and Katherine O'Brien's 15-year-old Holsteiner gelding Carlevo (Caresino x Ramatuelle) prevailed to win the CCI4*-S at Plantation Field International Sunday after jumping clear around a heavily influential cross-country track designed by Derek di Grazia. Adding 6.0 time faults to his score put Davidson atop the leaderboard with 32.5 penalties, with Woods Baughman of Lexington, Kentucky placing second on 34.0 riding his 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding C’est La Vie 135 (Contendro I x Anette) after Liz Halliday-Sharp and The Monster Partnership's 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding Cooley Quicksilver (Womanizer x Kylemore Crystal), second after yesterday’s show jumping, added 15 faults for missing a flag and dropped to 5th place.

US Eventing Performance Director Erik Duvander has been working with High-Performance Athletes throughout the Olympic training and selection process. Duvander transitioned from a competitive rider into a coaching role after representing Sweden at the World Championship and Olympic level, and has coached teams and individual athletes to World Championship and Olympic medals. He has worked with the Japanese, Swedish, and New Zealand Equestrian Teams, including leading the New Zealand team to a fourth-place finish at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and a team bronze medal at the 2010 Alltech WEG.

Boyd Martin claimed the CCI4*-L victory at the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event riding Luke 140, owned by The Luke 140 Syndicate. California rider Tamra Smith held the lead and second place with Danito and En Vogue, respectively, with the two swapping placings after cross-country, and Martin and Luke 140 maintaining third place through both phases. But two rails down for Danito dropped him to fourth place and En Vogue was relegated to third with three rails down, opening the door for Martin and Luke 140 to clinch the win.

While her two horses swapped places for first and second after cross-country, Tamra Smith maintained both the lead and second place with two clear rounds and minimal time faults at the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event Presented by BW Furlong and Associates and Zoetis. The 16-year-old Hanoverian mare En Vogue (Earl x Laurena) is just a little more experienced than her barn mate Danito, also owned by Ruth Bley, so she was also a little quicker around the big, challenging course that twisted and turned through the Horse Park of New Jersey. En Vogue leads on a 27.1 and Danito is second with 31.9, with Boyd Martin maintaining third place with the 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding Luke 140 (Landos x Omega VI), owned by the Luke 140 Syndicate.

California rider Tamra Smith holds the lead and second position in the CCI4*-L at the Jersey Fresh International (JFI) CCI at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown. Smith scored 23.9 today with Danito, Ruth Bley’s 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Dancier x Wie Musik), to take the lead from her other mount, the 16-year-old Hanoverian mare (Earl x Laurena) En Vogue, also owned by Bley, who was the overnight leader after scoring 24.3 yesterday. Boyd Martin of Cochranville, Pa. holds third place with Luke 140, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Landos x Omega VI) owned by the Luke 140 Syndicate, on a score of 25.6.

Cross-country course designer and builder Jeff Kibbie was on the road to the Pine Top Horse Trials in Thomson, Georgia when he received a phone call that his friend and mentor Tremaine Cooper had been killed in an accident with a tree while working outdoors near his home in Virginia. It was the week before the Morven Park Horse Trials in Leesburg, Virginia, which Cooper had been designing and building for more than 30 years. Kibbie took care of business at Pine Top, and once the Intermediate and Preliminary divisions had run cross-country, he headed to Virginia and rallied a group of course builders to finish Cooper’s final project in time for the competition.

Today German eventer Ingrid Klimke became the first rider to win the eventing at the CHIO Aachen three times: in 2015 with SAP Escada, in 2017 with SAP Hale Bob OLD, and again today with SAP Hale Bob OLD. British rider Laura Collett was the overnight leader on London 52, but a runout at the final combination on course, the Stawag Complex, cost them the win.

With the home crowd cheering them on, German riders owned the top placings after the dressage phase of the CCIO4*-S at the CHIO Aachen World Equestrian Festival in Germany. The second-to-last horse and rider to enter the Deutsche Bank Stadium, Ingrid Klimke and the 2004 Oldenburg gelding SAP Hale Bob OLD (Helikon XX x Noble Champion) laid down a 20.7 to top the field in a super competitive dressage phase, closely followed by Michael Klimke and fischerChipmunk FRH with 21.5.

Volunteering is a great way to be involved in horse sports, whether you are an active competitor who wants to give back or you are a horse enthusiast who just wants to be involved. Every competitor in eventing must ride a dressage test, and every dressage judge at a horse trials or three-day event is required to have a scribe to write down their comments and scores during each ride so that they can focus on the horse and rider in front of them.

When Alexa Lapp started working for eventer Jennie Brannigan in 2012, the plan was to help out for a month or two until Brannigan found full-time help. Lapp traveled from her home in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Ocala, Florida in the winter of her Junior year of high school, having finished a substantial amount of school credit in her Freshman and Sophomore years and completing her schooling with a combination of on-campus and online courses.