United States Eventing Association

Myakka City, Fla.—March 27—The Event at TerraNova's B&D Builders CCI4*-S dressage lead goes to Dan Kreitl riding Carmango, a 13-year-old Westphalian gelding (Chirivell x Taramanga), owned by Kay Dixon. Kreitl, a real estate agent from Muncie, Indiana, and Carmango won the 2022 USEF CCI4*-L National Championships and in 2023 competed at the CHIO Aachen and the Luhmühlen Horse Trials, both in Germany, on a USEF travel grant.

Kreitl said that he’s spent the past two weeks in Florida preparing for TerraNova. He’s had Carmango since the horse was a 4-year-old and appreciates all of the experiences they’ve had together. Carmango had an injury a year and a half ago and had time off from eventing, during which they competed in the US Dressage Finals (Wilmington, Ohio) at the end of last year, where they placed second in the adult amateur Intermediaire I division. He commented that in the future he will compete in more dressage and only event part of the time.

In the interest of the horse’s soundness, Kreitl has kept Carmango’s training and fitness on the light side, but he said that the horse came back easily and recently placed fourth in the Advanced division at Pine Top Horse Trials (Thomson, Georgia). TerraNova will be their last preparatory run as they head to the Land Rover Kentucky CCI4*-S in Kentucky in April.

Kreitl said that historically show jumping has been their weakest phase, usually having a couple of rails down, so odds are that the standings may change tomorrow, but he’s looking forward to getting out on the cross-country course on Sunday. “I’m excited, it looks like a proper course,” he said. “I’ve only been here one time, and it was the first time they had the four-star; I think they’ve cranked it up a little since then, and I assume it will ride well, but it looks challenging enough.”

In today’s dressage, the final group of riders was highly competitive, leading to a nail-biting finish. Canadian Olympic rider Colleen Loach slipped into the lead in the second group of horses with her 14-year-old Hanoverian/Holsteiner FE Golden Eye (Goldfever x Cascade) with a score of 25.5, but U.S. Olympian Lauren Nicholson quickly snatched it away with a nearly flawless performance on Jacqueline Mars’ 16-year-old Holsteiner/Irish Sport Horse gelding Landmark’s Jungle Gold (Diarado x Jungle Tale) on a score of 25.2.

Veteran five-star rider Monica Spencer of New Zealand and Artist, a 15-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding (Guillotine x Maxamore), owned by the Team Artist Syndicate, took a commanding lead with only four horses left to go, scoring 80.42% from the judge at E and a perfect 10 on her final halt for a penalty score of 21.3. It seemed that she had the division locked down when Kreitl and Carmango just edged into the lead with 21.0. Kreitl said that he heard the scores announced from the warm-up area and just focused on riding his horse as well as he could.

Across divisions TerraNova has drawn an international group of riders, representing the USA, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Honduras, Japan, Panama, Sweden and New Zealand.

TerraNova is the sixth leg of the US Open of Eventing Series. According to Equiratings, Spencer and Artist started the event with a 1 in 4 chance of winning after placing second in the MARS Maryland 5 Star last fall. Buck Davidson already has 60 points on the leaderboard and is competing three horses this weekend at TerraNova. Kreitl makes his first US Open appearance with Carmango, with a 1 in 5 chance of winning. The pair’s last international competition was a second-place finish at The Fork CCI4*-S (Mill Spring, North Carolina) in September, 2024.

Three-Star and one-star dressage started at 8:20 a.m., and temperatures were in the mid-60s. By 2:30 p.m. the temperature reached 87 degrees, and Kreitl said that he and the horses were feeling the effects of the heat.

In highly competitive division with 43 entries, The Estates at TerraNova and Laughlin Tanner Group at Premier Sotheby's International Realty CCI3*-S, Lauren Nicholson and How Easy GG hold the overnight lead. The handsome 9-year-old gray Selle Francais (So Easy x Upsilon) gelding owned by Christa Schmidt and Jacqueline Mars put in a professional and polished ride to claim the top spot with 28.7.

Nicholson said, “I was really pleased with How Easy GG in the three-star dressage; we kind of started our partnership last year. He was sourced by the Winter family in the UK, and he’s totally my type; he’s a little feisty guy, and he’s got three lovely gaits and a great jump. He’s very workmanlike in the ring and didn’t make any mistakes, I was really pleased that the judges rewarded his consistency and rideability, because he’s an attractive mover but not the most flashy thing in the world.”

She said, “How Easy GG and I are just filling a couple of holes in our partnership; he thinks he’s ready for Advanced, but I’m trying to make sure I have all my homework done. I’m not sure if we’ll do another 3-L with him, He did Hartpury [in England] last year and that was quite a proper one, so he may end up doing horse trials and shorts this summer and aim for a 4-L in the fall, but we’ll play it by ear and see what he’s ready for.”

Nicholson also mentioned that she is impressed with the footing at TerraNova. “We’ve been having a serious drought in Ocala and in Florida in general, and it’s great that they’ve had some rain here and they had a chance to irrigate because the footing looks excellent. I haven’t seen all the tracks yet, but I’m certainly looking forward to tackling them both.”

Mia Farley took the early lead in the CCI3-S on 29.2 with her 10-year-old Hanoverian mare Pina Colada 28 (Periguaux x Eika). The striking black mare with a blaze and two hind stockings put in a strong performance which kept them in second place heading into show jumping tomorrow. Farley is also in eighth place in the CCI4-S riding Invictus, a 10-year-old American Warmblood gelding owned by Karen O’Connor.

Dani Sussman rode Watervalley Royal Guy to the third spot with their score of 30.2, ahead of Colleen Loach, the leading Canadian rider in both the CCI4-S and the CCI3-S: she and FE Golden Eye are currently fourth in the CCI4*-S and in the CCI3*-S with Chiaro Z Excalibur, an 8-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Contendro 1 x Kyara Z) owned by Peter Barry.

The Event continues through Sunday, featuring competition from Starter through the CCI4-S level. Spectators are invited to attend with free daily admission, on-site food trucks, and children's activities such as Mini Horsemanship Camp, held on Sunday. Livestreaming is free to watch from home or on the go at www.terranovaequestrian.com/streaming.

For full results, click here.