United States Eventing Association

The first day of the first ever Land Rover Great Meadow CIC3* is now in the history books and Jennie Brannigan and Nina Gardner’s Cambalda lead the division after the dressage phase. The 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Balda Beau x Cathys Lady) had his best ever dressage test to score a 39.8 – the only sub-40 mark.

“I usually am scared to ever comment on anything until you get a score, but for me I was really excited leaving the ring,” said Jennie. “I had a feeling that he was going well and accurate, so I was hoping. To be honest everyone always told me ‘he can score in the 30s, he can score in the 30s’ but I had kind of gotten to the point that I didn’t think this horse was ever going to score in the 30s so I was pretty thrilled to be honest – just over the moon.”

“He isn’t a huge mover, so I just need to be really accurate,” Jennie continued. “He is consistent, and I have a great partnership with him. He is a joy to ride now, and I know him like the back of my hand. “

Exactly one point behind Jennie and Cambalda is another long-time partnership, Buck Davidson and BallynoeCastle RM. This is the first time to the venue for both Buck and Carl and Cassandra Segal’s 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, but he took the electric atmosphere in stride to put in a consistent, steady test.

Rounding out the top three is Tamra Smith and the Ahearn Family’s Mai Baum who travelled all the way across the country to contest several events this spring and summer.

After the conclusion of the CIC3* the skies opened up and the break was delayed 30 minutes to wait for the torrential downpours to subside before the Pan Am Games Preparatory Trial began.

Phillip Dutton and Fernhill Cubalawan, an 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding owned by Tom Tierney and Simon Roosevelt were the first in the ring and the pair held onto the lead for the entire division on their score of 42.8.

“It was a good call [to delay the start] because it seems like it was going to pass but it got pretty close with the lighting, so I was quite happy to go back inside”, explained Phillip. “The hardest thing is to decide if you start from scratch in your warm-up or do you abbreviate your warm-up, so I just made an educated guess and got on 20 minutes before the start and it turned out well.”

After making it safely out of warm-up Phillip thought that ‘Cuba’ perfomed a good test. “This test is pretty easy for him. He has done a four-star now and a lot of the other horses are greener. Its just a case of trying to present him well, keep him soft and make the movements forward but not rushed. He still could do a lot better but I am pretty pleased with him.”

Phillip has been named to the U.S. Team for this summer’s Pan American Games with either Fernhill Cubalawn or Fernhill Fugitive who is currently in 7th on a 47.8. Fellow teammate Lauren Kieffer is sitting in second aboard Marie Le Menestrel’s Meadowbrook’s Scarlett, who is still very young at 8-years-old, but didn’t bat an eye at the atmosphere to score a 43.3.

Boyd Martin and Pancho Villa are close at Lauren’s heels with a 43.9 while the final team member, Marilyn Little is in 6th with RF Scandalous on a 45.6.

The event continues tomorrow with show jumping kicking off at 6:30 PM.

See all the dressage results here