Kurt Martin finished the CCI3*-L on his dressage score of 23.5 after a fault-free show jumping round on Sunday with D.A. Lifetime, a 9-year-old mare (Lingh x Timeless) owned by Debbie Adams. The pair maintained their spot on the top of the leaderboard throughout all four days of competition to earn the USEF Eventing National Championship and a $7,500 portion of the $25,000 purse. Although 35 horses returned to the Main Arena for their final show jumping test after Sunday’s second horse inspection, Martin was one of only eight riders who put in clear rounds over the 14-effort, 1.20m course designed by Ken Krome.
“It sounds amazing,” Martin said of his 2021 National Championship title. “I wanted this so bad, and I’m glad that everything came together this weekend for all involved.
“Competing here has been amazing,” he added. “I’ve been to the old Fair Hill, but coming here, I didn’t know what the course would be like. I didn’t run the test event. I heard that it was going to be a difficult cross-country course regarding the terrain, but I didn’t know how things were like everybody else. I feel like this went pretty easily, quite honestly. The horse went well, and everyone was so kind.”
Martin has been developing “Clarence” carefully over the last year, learning what he could do with her and when. “I know when to get on that horse; I know when to ask that horse to stand and when I can’t,” he said. “I don’t force that horse to do anything. When I went into the showjumping, I just looked up and took a deep breath at every single fence. What was going to be was going to be, and she did that for me. She really worked hard, and that’s what a partnership is.”
Fellow American Hannah Sue Burnett, who sat in fourth place after Saturday’s cross-country Driven by Land Rover, jumped to a second-place finish with 0.4 time faults in the show jumping. She and Carsonstown, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (Lougherne Cappuchino x Nonavic Spyridonna) owned by Christa Schmidt, earned a final score of 28.1. “We’ve had Carson for a couple of years, and he’s a really special horse,” Burnett said. “He’s grown a lot physically and mentally since we’ve gotten him. He’s quite a big horse, and he’s a very big mover. It’s taken a bit of time to produce him, but he was really wonderful and performed great under pressure. I was really happy with him.”
Oliver Townend piloted Juliana Hutchings Sebring’s Ulises, a 14-year-old Spanish Sport Horse gelding (Fines x Emeraude Du Ponet), into third place after clear rounds Saturday and Sunday in the CCI3*-L. The pair finished on their dressage score of 29.4. Two of Great Britain’s riders won the Shapley’s Best Turned-Out Horse and Rider Awards after Sunday’s horse inspection. Townend and Ulises were the Best Turned-Out CCI3*-L Horse and Rider, while Zara Tindall and Class Affair, Gleadhill House Stud Ltd.’s 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding, were the Best Turned-Out CCI5*-L Horse and Rider.
Rounding out the Top 3 in the USEF Eventing National Championships was Meg Pellegrini, who finished fourth in the overall CCI3*-L with RF Eloquence and was named the USEF Top Young Rider. She and her 16-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Contender x D-Ginger) earned a total score of 29.5 after adding 0.8 time faults in Sunday’s showjumping phase.
Additional awards included the Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue Award, given to Ellen Doughty-Hume and Breakin’ All the Rules for being the highest-placed American Thoroughbred. The Retired Racehorse Project Trophy went to Phillip Dutton and Sea of Clouds as the highest-placed retired American racehorse.
Final results can be found here.
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The USEA Media Team is excited to be on-site this year at the Setters' Run Farm Carolina International CCI and Horse Trial to provide coverage of the uber exciting CCI4*-S division, which many U.S.-based competitors use as a trial run in the lead up to the feature event of the spring calendar, the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5* (Lexington, Kentucky). This year there are 37 entries in the four-star division, which is a slight increase from the 35 we saw compete in this division last year. Here's a break down of some interesting facts and statistics you might want to know leading into this year's competition!
Ask an Expert, brought to you by Ride iQ, is a live, virtual event that dives into key equestrian topics with top professionals in the sport. This week’s episode focused on the USEA Eventing Coaches Program (ECP) with special guests Emily Mastervich and Robin Walker. The duo shared insights into the program’s purpose, its impact on eventers at all levels, and what it means for the future of coaching in the sport. Listen to episode now on the Ride iQ Youtube Channel.