United States Eventing Association

Nothing Can Stop Smith and Mai Baum in the Twin Rivers CCI3*-L

Tamra Smith didn’t let her injured leg keep her from taking home first and second place in the CCI3*-L at the Twin Rivers CCI and Horse Trials this weekend. Smith jumped double clear today over Jose Nava’s show jumping course aboard both Fleeceworks Royal (Riverman x Marisol), Judith McSwain’s 10-year-old Holsteiner mare, and Mai Baum (Loredano x Ramira), Alex and Ellen Ahearn and Eric Markell’s 13-year-old German Sport Horse gelding. Smith’s overnight third-placed horse, Ruth Bley’s 14-year-old Hanoverian mare En Vogue (Earl x Laurena), pulled two rails to drop to fourth place.

“Mai Baum is a freak,” Smith said with a laugh. “He’s just a remarkable horse. It was funny, I came around the turn [to fence 2] and he stalled there – normally I have quite a bit of leg on him to show jump and I just didn’t have as much – and I felt like I couldn’t squeeze him off the ground. At least I knew that, so I clucked him off the ground after that and he was getting across the oxers, but it stunned him a bit. He was definitely not going to touch one after that!”

“I felt the best on Fleeceworks Royal,” Smith admitted. “Her and my partnership is finally just 110 percent which makes me really happy. It felt good, I just didn’t really have the use of my left leg which felt really weird. But she’s just so good.”

With the Twin Rivers CCI3*-L serving as a qualifier for the Pan American Games later this year, Smith knew it was important to perform well this weekend. “It was important, especially with Lexus because he needed a qualifying result, so it feels really good. I’m going to bubble wrap them – they’re both very trained so I really don’t need to do a lot. I just need to wait and see if the chips fall in my favor.”

From here, Smith is headed across the pond to compete in the Badminton Horse Trials CCI5*-L with Wembley (Lester x E-VIP), Kevin Baumgardner’s 15-year-old KWPN gelding, whom she rode in the Advanced combined test this weekend. “He was absolutely the star of the show this weekend,” Smith said. “Eric [Markell] and I were laughing because he was so good in the dressage and so good in the show jumping and Eric said, ‘Okay, Wembley’s now the team captain!’ It was really cool because he’s just getting better and stronger.”

Amber Levine and Cinzano (Classe x Walta) hung quietly behind the leaders all weekend, waiting for their moment. Levine and Cinzano started the weekend in ninth place on a 33.4 following dressage, adding nothing to their score on cross-country day to move up into fifth place. When Smith and En Vogue had two rails down this afternoon and Levine and the 8-year-old Holsteiner gelding jumped clean, the pair moved into third place.

“He jumped really well – really rideable, after eight and a half minutes!” Levine said, referring to yesterday’s cross-country round. “Sometimes he can be a little feisty in the show jumping, but the trick is to run eight and a half minutes first.”

“He was super [all weekend],” she continued. “Definitely his best dressage to date – we’ve kind of revamped his dressage plan and it has really worked over the last two weeks and gives us real hope for the future with him. On cross-country he’s a complete machine.”

“We’ve had him for almost three years,” Levine recounted. “We bought him as a 5-year-old in Hungary off a video. We’d gone to Hungary with Sara Mittleider and Atilla Rajnai and a year and a half after we’d gone to Hungary, Atilla sent us a video of him. We weren’t going to buy him but Atilla kept saying he’s a nice horse – he knows nothing, but he seems cool, so we bought him! I tell Atilla all the time that he picked a good one.”

Levine said she’s not sure where she and “Zane” are headed next, but he has definitely earned himself a bit of a vacation! “He’s going to go in a field for two weeks. We’ll go to Aspen in June maybe – run somewhere different – and then maybe Ocala in the fall. But for now, a field for two weeks!”

Area VI Young Riders Dominate the CCI2*-L

It was déjà vu all over again for Meg Pellegrini and RF Eloquence in the CCI2*-L at Twin Rivers. Just two weekends ago Pellegrini and the 14-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Contender x D-Ginger) finished in first place on their dressage score of 26.8 at the Galway Downs International Horse Trials CCI2*-S. This weekend, Pellegrini and “Ricky Bobby” sat in second place on a dressage score of 29.8 and moved up into first place after a flawless cross-country round. The pair jumped double clean in show jumping this afternoon to take home the win on a score of 25.3.

“I was really happy with how well he was jumping and how well he was feeling after cross-country,” Pellegrini said. “It was a long and tough course so I was impressed with how well he bounced back. He and the pony [Ganymede] were both really good today.”

“I’m really fortunate to have such amazing parents and coaches and, of course, horses to support me. I give all the credit to my horses because I wouldn’t be able to do this without them. My coaches Lisa and Brian [Sabo] have pushed me to my best and it’s really something that I’m happy I’m getting to do.”

Savannah Gwin and Glock Pullman (Coriall x Ahdonna Pullman), her 13-year-old Warmblood gelding, held onto their second-place position with a double clear show jumping round today, finishing on their dressage score of 31.3.

Megan Compton and her 9-year-old Westphalian mare Coco Mademoiselle W (Coronas 2 x Sierra) moved up from fifth place after dressage to third place after putting in a double clear cross-country round and held onto their top-three position with another double clear round, this time in show jumping.

To top off the sense of déjà vu, Pellegrini and Ganymede (Ballywhim An Luan x Court Hawk), her 16-year-old Connemara/Thoroughbred mare, finished in fourth place this weekend as well as two weekends ago at Galway Downs. The pair had one rail down in today’s show jumping to finish on a score of 35.9.

The top three finishers in the CCI2*-L all finished on their dressage scores and were the only three in the division to do so.

Click here to view final scores for all divisions. Click here to read the USEA’s coverage.