United States Eventing Association

Time penalties and refusals on cross-country shook up the standings at Poplar Place on Saturday.

Kate Brown, riding her own Mojito, posted one of the fastest times and moved up from 7th after dressage to take the lead in the CIC***. "I just went out to cruise around because our next outing is Fair Hill and I wanted to get a good round," Brown said. "The footing was a little hard, but I could tell they had been working hard, putting the shells down. And the course was very fair."

Kate and Mojito are aiming for Rolex in the spring.

We’ll do a couple of events in the spring and then hopefully aim for Kentucky. "I’ve been really happy with how he’s been doing recently so hopefully we’ll stick with it."

Clark Montgomery remains in first place on Cyrano Z in the CIC** going into show jumping. "The horses felt great. The courses rode really well. The footing was actually really good. The did a lot over the last few days aggravating the ground and putting the peanut shells down," he said. "No doubt it’s firm, but it wasn’t running across firm ground that nothing had been done too. It gave me a good enough feeling that I was able to push on a little bit and go quick enough."

Montgomery is in third on Universe in the same division, and moved up to first on Raphael III in the Advanced division and also remained in first on Wassup in Training Horse. Montgomery is confident in his horses for Sunday. "There all green at the level so it’s all a process, but everybody is a good jumper so they should go clean."

First and second place remained the same in the CIC* after cross-country. With several points to spare, Kadi Eykamp was happy taking her time and give Double Rivers Really Cool a confident ride. "The one star horse I didn’t have too much pressure on to make time. He’s a young horse so I cantered around and added a few time penalties. He gave me a great ride," she said. Kadi is second on Double Rivers Dillon before show-jumping: "Cross-country on the two star star horse was great. I wanted to try and make time, but didn’t quite make it. The jumps were great, everything rode really well. The ground was better than I thought. They put a lot of shells down which really worked."

In the Open Intermediate, Michael Pollard remains in first place, but on a different horse. Pollard described Dekorum as "very handy" which proved the deciding factor as he was able to make good use of corners and short-cuts and finish inside the time, which moved them up to first. "The courses were all good. It’s a shame it hasn’t rained out here in months, so you were taking a risk if you went too quickly," Pollard said. "We put the horses in ice right after they come off cross-country, 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. After that we wrap and poultice. I think they’ll all show jump well. They’ve been good all year. I’m looking for a rhythmical round."

Jonathan Holling and Downtown Harrison remained in the lead in Open Preliminary despite a few time penalties. In Preliminary Rider, Brent A. Leytem and Space Pictures jumped clean and received just 1.6 time faults moving them from fourth to first.

Nathalie Bouckaert Pollard and Driving Ambition made the course look easy and retained the lead in Open Training. Leighton Price and Traveling Light finished within the time, holding on to their first place in Training Rider.

It all comes down to the showjumping for Junior Novice as both Nancy Katheryne Webb and Elphin Fintan and Caitlyn Carpenter and Joyous Occasion both jumped clean and fast and are still tied for first place. Both Elisa Wallace and As You Wish and Lellie Ward and Rasta Mon held onto their first place positions in Novice Horse A and B respectively. Imtiaz Anees and Valenta are still first after cross-country on a score of 23.5 in Open Novice.

Time was a factor in Beginner Novice Rider, but Melanie Helms and Sammy D jumped clean and fast to hold onto the lead, as did Christine Appling and Amelie in Junior Beginner Novice. Candace Wheeler and Thinking Big are going for it in Open Beginner Novice, posting a clean cross-country, but they have no rails in hand in show jumping.

The entire Poplar community ached for Hilda Donahue’s tragic loss of her eventing partner Extravagance during the CIC*** cross-country after an unfortunate slip at the water. Poplar’s team of vets and officials did a phenomenal job reacting to the accident, and the event was back on track in less than twenty minutes. Hilda sustained no serious injuries, but she is in the hearts of her many friends in the Eventing community.