United States Eventing Association

Poplar Place September Horse Trials: Sunday Wrap-Up & Candids

After weeks without rain and two days of hot weather and hard footing, the floodgates opened on Sunday at Poplar Place. The weather held off for the CIC divisions despite significant cloud cover. Later the show jumping was held temporarily due to lightning and heavy downpours. The show jumping was challenging from a spectators standpoint, requiring competitors to negotiate tricky rollbacks, bending lines and related distances.

Not a single competitor jumped clean in the CIC***, and everyone had time penalties. While Mojito’s snappy knees made for lovely photos, he brought down four rails and incurred two time penalties, dropping them down to second place at the finish. Bonner Carpenter and Impeccable, entering stadium in third place, dropped just one rail and also posted two time penalties, enough to give them the win in the CIC***.

Clark Montgomery took much of the event by storm, leading in three divisions from start to finish: Advanced on Carl Bouckaert’s Raphael III, CIC** on Carl Bouckaert’s Cyrano Z, and Training Horse on Wassup.

"The horses came out this morning and wanted to jump," Montgomery said. "I liked the courses. The Advanced had a tricky line where you had to pick between five or six. I picked five as most people did and that worked out. The two-star was straight forward also."

Australian rider Kadi Eykamp also had a successful Sunday, jumping clear with no time on Double Rivers Really Cool to win the CIC*, and also jumping clean in the CIC** to finish second with Double Rivers Dillon.

"The one star was a nice enough round for that horse who is quite green. He jumped well. The lines came up how they walked. They put a lot of effort into the course, as they on the cross-country and the whole event, really," Ekyamp said. "I thought it was a hard track in show jumping. There was plenty there: rollbacks, triple, a liverpool on a bending line. It started with a related line; you had to jump the first fence well to get that. I was impressed with their overall effort. The two-star horse kept the pressure on Clark jumping clean and within the time, but then so did Clark, so we finished second.

Both Montgomery and Eykamp are heading to Kentucky this week to pull for their respective WEG teams, and Eykamp threw down the gauntlet at the end of this interview.

"Tomorrow we’re moving to Texas," she said. "Then we’re going to turn around and watch Australia win gold at the WEGs."

The handy mare Dekorum gave Michael Pollard an accurate double clear round in Open Intermediate to finish and win on their dressage score of 30.8.

Although Jonathan Holling and Downtown Harrison had several rails in hand when it came time to jump, they added no penalties to their overnight score to win Open Preliminary.

Megan Lynn and Hoosier Daddy were tied for first after dressage in Preliminary Rider, and then dropped to fourth after incurring a few time faults on cross-country. However a double clear round on the difficult course snagged them the win.

Nathalie Bouckaert Pollard and Driving Ambition were in top form this weekend, adding no faults to their dressage score of 26.8 to lead Open Training from start to finish.

Claire Robinson and Rivendell’s Mr. Bubbles was also consistently double clear, moving them up from seventh after dressage to win Training Rider.

Having just come off a dramatic win in the Junior Novice division at the American Eventing Championships, Sarah C. Murphy and Flagmount’s Irish Riverstone proved they’re the team to beat, adding no points to their dressage score of 33.5 to win again at Junior Novice.

Elisa Wallace and As You Wish dropped one rail in stadium, but as the weather proved to be a factor for everyone that time of day, it was still enough to win Novice Horse-A. Lellie Ward and Rasta Mon also managed to hang on to first place in Novice Horse-B despite dropping two rails and adding 2 time faults. Imtiaz Anees and Valenta had no trouble in Open Novice, jumping double clear all weekend to finish on their dressage score of 23.5.

All three Beginner Novice leaders after cross-country maintained their leads in show jumping: Melanie Helms and Sammy D in Beginner Novice Rider, Candace Wheeler and Thinking Big in Open Beginner Novice, and Christine Appling and Amelie in Junior Beginner Novice.

Thanks to owners Gary and Donna Stegman, the FEI officials, and all the priceless volunteers who donated their time and energy to putting on a well-organized, professional event. Click here for complete results.