United States Eventing Association

Kelly Prather and Andrea Pfeiffer's Ballinakill Glory threw down the gauntlet on Friday afternoon with the best score of the day in the CIC3*-W at Rebecca Farm, and maintained their lead with a quick and tidy cross-country round on Saturday. The experienced pair added only 9.6 time faults across the Montana countryside to bump their score up to 55.2.

Prather, 25, of Bodega, CA, won the CIC3*-W back in 2007 aboard the Irish Sport Horse mare, and was impressed with the course designed by Capt. Mark Phillips. "I thought it was great--flowing, big, and bold. If you could hit your rhythm, you stayed on it the whole time," said Prather. "Everything rode right out of stride and the distances were all right there for you. You had a big gallop out back, and if you just stayed on your stride, you could pop through [the back jumps] easily. I thought it was thought out well, and it gave the horses a good taste in their mouth."

The intricately designed and spectator-friendly HSBC water complex once again proved to be a crowd favorite, as eventing fans arrived in droves to cheer on the competitors. "You come over that hill and you see all the people, and it's quite bright, and everything's so decorated," said Prather. "But my horse definitely zoned right in on what I wanted her to jump and she jumped way up over everything. You just kind of weaved your way in and out of there and [the jumps] keep coming up on you one after another. If you keep your distance in between, then it rode fantastic."

Towards the end of the course, the CIC3*-W riders galloped up and down the Booby Trap, an unnervingly steep hill and then popped over a skinny and a corner on the far side. "You're getting towards the end [of the course] and you fly up, and my mare got to the top and took a deep breath and then she went right on down, took a trot step, and popped right up over the corner. I was a little unsure of what I was going to do there, whether I was going to bend back in or ride the straight line. She jumped the little skinny big and bold and so we hung on for the four [strides], and she jumped the corner amazing."

Rebecca and Jerome Broussard, owners of Rebecca Farm, along with all the grounds crew and designers spared no expense or effort in making sure that the footing was nothing short of perfect for the horses. "My loves the footing here!" raved Prather.

The general consensus from riders of all levels is that the quality and rideability of the course is one of the best in the country. "All the fences are kind of in that galloping form--nothing's too twisty and turny," explained Prather. "She got out of the box and just opened her stride up and kept it there for me. She doesn't look like she's going fast but she has a very big stride. I've been trying to get her as fit as I can, but at this point we still have a bit more to go to get her fitter for the fall. She definitely felt like she had it out there!"

The Irish mare, fondly known as 'Pippa,' will hope to keep all the jumps neatly in their cups over Sunday's show jumping course, designed by Richard Jeffery. "I'm just hoping to give her the best ride that I can, and that she deserves. She is a great show jumper and she just needs me to stay right in the middle and ride a good rhythm and she does the rest."

The Good Witch Works Her Magic

Jennifer Wooten-Dafoe, 31, of Ramona, California, and Daisy Tognazzini's light-footed Thoroughbred mare The Good Witch posted the fastest score of the division and gained only 5.6 time faults to jump from third to second after cross-country.

A seasoned four-star rider, Wooten-Dafoe was thrilled with the 13-year-old mare's trip around the rolling course. "The day went well--I was very pleased," said Wooten-Dafoe. "I haven't been back here for a couple of years and I thought the course looked great. There were some changes to the course which were really good and I felt like it was going to be a good exercise for The Witch and I to cruise around Rebecca Farm this summer."

"She felt great and I felt very confident and I enjoyed using the gallops, and again Mark Phillips designed a beautiful course and it was beautifully built which made it that much more exciting to take a spin around it."

None of the CIC3*-W riders had any issues with the HSBC water complex. "It was fun--it was a nice inviting, but challenging exercise coming through the water with the fish, and then going up the hill to the house. It's so beautifully built, that it makes it really inviting for you to just gallop right up there," she added. "It's kind of like a roller coaster ride! Once you get through it, you're like "Okay, yeah, let's gallop on, let's go!". I really enjoyed myself out there and I think my horse enjoyed it, too.

The flowing, manicured course was the perfect place for The Witch to show off her ground-covering stride. "She covered the ground really really well. I think that's something that I worked on in the winter from doing the mandatory outing last year and going to Rolex. I really wanted to be more efficient in using the gallop and not wearing her out by galloping her hard, but just making my point from the start, maintaining the pace, and kind of giving her a little bit of a break but enjoying galloping across the countryside.

"She's pretty used to that now and we seem to have a pretty good partnership. When I start to stretch up, she says 'Okay, there's something coming up now and I need to be paying attention.' It makes it fun because you can feel the partnership between the two of us."

Wooten-Dafoe is a member of the USEF High Performance list, and recently received a training grant to compete at one of the most prestigious CCI4* events in the world this fall. "We're going to go to Burghley! I'm very excited about that because it's something that I've dreamed of doing. I was almost thinking of going to Badminton this spring, but the funding didn't work out and so fortunately I was one of the lucky ones to receive a grant so that's next on our list.

Sara Mittleider and her longtime partner, El Primero, had a fabulous ride across the country, and moved up from sixth through third.

The event wraps up on Sunday afternoon with the show jumping. It's sure to be a nail-biting competition as less than a rail separates the top two competitors!

Adequan USEA Gold Cup Sponsorship & Prizes

Winners of the designated Gold Cup divisions receive an Adequan USEA Gold Cup Trophy, $500 in prize money, 7-dose box of Adequan, a three-month supply of SUCCEED, an E.A. Mattes Couture Pad, and a pair of Nunn Finer American Style open front boots. Second place finishers take home a Nutrena feed gift certificate and a pair of Nunn Finer American Style open front boots, and third place receives a pair of the Nunn Finer boots as well.

The Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series is made possible through the support of its many sponsors: Title: Adequan; Legacy: Nunn Finer, Nutrena, and World Equestrian Brands; Contributing: Cover-All; and Patron: Back on Track, Broadstone Equine Insurance Agency, Mountain Horse, and Succeed.

Adequan is proud to be the official joint therapy treatment of the USEA.
Interested in sponsoring the Adequan/USEA Gold Cup series or another USEA program? Contact us at the USEA! [email protected] or call 703-779-0440.