United States Eventing Association

Myakka City, Fl.—Nov. 15—Saturday was cross-country day for the CCI4*-L, CCI4*-S, and CCI3*-L competitors at The Event at TerraNova and the final day of competition for the CCI4*-S, which completed both dressage and stadium jumping Friday.

The cross-country phase is often the most influential in eventing, where refusals or time faults can quickly add up. A clear, efficient round is crucial—and it’s where riders lower on the dressage leaderboard can make a significant difference, especially when followed by a fault-free show jumping round. And for several of today’s new leaders, that proved to be precisely the case.

In the B&D Builders CCI4*-L Phillip Dutton and Possante were in the lead with an impressive score of 26.8. Unfortunately, after a rider fall at Fence 6A on cross-country, the pair will not move forward to the show jumping phase.

Sydney Elliott and Carol Stephens' 15-year-old Oldenburg gelding QC Diamantaire—previously sitting just behind Dutton in second with a dressage score of 29.3—moved into the lead. They delivered an impressive double-clear cross-country round, even after being briefly held on course while a frangible pin was reset from the rider ahead of them, which didn’t seem to faze QC Diamantaire (Diarado x Latana).

Even with their second-placing dressage score, Elliott explained that the phase has taken years of steady refinement for QC Diamantaire.

“Dressage has been a work in progress with him,” says Elliott. “He’s so striking and has great movement, but we’ve never really been consistently scoring in the 20s. I’ve been working with Bettina Hoy for the last few years, just chipping away little by little to improve in the phase.”

Elliott also shared that this season has been a significant comeback for both her and QC Diamantaire after she spent nearly a year out of the saddle.

“I had a big surgery last August, so I was out for a full year. This is only his second run back, and he’s been great,” says Elliott. “The first was a three-star, then we took him to Plantation for the four-star, and now we’re here. Cross-country was tough today—I love this phase, it’s why I do the sport—but it demanded a lot of accuracy. He can be a little quirky going into water, and that bounce in was pretty impressive, so I definitely lost some sleep over that. But he was incredible. The coffin combination was heavy on everyone’s minds, especially after riding the three-star this morning, and I was a bit cautious about it. Still, it rode well. The course was fair and challenging, and it’s exciting that the designer, Alec Lochore, is also working on the LA 2028 course—that was a big part of why we wanted to compete here.”

Their long partnership has also played a role in their success so far this weekend, and Elliot looks forward to the final phase of this event.

“I know Q really well at this point. We got him from good friends of ours when he was five—he’s 15 now—and he’s taken me everywhere, from Aachen to the Kentucky Three-Day Event,” says Elliott. “We call him the unicorn because he truly is one of a kind—we probably won’t ever have another one like him. I’m excited for stadium jumping tomorrow, even though he might be a bit fresh depending on the atmosphere—fresh can be a good thing, though!”

Hayley Frielick and her own Sportsfield Lumiere (Orestus x Utah Van De Bucxtaele) also leaped ahead on the leaderboard, climbing from 5th after dressage to 2nd overall thanks to their double-clear cross-country round. Their performance was even more remarkable given that Frielick only returned to riding a couple of months ago after breaking her leg earlier this year.

“Sportsfield Lumiere is phenomenal. He’s a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse that my business partner, Martha Thomas, put on a plane and insisted I needed. I wasn’t planning on another horse, but incredible supporters made it possible, and he’s the most scopey, honest, genuine guy. Our lead-up wasn’t ideal—I broke my leg the day after Bromont, where he was second in the four-star long—so my whole summer was derailed. Thankfully, the team at Windurra, especially Silva Martin, stepped in when I couldn’t ride. It really does take a village, and her help made all the difference in the dressage phase this week.”

Frielick noted that today’s cross-country course was actually ideal for the pair, given her recent injury recovery. This was also the first time she had competed back at the four-star level since before her injury.

“The course was amazing—this is our first time at TerraNova, and it’s just beautiful,” Frielick says. “The flatter terrain really suited us, especially with my recent recovery. But he was brilliant and so fast out there—he’s very scopey and he can save my bacon from any distance. I had a blast, and I knew I had to keep pushing to make the time, but he had plenty of gas in the tank and kept responding, answering every question out there.”