United States Eventing Association

Karma is developing into one of the fastest and most-reliable cross-country horses in the West. The 9-year-old bay Oldenburg mare and James Alliston won their third-straight blue ribbon together at either the four-star or Advanced level in the CCI4*-S at the Twin Rivers Fall International in Paso Robles, California, with the only double-clear cross-country round on Saturday.

Watching the final show jumping phase at Rebecca Farm, it was hard to tell that Karma had just galloped around her first CCI4*-L the day before.

The 9-year-old Oldenburg mare (Escudo II x Travita) pinged up over every fence with James Alliston to earn one of two double-clear rounds and finish on her dressage score of 32.6 for the win.

Running earlier than expected due to peak heat, all 14 CCI4*-L riders came out of the start box at Rebecca Farm this morning, but not all of them crossed the finish. Buck Davidson, who was holding second place standing coming out of dressage yesterday, incurred a refusal and a fall from Business Class at what was arguably one of the most challenging aspects of the Ian Stark’s course—the Snake, which dropped into the water where a set of bounce logs led to a triple brush.

The 2023 Woodside Spring H.T. served as a celebration of the successes of the West Coast eventers that competed in the Kentucky Three-Day Event, as well as what’s in store for the future of the sport in California. On the eve of competition on Thursday, organizers at the Woodside Horse Trials held a party in honor of both Tamie Smith’s historic win in the Kentucky five-star and the team of cross country builders led by Bert Wood that unveiled new courses at The Horse Park. Derek di Grazia designed the new Advanced and Intermediate tracks, with Wood designing the new tracks for Preliminary through Starter.

James Alliston finished first and second in the CCI4*-S at the Twin Rivers Spring International in Paso Robles, California, on Sunday with the two horses he plans to take to this year’s Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event—Nemesis for the Kentucky five-star and Karma for the four-star.

The top West Coast eventers produced show jumping rounds worthy of the big applause they received around the show jumping ring at the Twin Rivers Spring International in Paso Robles, California, on Friday evening.

The first day of competition at the 2023 Twin Rivers Spring International in Paso Robles, California, brought out career-best dressage scores in FEI events for the two leading horses of the CCI4*-S—Elliot V ridden by Tamie Smith and Nemesis ridden by James Alliston. Both horses are using Twin Rivers as their final runs before heading to the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event at the end of the month. Elliot V is prepping for the CCI4*-S, and Nemesis is aiming for his first CCI5*-L.

Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, hosts the first of its two FEI events in 2023 on April 13-16. Two weeks after the Galway Downs International H.T. kicked off the calendar of international events in Area VI, the Twin Rivers Spring International represents the final FEI competition before California-based riders and horses travel to other parts of the country and around the world to compete at the FEI levels during the rest of the spring and the summer.

West Coast eventers experienced tremendous success in 2022. Tamie Smith recorded top-10 finishes at Badminton in England, at the FEI World Championships at Pratoni in Italy, and at the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. Helen Alliston won the $60,000 Adequan USEA Advanced Final, and Tommy Greengard captured the USEA Intermediate Championship at the USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC), presented by Nutrena Feeds. James Alliston returned to the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event for the first time since 2017 and finished third in the CCI4*-S.