Half the time when I look at Alan Lohman’s courses on paper I wonder if he has given the riders enough to do to separate themselves. And I’ve ridden enough of his courses to know better!
Now, what do we think about Ariana Marnell, who had a brilliant and deliberate start, a cross-canter for 4 steps, a little hurry into the two-stride, and a brilliant and deliberate finish? (I think it was a damn shame, that’s what, but I am curious about the judges’ angle on the start of the lead change.)
Ariana is a lovely rider but I think those small mistakes might keep her from coming back later.
She cross cantered briefly in three different spots on the course, which will probably be enough to make a difference, assuming the judges could see all of it.
When the ring is so full of jumps, you never know if the line of sight for the judges might be a bit obstructed in some places.
But she has already had a great indoor tour with her hunters and her jumper. Plus I’m guessing she probably has a couple of other chances this fall.
That line is giving a little trouble on the lead change! I’m a huge fan of Madison Nadolenco’s horse (was happy to hear Sissy singing his praises on the live stream too) and he was also so distracted by the far end that he forgot he had four whole legs to swap.
I need to wake up! I only saw the one. More coffee. More coffee.
Yes! It was “I forget her first name 
” Taylor. She owned Charisma.
It was brilliant!
Super~~ thanks so much. The course seems very inviting this year.
I’ve noticed several longer-shanked pelham bits this year. I notice the shanks on them because the horse is being ridden quite up in the neck and slightly behind the vertical. I hope we stop doing that.
I love that Ava has become a standard commentator for these classes
Taylor St. Jacques in 2017, according to this fantastic online resource of equitation results. She certainly had the advantage of riding a very wonderful horse, but it was still a very impressive feat.
When you look at those results, you can see how many horses have been very successful over several years with lots of different riders.
It was very interesting to hear Ava say that when she won this class in 2019, she was on a six year old horse doing the finals for the first time.
The same was true of Luke Jensen last week winning the USET final at Gladstone, who won on a seven year old chestnut mare who was doing the equitation for the first time.
Both of them rode with North Run, where Missy Clark has an extremely long history of producing great equitation horses.
I hope she gets a raise every year!
Biff at fence 8 notwithstanding, Mae Mannis is doing a good job managing this horse. He’s quite big and he should be able to walk these lines, but he’s also very backed off and is getting 20 minutes of air time over every fence, and she’s riding him forward with sympathy. Love to see the horse finish better than they started.
She does a really good job, and she finds lots of positives in every round, which is nice.
Thank you 
You’re welcome.
I always go down the rabbit hole a bit when I look at those past results. Lol.
I love that site! It’s so interesting tracing some riders creep up to the top over years, and seeing the consistent wins of the top eq horses.
You’re welcome.
The course looks like it is pretty doable for most, which is nice. The best riders will do it smoother, but hopefully everybody will get through the day and learn from it.
I love Ava’s story that the only ribbon she ever got at the Maclay final was the year she won the class after a couple of less than stellar previous attempts.
Good for her for pointing that out.
For those who are planning their day around the order of go, they saw about 24 riders in the first hour.
Plus they said there will be a drag break after every 50 trips, which will probably take about 10-15 minutes or so each time.
That was a lovely ride from Carlee. She was able to cover up a couple deep distances and the whole thing looked so slick.
Sofia Cady came to PLAY! her ride from the triple to the gate - that long 4 - was so well done!
Ahhhhh Eve Westfall just broke my heart. I need to stop having my hopes up for these riders before they negotiate the gate triple gate line. However, her horse is every inch as cute walking out as he was walking in. I want to snug that one. What a pony.
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