Leslie Burr-Howard (Newtown, CT) guided Donna Speciale to a win in Saturday’s $75,000 Grand Prix at Tryon International Equestrian Center (TIEC) at Tryon Resort, stopping the jump-off timers at 33.71 seconds. Alex Granato (Wellington, FL) and Page Tredennick’s Carlchen W, a 2008 Mecklenburger gelding (Chacco Blue x Celline-W), claimed second on a time of 34.6 seconds, while Daniel Bedoya (Magnolia, TX) rounded out the top three aboard Abracadabra WKT, a 2008 Holsteiner mare (Casaii x Famousgirl II) owned by Monica Hanks, after their 35.013 second jump-off round.
The highlight Jumper class of the Tryon Spring 6/92nd Tryon Riding & Hunt Club Charity Horse Show welcomed 45 entries to test the Michel Vaillancourt (Aiken, SC) course design, with ten horse-and-rider pairs qualifying for the jump-off. Burr-Howard and the 2008 Dutch Warmblood mare (Cavalier x Paris) noted that the course design was “quite clever” in the questions it asked of competitors:
“I thought it was a super course. Where he [Vaillancourt] put that last in-and-out was quite clever,” she explained. “You had rails falling all over [the course], but nobody got hurt. It was a great course! It’s always a pleasure to come here.”