Canada Dominates CSI3* Speed in Traverse City

The Canadian flag flew for all three podium finishers in Wednesday’s $32,000 CSI3* Speed to open the third week of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, presented by B&D Builders. Chris Pratt saved the best for last to take the win aboard Ideaal ES with Canadian Olympian Erynn Ballard finishing a close second and third, respectively.

The 11th season of GLEF enters the halfway stage in six weeks of FEI competition running through August 10, showcasing an FEI Nations Cup CSIO3*, the FEI North American Youth Championships and the return of Major League Show Jumping CSI5* competition to Traverse City. Highlights also include the $100,000 USHJA World Championship Hunter Rider Central Spectacular and weekly qualifiers for the all-new $150,000 Traverse City Equitation Championships debuting in September.

A fellow Canadian and 1976 individual Olympic silver medalist, Michel Vaillancourt, designed the one-round speed track. Ballard sat comfortably in first and second with only one left in the 33-horse order. By less than two tenths of a second, Pratt bumped her from the top of the leaderboard.

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Pratt’s 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Ukato X Conway) owned by Take The High Road, LLC, broke the timers in 64.13 seconds for the win. Ballard’s 64.30-second time landed the rider currently ranked within the top 60 in the world the runner-up title aboard Campari. She rounded out the all-Canada podium in third riding Her Game Ball BG to a time of 65.23 seconds.

“The Canadians were leading, and I wanted to make sure that we got the top three,” said Pratt, who also jumped another horse earlier in the starting order. “They are totally different horses, but this one [Ideaal ES] is a quicker mover. I actually added strides where Erynn was leaving them out. He’s quicker to get back on the ground after a jump and get to the next fence.”

Pratt admitted that he watched Ballard’s leading round, which stood for the majority of the class, and planned to emulate her path. When asked where he thought he made up the time on Ideaal ES, Pratt responded, “Honestly, I think I just had the quicker horse with quicker turns.”

International competition continues in the Turtle Creek Hotel & Casino International Ring on Friday with the $32,000 CSI3* Welcome Stake before peaking with the $117,000 Elk Rapids Marina CSI3* Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon. Pratt plans to use Ideaal ES’ footspeed again in both events.

Complete results from the $32,000 CSI3* Speed can be found here.

The season culminates in the three-week Tournament of Champions, highlighted by the $340,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ CSI5*-W—Traverse City and $340,000 American Gold Cup CSI5*. New this year, the $100,000 Dudley and Barb Smith 3’6” Equitation Championship and $50,000 Cherry Capital 3’3” Equitation Championship deliver big prize money and prestige to the equitation ranks.

For more information on the season, visit TraverseCityHorseShows.com.