Winning the gold medal in the CH-Y** Division was David Ziegler of Beiseker, AB riding Critical Decision (Consul x Two a Day), his 18-year-old Oldenburg gelding. With a 13.9 lead heading in to jumping, Ziegler added only three rails, for 12 faults, to his dressage score to complete the three days with a final score of 58.3.
“We really used up the spread and our lead. I miscounted the stride which messed up the last line,” said Ziegler, who also won a silver medal in the Young Riders Individual Championship Test in dressage riding his other horse, Peninsula Top Man. “Critical Decision came great off the cross country yesterday. He felt good, he felt like he had good energy around the course. Richard’s courses are always fantastic, and so we got it done.”
The individual bronze medal was awarded to April Simmonds of Uxbridge, ON and Impressively Done, Don Simmonds’ nine-year-old Thoroughbred gelding sired by Eulogize. Simmonds, who was sitting in sixth after dressage, added only 3.2 cross country time penalties and four jumping faults to her dressage score of 57.0 for a three day total of 64.2.
“My horse was amazing, he jumped so well. It was just that one rail that I just kicked up to little too much, but other than that he was amazing.” said Simmons. “It felt great to be up there with some of my best friends on the podium.
Along with Simmonds, Hanna Bundy of Toronto, ON; Lauren Clark of Uxbridge, ON and Jamie Kellock of Cedar Valley, ON of Team Ontario’s CH-Y** won the team bronze medal.
United States Area III won CH-YR** team gold with a total of 238.9.
The top Canadian in CH-J* Division was Moira de Ste Croix-Laframboise of Kars, ON and Blue Ben, a 13-year-old Westphalian gelding sired by Gambit Z, and owned by de Ste Croix-Laframboise and Teddie Laframboise. The pair added two rails for eight faults in jumping to their dressage score of 49.2 to finish with 57.2 for a fourth place finish overall.
Team Ontario’s CH-J* riders Emma Green of Hockley Valley, ON; Sophie Ochocinski of Brooklin, ON; de Ste Croix-Laframboise and Autumn Wells of Whitby, ON ended up in fifth place with a team total score of 208.6.
The team from United States Area II won the CH-J* with a score of 165.9.
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