Saturday was a beautiful day for show jumping at the Desert International Horse Park (DIHP) in Thermal, CA. The newly landscaped arena and snow-capped mountains provided the perfect backdrop as riders vied for the lion’s share of the prize pool. Thirty-three horse and rider combinations entered under the tower into the Grand Prix Stadium ready to compete in the $75,000 Grand Prix, sponsored by Marshall & Sterling. Leading the victory gallop was Shawn Casady (Harriman, TN) aboard Neil Jones’ Lyranta Van’t Gebroekt.
Peter Grant of Calgary, Canada designed a well-rounded 1.50m track consisting of sixteen total jumping efforts. The course left riders with a handful of stride and distance options to choose from when cultivating a plan during the walk. Grant included a triple bar as the first fence of the triple combination before a daunting five stride to five stride line.
“The triple combination was a really short two with a square oxer out at C, that was tricky,” recounted Casady. “The middle line was a flat five to a short five and some were opting to do 6. There were a lot of options and you just had to do what was right for your horse.”