Friday’s $25,000 Smartpak Grand Prix at HITS Thermal boasted 46 rider-horse combinations who tested their skills over the 1.50m, 13 jumping effort course set by Anderson de Moura Lima of Brazil. The line-up included well-known riders such as Rich Fellers, Will Simpson, and Susie Hutchison. Twelve of the 46 returned for the second-round jump off, including crowd favorite Flexible, the 20-year old former FEI World Cup Champion. The jump-off had the crowd on their feet as horses had to gallop and make a big run to the last fence to win.
It was Rich Fellers of Sherwood, Oregon, and Flexible, owned by Harry & Mollie Chapman, who surpassed Kristin Hardin of New Cuyama, California, riding Nicole Teague’s Firestone, by two seconds for the win. With many valiant efforts in the books, only seven of the twelve returning were able to conquer the shortened jump-off course fault-free, under the time allowed of 49 seconds.
First to test the shortened course was Revenge, owned and ridden by Shelley Fellers of Sherwood, Oregon. Revenge jumped in beautiful form and took no risks, but had an unfortunate rail at the FarmVet vertical resulting in a four-fault score in 41.642 seconds, leaving the pair out of the top six ribbons.