The Event at TerraNova, held March 26-29 in Myakka City, FL, may have started out with a closely-ranked leaderboard, but the cross-country course sorted things out on the final day. Canadian Olympic veteran Colleen Loach of Dunham, Quebec was the lone competitor in the B&D Builders CCI4*-S to finish the event with a score in the 20s, adding just two time faults to her score to finish on 27.5. Mia Farley and Invictus showed their tenacity with a second-place finish on 33.6, ultimately moving up from 8th place after dressage. Dan Kreitl, who led the competition from the start, stuck to his plan of taking an easy canter around the course today as he prepares Kay Dixon’s Carmango for the CCI4*-S at the Kentucky Three-Day Event next month. With 16.4 time faults they finished on a final score of 41.4 to take third place. Another Canadian, Jessica Phoenix, was 5th riding Fluorescent Adolescent.
Loach said, “Goldie is my favorite horse of all time, he’s the most easy horse to have around. This was his first four-star back after an injury; he just on the three-star at Bouckaert farm a couple of weeks ago and he won his event before that too. I wanted to make this four for four – this was his fourth win and a row – and we accomplished that, so that was pretty cool, but mainly I wanted to give him a confident, forward ride and we accomplished that as well.”
Colleen Loach guided Chiaro Z Excalibur to secure second place in the CCI3*-S. (Shannon Brinkman Photography)
Goldie hasn’t had a rail down since 2022, and Loach said, “He’s a very interesting mix of careful and brave; he can be quite spooky but is actually brave, he’s very sure of himself, a very confident horse and it’s up to me not to put him in a situation where he loses confidence. We have struggled in the past with making the time but I feel like now I can confidently ride him forward and he responds very well.”
She acknowledged, “It’s really nice to win, but that can’t be what you base everything off of. If you have a plan, you don’t change it just because you have a chance at winning, and my plan was to practice going fast, so I did. I was lucky that some of the others weren’t practicing going fast, or maybe I wouldn’t have won, but that was what I needed to work on for me and that horse.”
Loach’s plan for Goldie is to do the CCI4*-S at Ocala (FL) to get a qualifying score and then the CCI4*-L at Tryon (NC). She added that she is grateful to her whole team for helping her achieve such a successful weekend at TerraNova.
Loach also placed second in The Estates at TerraNova and Laughlin Tanner Group at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty CCI3*-S riding Chiaro Z Excalibur, owned by Peter Barry, on 30.6 penalties. Dani Sussman rounded out the top three riding Jos Bravio (35.2), while Canadian Declan Bast was 4th with Je M’appelle Balou.
Watch Colleen Loach discuss her weekend success in this Ride Review presented by Equestrian Directory:
Mia Farley also won the CCI3*-S with her mare Piña Colada 28 on a final score of 29.6. Reflecting on her weekend she said that she was incredibly happy with Invictus, who barn name is “Sammy”. He had colic surgery last September and this was his first competition back at this level.
“I wanted to go fast, but my priority wasn’t making the time with Sammy, I just rode as fast as I felt comfortable and when I put that pressure on him he gets better and better,” she said. “The course was a beautiful layout, Alec really opened up the course; in the past it was a lot more twisty.”
Sammy is also entered in Kentucky, in the 4*-S division. “I would love to get a 4L done on him this spring, but we’re going to try to go competitive at Kentucky and then go from there,” she said.
Farley continued, “Piña was so good, I was so happy with her. I kind of pushed her from the second I left the start box and she went for it! It reminded me of how I get to ride my horse Phelps, kind of on a long rein, and she really hunts things, it’s awesome. The course was to the level – I had an intermediate horse I rode yesterday and some of the lines didn’t ride how I thought they would when I walked it, so that experience helped me go out on course with confidence today.”
Farley said that Piña is going to do another three-star this spring, again a short-format because she has already has her qualifying score for the 3L at Maryland. “I’d love to do a four-star with her in the fall. She’s really special so I’m trying to take my time with her and secure all the details by 2027, so she’ll be great by 2028.”
She said, “I’m at a loss for words because the event was fantastic all weekend, it was beautiful, and all the organizers are the friendliest people – everyone was just happy. Today was totally cross-country weather, a little fresh and excited, and it wasn’t as hot the past few days. My working students Emerson and Chandler came with me and it was a fun girls’ weekend.”
Other top Canadian CCI results at TerraNova included Karl Slezak, who rode HSH Marshall to 4th place and Herald De La Rose to 8th in the CCI2*-S, and Lea-Claude Pelletier and Golden Nugget, who were 6th in the CCI1*-S.
Final Scores HERE.
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