Riders hailing from eight nations took to the Grand Prix Stadium at the Desert International Horse Park to compete in the FEI $36,600 1.45m 238.2.2, sponsored by Great American Insurance. Of the seventeen horse-and-rider combinations, six advanced into the jump-off and in the end, it was Canada’s Beth Underhill and Count Me In that claimed the top spot with a jump-off time of 30.75 seconds. Count Me In is a fourteen-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Count Grannus out of Sunshine and is owned by Sandy Lupton and Rob Cazwell.
Second place was awarded to Mavis Spencer (USA) aboard Georgy Maskrey-Segesman’s Belladonna 42 (Clearway x Vita 24), a twelve-year-old Holsteiner mare, with a jump-off time of 32.48 seconds. Katie Laurie (AUS) and Cera Caruso (Casall x Belcam Cymphony) produced the fastest jump-off time at 30.52 second but had an unfortunate rail which earned them the final podium position. Cera Caruso is a thirteen-year-old Australian Warmblood owned by Carissa McCall. Another Canadian, Ben Asselin, was sixth with Quality H.
The riders were tested against a twelve obstacle course built by Alan Wade (IRE) that had three combinations and multiple rollbacks. “I thought the course was very well built. It was a prompt enough time allowed that you couldn’t take it for granted,” explained Underhill. “My plan was to be smooth and keep him relaxed because we have a long circuit ahead of us. I thought the course was very well built.”