Eventing Medals Awarded at NAJYRC

Jennifer Brannigan of Area VI won the individual gold in the USEA Eventing Division’s CCI**, finishing with a three-phase total of 36.3 penalties on Cooper. Brannigan rode a clean jumping round and, coupled with a clean cross country on Saturday, finished on her dressage score. She was followed by Karen Shull of Area I/IV/V who scored 55.7 on Just My Style and Stephanie Rhodes-Bush of Canada who finished with 57.9 penalties on Port Authority.

“He is such a great show jumper that I had some confidence coming in, but I still worried about making mistakes,” said Brannigan who stood second following cross country last year but was unable to proceed to show jumping when her horse Cosmo failed the veterinary inspection.

“Cooper recovered very nicely from the heat and I thought he felt really good.”

Brannigan credited working with U.S. veteran show jumper Susie Hutchison on her show jumping for helping her. “Riding with Susie at the big jumper shows at Thermal made a big difference.”

Shull was happy to hold on for second place. “His strength is dressage and he’s not the best show jumper,” she said. “His dressage here was just average for him and I was hoping for clear and even though we didn’t get it, I’m happy we held our position.”

In the CCI*, Callie Judy of Area IV won the individual Gold with 48.8 penalties on Irish Odyssey. She finished on her dressage score after a clear jumping round to go with a clear cross country ride on Saturday. Lindsay Crnkovich of Area VIII/X won the silver with 49.1 penalties. She kept the pressure on Judy with a clear jumping round and also finished on her dressage score on Right Back Atchya. Sarah Talaga of Canada won the Bronze with 50.7 penalties on Vena.

“I am in absolute shock,” said Judy who rode in the Championships in 2006 but found herself without a horse last year and groomed for her teammates instead. “It really has not sunk in. We had some problems stopping on cross country last spring and we worked really hard to get it corrected. I’m so happy that our hard work paid off.”

Crnkovich, whose 14.1 hand mount is a Quarter/pony, said she wouldn’t change a thing about him. “His personality is absolutely the best. I love everything about him!”

In the team competitions, Brannigan’s Area VI won the Gold in the CCI** with a team score of 170.4 penalties, followed by Shull’s Area I/IV/V team with a score of 1122.8 and Area VIII/X with 1158.5. In the CCI*, Judy’s Area IV team won with 161.4 penalties, followed by Crnkovich’s Area VIII/X team with a score of 166.6 and Talaga’s Canadian team with 170.1.

Brannigan’s Gold Medal teammates-Tiana Coudray on Ringwood Master, Max McNamamy on Beacon Hill and David Koss on Candy-praised her riding and emphasised how much fun they had as a team. “Being the only guy with three girls, let me tell you, I need some help!” said Koss who took ribbing from his teammates for getting them all to talk like Borat. Koss noted that his horse doesn’t show jump well, “so I just left it all up to the girls.”

Judy’s Area IV teammates, Hannah Ross who rode Fantasia, Jessa Lux who rode Car Tanga, and Edith Lee who rode Ballycormac Petrocelli, joined her in saying that riding as a team changes things quite a bit. “It really increases the pressure when you know that what you do affects others,” said Lux. “But there’s also a benefit because I knew that if I blew it that my teammates would get the job done.”