Canadian Olympian Selena O’Hanlon is Top Canadian at Rolex

Canadian Olympian, Selena O’Hanlon of Kingston, ON finished as the top-placed Canadian at the renowned Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, held April 26-29, 2017 in Lexington, KY.

Riding her long-time partner, Foxwood High, a 14-year-old Canadian Sport Horse gelding sired by Rio Bronco W and owned by John and Judy Rumble, O’Hanlon started out on a score of 49.8 penalties following the dressage phase that wrapped up on April 28. This put their initial standing at 27th.

“I was really pleased with Woody in the dressage,” said O’Hanlon. “He went above and beyond my expectations and he was really rideable in all of the areas we’ve been working on this winter. The test was really the second time we’ve competed with it, and so you learn a little bit about how they respond to it in the ring, doing the full test as opposed to just practicing the moves of the test at home. Overall, I was happy with his rideability and I know we can do better, so that’s great.”

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O’Hanlon and Foxwood High made a big jump up the leaderboard to 12th following cross-country on April 29, where they incurred no jumping and 10.8 time penalties over the track set by FEI 4* Course Designer, Derek di Grazia of the United States. The course featured 28 obstacles and 45 efforts over a 6,430-meter track with an optimum time of 11 minutes and 17 seconds. Just 5 of 57 starters would prove to achieve a double-clear performance.

“I just watched the video of our cross-country and he looked like he was going a lot faster than he felt,” explained O’Hanlon, who represented Canada aboard Woody at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games and 2011 Pan American Games. “I think the heavy air at the time that we went cross-country made me really ride him right from the beginning. But he delivered the whole way around and was so straight. He was straight as an arrow, and we went as fast as we could safely.”

In the final jumping phase on April 30, O’Hanlon and Foxwood High navigated the 13 obstacles and 16 jumping efforts set by FEI 4* Jumping Course Designer, Richard Jeffery of Great Britain, lowering two rails and coming in just outside the optimum time for a total of eight jumping and two time penalties. This brought their overall score to 70.6 penalties to finish just outside of the top 10 in 11th place.

“Woody really stepped up to the plate,” said O’Hanlon, who then elaborated on a few of the highlights of their overall performance. “I think our cross-country was the highlight. I received a lot of compliments on how smooth he looked, and when I looked back on the video, he did look really smooth. It felt really good and very do-able. It was a great test for his straightness, even though he is a really straight, honest horse – there were some serious straightness questions out there, and he answered them all.”

Finishing just behind O’Hanlon in 12th place was fellow Canadian Olympian, Hawley Bennett-Award of Aldergrove, BC aboard Jollybo (Jumbo x Danzig Connection), her 13-year-old British Sport Horse mare. Their dressage performance earned a score of 54.8 penalties for 36th place, but they quickly moved all the way up to 14th following cross-country, where they added no jumping and just 6.4 time penalties. After adding no time, but 16 jumping penalties in the final jumping phase, which saw plenty of rails throughout the day, Bennett-Awad and Jollybo moved up once again to their final placing of 12th on a final score of 77.2.

Also finishing in the top 20 for Canada was Rio 2016 Olympian, Jessica Phoenix of Cannington, ON and her partner from the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games and 2012 Olympic Games, Pavarotti (Pavarotti van de Helle x Foxiland), a 15-year-old Westphalian gelding owned by Don J. Good. Together, they finished in 17th place on a total score of 83.7 penalties. The highlight of their performance was the dressage phase, where they were in the lead on a score of 43.1 penalties after the first flight of horse-rider combinations finished on April 27, and finished the phase in sixth place overall following the second flight on April 28.

Following Phoenix in 18th place on a final score of 86.6 penalties was Lisa Marie Fergusson from Langley, BC and Honor Me, her 11-year-old Welsh Sport Horse gelding sired by Brynarian Brenin.

For a record-breaking third year in a row, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event was won by Michael Jung of Germany aboard FischerRocana FST. Second went to Maxime Livio and Qalao Des Mers of France, with England’s Zara Tindall and High Kingdom taking third.

The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event also featured overall team standings through the Dubarry of Ireland Nations Team Challenge, where Team Canada finished fifth overall. USA took first, New Zealand second, and a combined team of Australia, Germany and Great Britain was third.

For more information and complete results, visit www.rk3de.org.

Top Canadian Results
Rider / Horse / Owner / Score
11th / Selena O’Hanlon / Foxwood High / John & Judy Rumble / 70.6
12th / Hawley Bennett-Award / Jollybo / Hawley Bennett-Awad / 77.2
17th / Jessica Phoenix / Pavarotti / Don J. Good / 83.7
18th / Lisa Marie Fergusson / Honor Me / Lisa Marie Fergusson / 86.6
26th / Holly Jacks-Smither / More Inspiration / Bruce Smither & Holly Jacks-Smither / 105.9