Mackenna Shea and Landioso
At the 2014 Australian International 3 Day Event a 22 year old girl, Jess Manson, stole the limelight with a win in the CCI4* on her grey Stock Horse Legal Star. At Rolex Kentucky today another 22 year old, the American rider Mackenna Shea also threw down the gauntlet to the other, much more experienced, 4* riders around her with a test that shone. Riding her 13-year-old warmblood gelding Landioso, Mackenna showed a confidence way beyond her years in the large arena that today was bustling and electric, causing tension problems for many horses. Landioso had no such problems showing very settled work and swinging, uphill paces that certainly grabbed the judges’ attention and good marks; only the second ride of the day, following a test by Erin Sylvester and No Boundaries that probably had Erin very glad to leave the arena, Mackenna and Landioso shot into second place with a score of 44.
Unlike Jess Manson who was almost a 4* veteran when she won in Adelaide, this is Mackenna and Landioso’s first 4* event and, although she looked remarkably calm during the test, the emotion could be seen straight afterwards.
“I was really nervous” she said “But it’s probably the best test we’ve ever done. It was hard not to cry as we went down the final centre line to halt”
Mackenna has had Landioso since he was a four year old and spent time in 2014 working with Boyd Martin who is competing on two horses this weekend but certainly couldn’t match Mackenna’s performance today and is in 12th place on Master Frisky and 45th on Cracker Jack.
Tim Price and Wesko
Soon after Mackenna another combination delivered a test that was also good enough to bring tears to the eyes but Tim Price is too cool a customer for that. The Kiwi that won his first 4* at Luhmuhlen last year wanted this to be an event where his Dutch warmblood Wesko would be “rewarded for his efforts” following their difficult time in Normandy last year. They were certainly rewarded by the judges today, starting on a high note and continuing to pull in the scores throughout the test. The ex-showjumping horse that was found ‘almost by mistake’ at the end of a long day of horse hunting showed cadence, balance and rhythm throughout the whole test and the pair looked in complete harmony to score 36.30, putting them into the lead ahead of Thursday’s leaders Michael Jung and FischerRocana FST. Wesko and Tim scored 43.50 when they won at Luhmuhlen last year and bettered this by quite a bit with a 36.30 here at Kentucky
“I knew he had it in him,” said Tim “I know he is that good, but to do it in the ring is what we have been trying to achieve. I am just elated with him really, he is such a cool horse. Wesko has all the potential in the world and it does take a long time to convert that to a good performance in the ring. It is great to actually achieve it today”
The drama of the day came straight after lunch when Zara Phillips, a bit of a draw card for the American audience that numbered over 13,000 today, dismounted in the warm up arena, unsaddled her horse and had him led back to the stable. It appears that High Kingdom had kicked out in his stable and cut his leg; during the warm up it became apparent that the cut was more serious than first thought, requiring stitches and forcing Zara to retire only moments before entering the arena. Zara and High Kingdom are entered for Badminton so the only question remains whether the horse will be sound and fit enough to compete there; if not, Luhmuhlen is likely to be their next big start.
Australian Kate Chadderton, who has been based in the USA since 2008, didn’t enjoy the best of tests on her horse Collection Pass , losing their bridle number during the test and showing tension in their work, leaving them in 67th. Kate will now no doubt focus on getting around the cross country course and completing what is likely to be a very difficult course
The other Australian rider, Bill Levett and Improvise (above) also had problems with tension due to the electric atmosphere in the arena but this is a horse that just oozes quality. The entry was great but a break in the first medium trot across the diagonal cost Bill dearly.However, with characteristic calm and horsemanship, he got the horse back into the rhythm, stayed conservative in the extended trot and started to demonstrate again what this horse can do. Improvise’s floating paces, suspension and spot on flying changes brought the marks back up and, despite it not being the perfect test, Bill went into seventh place at that point on 48.40.
There were still of course two very big guns to come with defending champion William Fox-Pitt and Bay My Hero moving into third spot on 38.5 with one little glitch after the first flying change bringing down his mark but William still had a huge smile on his face at the final halt.
“I was delighted with Bay My Hero, he was fantastic today” said William “He’s really strengthened up this year and his score is a good six points better than this time last year so I couldn’t be happier with that”
The long and the short of it!
Michael Jung and La Biosthetique Sam also put in a display of brilliant dressage but the judges at the end of the day couldn’t separate the two best two tests of the day and so Tim Price and Michael Jung go into the cross country phase in equal first place on a score of 36.3, hotly pursued by William on 38.5.
With an 80% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast for Saturday and the already quite soft going, the organisers have opted to bring the start time of the cross country forward to 9:45am meaning that the last rider, Boyd Martin will head out on course at 1:25pm, hopefully before the worst of the weather.
View USEF videos of all dressage tests here
