Puissance Class

Six riders attempted the $25,000 Puissance Class, but four rounds later just one would win.

In the qualifying round, Aaron Vale was first to be eliminated after knocking a rail at the second qualifying fence, a high vertical.

Five of six jumped the qualifying jumps and the 5'6" wall and returned for the second round.  Two of the warm-up fences were removed so riders had only to jump the triple bar and the wall set at 6'.  Ljubov Kochetova, the only lady and the only rider representing Russia in the Puissance, was the next to be eliminated.

Four came back for the second jump-off round with the wall set at 6'6".  Todd Minikus aboard Sweetheart, his winning mount in Thursday's Gambler's Choice,  had a pretty good rub but managed to leave the wall standing.

Along the way, Boeing added another $5,000 to the purse, making it a $30,000 Puissance class.

The third jump off round saw all four returning riders attempt the 6'9" wall, but Scott Brash got a less than ideal distance and took down part of the wall.

Three riders came back for the final jump-off round where the wall was set at a staggering 7'.  This was the round that would determine the final payout.

Andrew Kocher  aboard Donnatello, was the first in and the first eliminated.  Todd Minikus  and Sweetheart also had the wall down to tie it up for first place.

It all came down to Puissance pro Nick Skelton.  He did not disappoint, despite a good rub, Skelton and Unique left the wall standing to win the title.

Minikus wins the $20,000 Gambler's Choice

A nun, a cop and Santa.  It sounds like the beginning to a joke, but really it is a partial list of competitors for last night's Gambler's Choice class at the Washington International Horse Show.   Since the show falls so close to Halloween, it has become tradition to hold a costume class as part of the festivities.  And truly, there is nothing like seeing world class riders like Aaron Vale, Margie Engle and Todd Minikus dressed is goofy costumes.

As with any Gambler's Choice class, each fence was assigned a point value.  The riders are given a set amount of time to jump as many of the fences they can in whatever order they choose, however each fence may only be jumped no more than twice, as Navona Gallegos found out.  Had her third time over the 110 point Animal Planet vertical counted, she would have been third instead of six. Knock downs and refusals in the regular round do not count against the rider's score, except in time wasted.

At the end of the regular round, riders were given the option of jumping a final "joker" fence which in this case was a high vertical flanked by cupcakes made by Georgetown Cupcakes.  Aaron Vale a.k.a Tony Romo discovered that taste testing the cupcakes while mounted was frowned upon.

Other costumes included two hippies, Buzz Lightyear, and of course, a tube of toothpaste.

In the end, it was Todd Minikus or Uncle Sam's fantastic round aboard Sweetheart that took top honors. Making sharp 360 degree turns back and forth over jumps, Minikus scored 990 points and left the joker up to set the bar at a total 1190 points.

Saer Coulter, who was dressed as one of two Na'vi riders from Avatar, took home second with a score of 1160.  Nick "skeleton" Skelton had a bit of a dust-up when he jumped the joker fence prematurely but in the end, the judges allowed him to jump it again and he managed to ride away with third due to his 1110 point score.

Christmas themed riders "St. Nikolas" Dello Joio and Margie "the elf" Engle took home fourth and fifth respectively.

For the final results go here.

$40,000 Nutrena Grand Prix

Finally, an eon later, I bring you the $40,000 Nutrena Grand Prix from Midwest Horse Fair:

In the past couple of years I've noticed a lot more events for the hunter/jumper people.  Before, a lot of the people I knew didn't attend because they thought there wasn't anything there for them.  Two years ago, Stacia Madden did an equitation clinic and last year, Nick Karazissis has put on a great clinic for the past two years and last year MHF introduced the Nutrena Grand Prix. Suddenly, everyone from every barn I've ever ridden at is going to the Fair and more specifically, to the Grand Prix.

Last year, the place was absolutely packed. This year it was still pretty full, but there were a couple of open sections.  I don't know if this is due to the ticket price ($18 for the cheap seats and $35 for the lower level seats) or the weather.  As you might recall from my earlier post, the weather was very crappy.

Still, the course was challenging, the competitors were good, and the hot pretzels were delicious. (I have a bit of a food obsession, don I?)  

Both last year and this year's fence had a bogey fence. Last year, it was a liverpool with wavy planks wherein the pool was pushed completely under the jump with no groundline.  This year's bogey fence didn't claim as many good rounds as the liverpool, but the first jump of the course still saw its fair share of knock-downs. From my height I couldn't determine why the riders had the first fence (pictured above ) down, maybe the horse sighted in on the fence next to it, maybe the cups were just shallow.

The crowd noise played a factor for some, but there were a lot of really good rounds at the grand prix. I was excited to see so many young riders there (even if it does make me feel old) doing well.  The horses were great, one of the horses is a half-brother to my horse so it was cool for me to see him in person albeit from high above.  To sum up, it was a great time and I can't wait for next year!

Sorry for the extremely brief (read a little lame) post about the prix that happened over a month ago.  Finals got in the way and I really want to move on to some newer (read exciting) announcements.  Stay tuned!