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Mara Dean and Nicki Henley led after the Dressage Phase. They held their lead through Show Jumping as both Nicki Henley and Darren Chiacchia's Windfall jumped double clears.

Darren and Windfall took over the lead after Cross Country as their time, faster by 7.2 time faults or 18 seconds, took over the lead to win the CIC**.

1. Darren Chiacchia, Windfall II - 46.2 (1.2 time XC)
2. Mara Dean, Nicki Henley - 48.1 (8.4 time XC) (Mara and Nicki Henley are pictured at the right in the Dressage Phase at the Jersey Fresh CCI***, last June.)
3. Corinne Ashton, Dobbin - 48.4 (FODS)
4. Jessica Kiener, My Boy Bobby - 49.4 (DCXC)
5. Sharon White, Ronaldo - 51.6 (FODS)
6. William Coleman, Twizzel - 55.4 (4 time XC)
7. Sharon White, The King's Spirit - 57.2 (FODS)
8. Darren Chiacchia, Better I Do It - 58.4 (5.2 time XC)
9. Phillip Dutton, Tru Luck - 63.5 (.4 time XC)
10. Jessica Kiener, ColorMeBrite - 65.9 (DCXC)

Other Scores of Interest:
13. Phillip Dutton, Amazing Odyssey - 73.0 (1.2 time XC)
14. Phillip Dutton, Connaught - 73.0 (5.6 time XC)
(36 competitors)

Open Intermediate:
1. Phillip Dutton, Loose 'n Cool - 35.50 (DCXC)
(24 competitors)

Open Preliminary A:
1. Jennifer Goebel, Berkeley - 36.6
(20 competitors)

Open Preliminary B:
William Coleman, K. du Manoir - 29.9
(22 competitors)

Open Preliminary C:
Gayle Molander, Lizzy - 38.3
(21 Competitors)

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The Competition is On
Over 325 competitors from a list of over 450 who sent entries on Opening Day

Victor, NY. The best of the best international competitors are entered in the 17th Annual Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials and CIC** which will run July 20-23, 2006, in Victor, NY.

In the USEA Adequan Gold Cup CIC**, 1996 Olympic rider Mara DePuy Dean will compete against Great Britain's 2004 Olympic Individual Gold and Team Silver Medalist, Leslie Law, two-time Australian Team Gold Medal winner and leading rider in the world, Phillip Dutton, and 2004 Olympic Team Bronze Medalist from the United States, Darren Chiacchia on his Olympic horse Windfall II. Another former US Olympian, Bobby Costello, (Bobby finished 4th in Open Preliminary B with Mr. McWhinney on 36.7) will compete in the Open Intermediate and Training divisions. And, on Thursday and Friday twenty of the best novice riders in New York and New England will vie for the coveted 2006 Area I Novice Championships. A pretty impressive line up!

Come watch the excitement July 20-23 in Victor, NY. Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials, presented by Van Bortel Subaru, is located at the intersection of Townline and Murray Roads off Boughton Hill Road. Admission is free. Parking is $6 per day. For further information, see www.stuarthorsetrials.org.

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Contact:
Stuart Horse Trials Organizer: Wezo Pierson, piersonlouisa@yahoo.com; (585) 924-2514

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Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials

It was a soggy weekend at the Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials, in Victor, New York. So much rain fell that the organizers were forced to make a last-minute schedule change, flip-flopping cross-country and show jumping to Sunday and Saturday respectively, in the hopes that the footing would dry out a little for cross-country. Organizer Wezo Pierson and her crew did a marvelous job of dealing with all the details, making the switch as easy as possible on the competitors.

While the going was better for Sunday’s cross-country, the course was adjusted, including removing most of the water complex, so the horses only had to jump a roll top going down into the water and then canter out.

Before all these changes, Mara Dean took the early lead in the CIC**, which served as the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series Intermediate division, with Willow Bend LLC’s Nicki Henley, on a score of 39.7, edging out the usual number-one-after-dressage Darren Chiacchia and Windfall 2 in second place with 45. Both pairs put in double clears the following day in show jumping, so it came down to Sunday’s cross-country to decide the winner.

Only eight of the 26 competitors made it through the finish flags under the optimum time, and neither Chiacchia nor Dean were among them. Chiacchia and Windfall, though, had just 1.2 time penalties, while Dean and Nicki Henley racked up 8.4, one of the higher penalty counts of the day, dropping them into second and earning Chiacchia and Windfall the win on a narrow margin of 1.9 penalties.

Windfall, a 14-year-old Trakehner stallion owned by Timothy Holekamp, looked confident and comfortable on cross-country, a good sign after some trouble earlier this year at both the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and the Jersey Fresh CCI***. Dean and Nicki Henley, who also had less than stellar performances at Rolex and Jersey Fresh, showed positive progress on cross-country as well. “Mara and Nicki Henley looked back on form,” according to past Olympian, Robert Costello. “They were really right on cue today, jumping great.”

Last year’s Cosequin Stuart champions, Corinne Ashton and Dobbin, her 12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, came quite close to repeating their performance, finishing on their dressage score of 48.4, just 0.3 penalties behind Dean and Nicki Henley. (Corinne Ashton and Dobbin are pictured at the left jumping into the water at the American Eventing Championships, at Southern Pines, in 2005.) They were followed just a penalty behind, by Jessica Kiener and My Boy Bobby, a ten-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Carl Segal, who won last year’s Intermediate division at the American Eventing Championships. “This horse is definitely one of my favorites,” Costello said after the event. “He clocked around the course and Jessica did a great job with him. She’d better lock his stall up at night. This is one of those really nice horses that people would love to ride.”

Just five more events remain on the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series calendar. In three weeks, both coasts will be busy again, this time with the Millbrook Horse Trials, in Millbrook, New York, and the Woodside Horse Trials, in Woodside, California. Two weekends (August 25-27) later the Series moves to the Midwest for the Richland Park Horse Trials, in Richland, Michigan, and then finishes up in September at the Poplar Place Horse Trials, in Hamilton, Georgia (September 8-9) and the Twin Rivers Horse Trials, in Paso Robles, California (September 29-October 1).

The 2006 Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series would not be possible without an impressive list of sponsors: Title, Adequan; Presenting: Amerigo, Nunn Finer, and Nutrena; Contributing: Cover-All Building Systems, UlcerGard, Wellpride and Premier Equestrian; and patron sponsor, Mountain Horse and Ogilvy Horse.

This December at the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, a grand prize Gold Cup trophy and Amerigo saddle will be awarded to the rider from each division with the most points at the end of the year. In addition, the Gold Cup champion at the advanced level receives a check from the USEA for $6,000, and the intermediate champion receives a check for $4,000. Both winners will also receive an additional supply of Adequan. The second placed rider at Advanced wins a $3,500 Bit of Britain gift certificate, and their Intermediate counterpart wins a $2,500 gift certificate.

For more information on the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series, visit the Gold Cup page on the USEA website. For more information on The Event at Rebecca Farm, including complete results, visit www.eventatrfarm.com. For more information on the Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials, visit www.stuarthorsetrials.org.