September 2023 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN September 2023 Page 13 Tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian! Press release American Olympian Boyd Martin (Cochranville, PA), came to Bromont to prepare his very best horses for the biggest event in the world. He should leave feeling fairly confident, having taken the win in the CCI4* Au- gust 12 with his Tokyo Olympic mount Tsetserleg on a final score of 52 points. He also took third with On Cue (56.1), and fifth with Commando 3 (59.3), as well as third in the 3* with Contessa (44.6). With the event running as a ‘short format’, the dressage and show jumping phases were completed Friday, August 11, leaving the exciting cross-country as the final and deciding phase Saturday. Given the rain of the past three weeks, it was expected that galloping times would be conservative, and riders would tread carefully. Thankfully the ground held up well, and the organizers were generous with stone chips and gravel as needed on takeoff and land- ings to ensure safety across all levels. Time was the deciding factor Saturday, with every FEI rider save one (Canada’s Jessica Phoenix, winner of the 2* with Tugce) adding time faults to their overall score. “The footing ended up being fantastic,” remarked Martin following his third and final round in the 4* division. "I think the whole field just looked after their horses, when the ground got quite boggy and soft. 80% of the course was very good — it was just small sections where every- one balanced their horses and looked after them a bit. Thomas (Tsetserleg) hasn’t jumped a cross-country jump since June so he was a little rusty at the be- ginning, but it’s a good fitness run for him. This was a perfect run over a big course and now we’ll wrap Thomas and 'Cue' up in cotton wool and be in En- gland in a couple of weeks!” The overnight leaders, Ca- nadian Olympian Colleen Loach (Dunham, QC) and FE Golden Eye added a total of 22.8 time faults (compared to the 18 of Martin and Tsetserleg) to finish on a final score of 54.5 and settle for second place. In the CCI3* division, it was Caroline Pamukcu (nee Martin, Riegelsville, PA) who took the top two spots, leading wire-to- wire with HSH Connor and mov- ing HSH Double Sixteen from sixth overnight up into second. Both added time, but Double Six- teen held it to a very respectable 7.6 faults, finishing on scores of 42.2 and 43.8 penalties respec- tively. “For us, it’s important to schedule our horses for competi- tions where they will learn, and I always find Bromont has a hard cross-country track,” explained Pamukcu. “It’s important for me Martin Finishes First, Third and Fifth at Bromont (Continued on page 24)