Coudray Can’t Be Beat On Day 1 Of The Galway Downs CIC

From the hasty manner in which Tiana Coudray thrust her reins down onto Ringwood Magister’s neck immediately after her final dressage salute, you’d have thought they were burning right through her gloves.

But the huge grin on her face and the way she practically attacked her 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding with hugs proved otherwise—she knew she’d just ridden into first place in the Galway Downs CIC***, and she couldn’t contain her excitement.

“I’m thrilled. I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Coudray, Ojai, Calif.

Dressage began at the Galway Downs CIC and International Horse Trials today, March 26, in Temecula, Calif., and the three-star division was the first to go in Arena 1.

Marilyn Payne, the judge at C, gave Coudray and “Finian” a 77.60 percent, while Wayne Quarles at B marked them at 70.80. Their converted penalty score, 38.7, gave them a comfortable lead over second-placed Tamra Smith and Bubbles At Bricky (45.9).

The CIC*** field of 17 horses was split into three sessions in dressage, and Smith, Hemet, Calif., was the first to ride in the second set. While most of the horses in the early-morning session were frisky and tense, “Bubbles” performed an exceptionally relaxed and elastic test, flowing easily between collection and extension.

But Coudray was next to enter the arena, and she and Finian set a whole new standard. The young gelding, who’s fading from his previous gunmetal gray into a striking dapple, is also showing a new level of physical strength and mental maturity. His test was precise and brilliant, highlighted by his seamless lead changes, which the majority of the three-star horses struggled with.

“He’s always been good, but he’s just getting better and better,” Coudray said. “I’ve had him since he was a little kid, so I know him really well. He’s just grown up. [In the past], it’s been like, ‘Oh, that movement could have been better, this movement could have been better.’ But now I think we’re down to one movement that I really want better. I felt like the halt and rein-back could have been better today; I sort of blew that. But he was really wonderful today.”

Jolie Wentworth (née Sexson) trotted into third place with a calm, solid test aboard the reliable Killian O’Connor (48.0). An uncharacteristic break from canter to trot and a canter bobble in the final corner marred an otherwise lovely test by Kelly Prather and Ballinakill Glory; they placed fourth with a 49.8.

This year Galway’s longtime organizer, Robert Kellerhouse, elected to modify the traditional CIC schedule so that those divisions would finish on Saturday, with cross-country running as the last phase to build more excitement for spectators. Tomorrow, riders will go in reverse order of standing instead of numerically.

That made for some very fresh horses in the show jumping this afternoon, and the dressage standings began shuffling from the get-go. Coudray kept her lead, but Smith’s one rail down and Wentworth’s two opened the door for Prather to slip into second aboard Andrea Pfeiffer’s Irish Sport Horse mare.

Finian gave several head tosses throughout his fast and gallopy round, and Coudray left the arena shaking her head herself, but they added nothing to their dressage score.

“I felt like I could have ridden a little better, but he was fantastic and had no trouble jumping a clean round,” Coudray said.