Coudray Clinches Her First CIC*** Win With Ringwood Magister

Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister added a lot of extra miles to their résumé last year, traveling from their home in Ojai, Calif., to New Jersey to Quebec to Maryland and back again, without much to show for it. Qualifying constraints, tiny injuries and terrible weather kept them from ever completing a CCI***, and the long journey out East was disappointing in too many ways to count.

“It seems like we have a lot more letters on our record than we do numbers,” Coudray admitted. She withdrew at the Bromont CCI*** (Que.) and retired on cross-country at the Galway Downs CIC*** (Calif.) and the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.). “If things weren’t going right, I pulled him up. I only ran him when he was all there. Hopefully we’re turning a corner.”

Somewhere along the way, her 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding still soaked up some valuable lessons. Coudray’s still cautiously optimistic, but she took this afternoon to finally enjoy her first big win in too long—she and “Finian” clinched a victory in the Galway CIC*** today, March 27, in Temecula, Calif. The pair show jumped double-clear yesterday and added just 3.6 time faults to their dressage score to win on a 42.3.

“I’m just so pleased with him,” Coudray said after cross-country, which ran in reverse order of standings. “Being the last horse out there in the warm-up is tough. [And] there were places where I gave him the opportunity to not be good to me, and he still was. He’s really grown up.”

Tamra Smith moved up to second (49.9) with a double-clear round aboard Bubbles At Bricky—one of only three in the division. Ian Stark’s forward, galloping course rode well for most, but second-placed Kelli Prather and Ballinakill Glory had a surprise run-out at the final element of the SmartPak Normandy Bank, fence 20ABCD. Prather and her mare jumped the first fence, made it up and down the bank and then ran out of gas at the final corner. Their 20 jump penalties pushed them down to 10th overall.

That took some significant pressure off the leader, however.

“I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I happened to be galloping right past the speaker when I heard that the horse in second had had a refusal, so I thought, ‘OK, I have a bit more wiggle room on the time and can really set him up the way I want him,’ ” Coudray said.

Smith, who ran third-from-last, also admitted she as listening in more than she expected to the rides before her. She hadn’t originally planned to run for time on her 13-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding, as it was his first CIC***, but she changed her mind in the warm-up.

“Jennifer Wooten-DaFoe [on The Good Witch] was the first double-clear and then when [Hawley Bennett-Awad also did it on Gin N’ Juice], I thought, ‘Well, if he feels really good, then I’m going to run for time,’” said Smith, Hemet, Calif.

The pair skipped easily around the course, building up plenty of confidence for their upcoming CCI*** debut at Jersey Fresh (N.J.) in May.

Bennett-Awad moved up to third overall, finishing on her dressage score of 54.6 with Gin N’ Juice. Wooten-DaFoe was close behind on her dressage mark of 55.5 to place fourth.