PrintIt had been almost a year since Selena O’Hanlon and Colombo had posted a double-clear show jumping round, so that in itself felt like victory enough when they left the arena at the Richland Park CIC*** today, Aug. 29.
But hearing the Canadian anthem play for her winning performance in the CIC, which also served as an Adequan USEA Gold Cup division, was an especially moving experience for O’Hanlon, who jumped up from third place to claim the victory in Richland, Mich.
“I really feel like everything’s mounting at the right time,” said O’Hanlon, who’s short-listed for the Canadian team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games this fall, and will now almost assuredly be named to the squad. “He’s peaking now just in time for the WEG, and hopefully we’ll go out there and make an impression and leave them looking up to Canada instead of down.”
After O’Hanlon and Colombo’s double-clear round, Boyd Martin and Remington XXV, who are short-listed for the U.S. team and sat in second place going into show jumping, skimmed easily around the course—until the triple combination. There they knocked the front rail of the first element, which gave Nate Chambers, the overnight leader, a rail in hand for the win.
Chambers kept Rolling Stone II jumping in beautiful form throughout most of the course, but after they lowered a rail at fence 8, a wide oxer, things unraveled quickly. They immediately pulled three more rails at the first and third elements of the triple and at the final fence, dropping out of the ribbons to 10th.
That left O’Hanlon to lead the victory gallop aboard Michael and Elaine Davies’ 16-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding.
“The stadium’s been his biggest struggle,” said O’Hanlon, of Elgin, Ont. “Before I got him I don’t think he’d ever gotten a clear round, and then I got a couple of good clear rounds out of him, and then it wavered.”
O’Hanlon and Colombo have worked with Canadian team coach David O’Connor for years, however, as they competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong.
“David’s always said, ‘One rail’s an accident. This is a one-rail or a clear-round horse. There shouldn’t be any more than that,’ ” O’Hanlon said.
“I was really happy we were on grass today,” she continued. “I heard a lot of people complaining, and I know it’s hard for the horses’ feet, and that’s not good. However, my horse stays springier out on the grass. He’s more excited and more forward, naturally, whereas even when you warm up on grass and take him into sand—and it goes for dressage as well—he dies a little in the ring.”
The show jumping course had a busy feel, especially in the CIC***, which attracted the biggest crowds. Because it’s situated in the middle of a field with no permanent arena fencing and is surrounded by parked trailers, cars and spectators on all sides, the atmosphere at Richland can be over-stimulating for some horses.
But O’Hanlon said Colombo had no trouble getting down to business, and that’ll be a bonus at the WEG, when they’ll be performing in front of thousands of spectators.
