Leffler Celebrates With Lexington Spring Encore Win

Mary Lisa Nicholson Leffler gave herself an early birthday present by winning the $25,000 Encore Grand Prix.
   
Leffler and the 12-year-old, gray Hanoverian mare, Gerona 92, jumped one of only seven clear first rounds out of the 33 entries who attempted Pierre Jolicoeur’s grand prix course at the Lexington Spring Encore, May 9-13 at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Va.

“I don’t think it [the course] was over anybody’s head. It gave some people a chance to go in for the first time. But I think it caught you if you weren’t paying attention,” Leffler added.

The win was a pleasant birthday surprise for the Brookville, Md., rider who turned 40 the next day. This is her second year of campaigning the 17-hand Gerona 92, who she described as talented, scopey and uncomplicated. Peter Pletcher imported Gerona from Germany, and Leffler bought her before she ever left quarantine.

“I tried her and I didn’t think there was any way I was going to be able to stay on her,” she admitted. “She has such a big jump. But my sister, Patty Foster, kept encouraging me and telling me that I would be able to learn to ride her.”

Gerona wasn’t an established grand prix horse at the time. “She didn’t have a lot of mileage, but I still liked that because I wasn’t buying anyone’s used car,” Leffler said.

The winning pair was almost 4 seconds faster than second-placed finishers Melissa Jones Sarle and Lavaro, indicating that their recent focus on “learning to go faster” was paying off.

“She has such a big step,” Leffler said. “I went for a while where I kept pulling a rail because I was thinking about the time too much. Now I think about doing the speed early in the course and then concentrating on the job at hand.”  Sarle and Leffler were the only riders with clean jump-off rounds.

The Horse Center’s indoor coliseum seemed to be a good fit for the big mare, despite the technical questions posed. “She’s always been good in the small spaces,” Leffler said. “When she gets outside, she almost gets too casual. Indoors, she’s always looking at her fences and is a little spunkier.”

Leffler took Gerona 92 home following Lexington to relax before heading off to Devon (Pa.) and Upperville (Va.) in June.

Jolicoeur said he designed his course with the idea of allowing riders to move up. “The first part of the course was a rhythm thing, a give-away,” he said. “It put the horses to sleep both mentally and physically.

“Then the second part hit them very fast. It was really to separate the younger riders from the older riders, and to make sure the winner was really the winner.”

Jolicoeur was pleased that at least a couple of younger riders made it into the jump-off, including 18-year old Kristin Vanderveen riding Bull Run’s Lavinia. Vanderveen ended up in fifth place.

Pin-Up More Than Just Pretty
Hilary Scheer Gerhardt, 40, of Warrenton, Va., added the Best Adult Rider title to her championship in the adult amateur, 36-45 division at the Lexington Spring Encore. A mother of two, Gerhardt fits riding into her busy schedule that includes volunteering with com-munity service organizations and a part-time job with a land conservation group.