PrintMeg O’Mara and War Eagle entered the grand prix ring today, Friday, March 19, at HITS Ocala (Fla.) for the R.W. Mutch Equitation Championship with hardly any history. Their performance, however, gave the impression they were longtime partners, and they cruised to the blue ribbon in their first day of showing together.
“I just played it by ear,” O’Mara, 16, said with a laugh. “My friends helped me walk the course, so I knew the strides. I just had to stay calm and breath. He was ready to win.”
O’Mara, Rumson, N.J., got the ride on Don Stewart’s War Eagle when her usual mount fell ill.
“Don very graciously offered us two of his horses, one of which Meg rode last week,” said Mary Babick, O’Mara’s trainer. “Don had her show War Eagle in a level 3 class, and we both sat and watched, and I said, ‘I think she should ride War Eagle, but I think she should make up her own mind.' Then we left it up to Don.”
O’Mara and War Eagle’s first round left them solidly in second place behind Michael Hughes. Olaf Petersen’s track had riders bending left from one to two, bending right from two to three, then looping around to jump through a one-stride combination to a steady four-stride line to a liverpool. After a straightforward oxer on the short side of the ring, they contested another double combination before a long bending gallop to the last fence, another oxer.
“I wasn’t nervous going in because it was only my third trip in the ring with him, and it was our first day,” said O’Mara. “It’s good when I’m not nervous because I tend to crack under pressure. I wanted to go in and have a good time. The first round I just wanted to get into the second round. I watched all of the bending lines, and I just concentrated on being smooth and calm."
O’Mara’s strategy worked in the first round, but with the competitive Hughes on top, she knew she had to do something special in order to take over the lead. The second round had one major change—the one-stride combination before the liverpool became a bounce—and the judges rewarded O’Mara’s round with a 90 and 92.
“I knew I had to step it up and show off a little bit. My horse is a great jumper, so I just showed that off,” said O’Mara.
However, the judges felt that Hughes and O’Mara were too close in order to let two rounds decide the winner, so they called them back, had them switch horses, and sent them back over the second round course, minus the last fence.
“We always joke around because we’ve been in the past couple medal tests together, and we always have to drop our stirrups,” said O’Mara with a laugh. “So we said as long as we didn’t have to drop stirrups we’d be good.”
Hughes overestimated War Eagle’s big stride and went a little too wide between fence one and two and added at the base, leaving the door wide open for O’Mara.
“I was a little big for Michael’s horse because he’s 15 hands and I’m 5’10”, but he’s awesome,” said O’Mara. Her bold four strides between the bounce and the liverpool sealed the win. “He was really smooth, and I just kind of kept going. I’ve watched that horse go so many times before that I kind of know him.”
The R.W. Mutch Championship is unique in that the riders are not allowed to have any outside help once the competition starts. They can talk with their competitors and are allowed one groom, and their cell phones are even confiscated before the class! But it didn’t stop O’Mara’s trainers, Stewart and Babick, from watching her rounds.
