Midsouth CCI Victory ExpandsNugent’s Ambitions

Slighty more than two years ago, Debbie Nugent's trainer, Maggie Wright, told her she should make a one-star her goal. At the time, though, Nugent thought novice fences looked like "mountains." "When Maggie told me a one-star should be my goal, I didn't even know what it was," said Nugent. "I ran home and got on the web and saw that you had to have four clear rounds at preliminary, and I thought she was out of her mind. There was no way I'd jump a preliminary fence. But that was the goal I set." Nugent, 41, far surpassed her goal when she completed her first three-day with a win, aboard My Echo, at the Midsouth CCI*, Oct. 20-23 in Lexington, Ky. She earned the U.S. Equestrian Federation's Alexander Mackay-Smith trophy for the national amateur championship. "I'm pretty darn thrilled," she said. "It's been my goal for 21â„2 years to complete a three-day. Never in my wildest dream did I think I could win it." But once Nugent, of Winchester, Ky., won the dressage, with help from her dressage coach, Elaine Gibala, she knew it was hers to win or lose. Nugent, a manager for IBM, had ridden hunters as a child but gave up riding for 14 years to go to college and start her career. When she returned to the sport, she swore she'd only do dressage. But she dabbled in jumpers and foxhunting before arriving at Wright's Champagne Run Farm and declaring that she wanted to event. "I saw eventing as putting [all the horse activities I'd participated in] together," she said. And she knew Echo had the talent and the brain for it. She'd spotted the ex-race horse hunting under Tom Nugent (who would later become her husband) three years ago and traded him for a gray horse she had. "Tom didn't love him because he was 'boring,' " she said with a laugh. "He's ended up being a wonderful-brained athlete who will give me his heart and soul." Nugent needed that on cross-country, for Derek di Grazia's challenging course. "It was pretty difficult. There were a lot more combinations and tougher questions," she said. "Both corners were coming off a bending line, and out of the second water, you had a trakehner in two strides and no great way of getting there." With the steeplechase a bit boggy by the time Nugent set out, she slipped after the first fence and nearly went down. "The helmet was over my eyes," she said. "I just sat up and kicked on." Fortunately, Echo was more than ready to go on. "He's fairly quiet, and normally he's a lamb in the start box, but when I walked to the steeplechase start, he was leaping. I was like, 'Wow, who is this horse?' He was much more animated than I'm used to." Nugent also felt Echo's enthusiasm at the water jump, where he can sometimes be hesitant. "I put my leg on, and he flew in," she said. "I have a different horse, I guess, when I run the long format." When Nugent cleared her final fence in show jumping, after dropping just one rail, she had secured the win. "All my friends were around me when I came out of the ring, even my friends who'd been eliminated earlier. I was so engulfed in emotion and the people around me. I'm still in shock," she said. "It was amazing. Even though [some of my friends] didn't have the ride they were looking for, the sportsmanship and spirit was still there, because we all went there to do the same thing." Despite her victory, Nugent doesn't plan to move up to intermediate soon. "I'm not ready yet, but we may move up somewhere down the road," she said.