PrintWill Coleman wasn’t necessarily expecting to win the Bromont CCI***. It was his fairly green horse’s first three-star, he hadn’t competed in a few months, he was sitting third going into show jumping, and only two pairs had managed a clean round of the 19 that had jumped before him.
But when Coleman left all the rails in their cups and the two pairs ahead of him, Kim Severson and Tipperary Liadhnan and Jessica Phoenix and Exponential, both dropped rails, Coleman moved up to the win today, June 13, in Bromont, Que., on 59.0 penalties.
“I’m thrilled for the horse and his owner, Nanki Doubleday,” said Coleman, Gordonsville, Va. “She’s been one of my biggest supporters since I started doing this professionally. She was my first owner. We’ve had hard luck with horses for whatever reason, and she has stuck with it. For her to have this victory is so wonderful. I know I can ride better than I did this weekend, and I fully expect to, but a win’s a win. I’d rather be lucky than good, so we’re thrilled.”
Canadian rider Rebecca Howard, coming back from the several broken ribs, two clavicle fractures and punctured lung she incurred in a fall from another horse at Pine Top Horse Trials (Ga.) this spring, also jumped a double-clear round with Riddle Master and moved from fourth to second on 59.4 penalties.
“The horse was fantastic. He jumped great. I didn’t ride very well,” Howard said with a laugh. “But you couldn’t have asked for him to try any harder, so I was thrilled with that.”
Howard wasn’t the only one coming back from an injury—Coleman, 27, fractured his collarbone in a fall from a preliminary mount at The Fork Horse Trials (N.C.) in early April and has only been back in the saddle a short while.
“I thought the horse could do well here, but he’s still a little bit green, and I’ve had some inconsistencies and have been out of it for the last couple months,” Coleman said. “It wasn’t the greatest lead-up to his first three-star, but the horse really came through for me this weekend remarkably well."
The show jumping course proved consequential, and the placings shifted after only three pairs made it around double-clear. The leaders from dressage and cross-country, Tipperary Liadhnan and Kim Severson, pulled three rails in show jumping to finish fourth on 61.8 penalties. Second-placed Jessica Phoenix and Exponential’s one rail cost them the finish on that placing, and they instead took home third. Jil Walton and My Sedona put in a clean trip to move up from 13th to sixth, and Buck Davidson and Mar De Amor’s single rail boosted them from 10th to fifth.
Though Coleman’s potential 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games mount Twizzel appears to be out of contention due to injury, Coleman doesn’t anticipate his younger mount stepping up to that level just yet and hopes to take him to Europe for another three-star in the fall.
