Allison Springer, 49, has been involved in the international eventing circuit for decades as a rider, trainer and coach, and has multiple four-star short wins to her credit. Until this weekend’s Mars Bromont CCI4*-L (Quebec), the U.S. rider had yet to add a CCI4*-L win to her lengthy resume.

Springer rode Nancy Winter’s No May Moon to the win on Sunday, June 9, climbing from third in dressage to second after a challenging cross-country day. Finally, Springer and “Mayzie” moved into first with one of just three double-clean rounds in the show jumping. The pair topped the scoreboard with a combined final score of 46.1 penalties. 

Canada’s Waylon Roberts and OKE Ruby R fell to second when a rail down cost them the win and finished on a score of 50. U.S. rider Boyd Martin and Miss Lulu Herself posted one of the other double-clean rounds on Sunday to finish in third with 50.7. The top three happened to be the only three mares in the class.

“I think it’s like anything—you get experience by potentially not doing it right in the past,” Springer said. “I’ve had a couple of careful horses that were great at the three-star level and started out great advanced but were a little too careful, so I learned from that and I just really wanted Mayzie to tell me every step of the way.”

Mayzie, a Connemara-Thoroughbred cross owned and bred by Winter, is “little, but really, really well bred,” Springer said.

“She’s bred to jump and she’s bred to run, and that’s exactly what she does,” she added. “It’s just been really getting her mind and getting her to understand the job and focus. She’s such an athlete but I really feel like now, in her final bit of time at the three-star level and now at the advanced level, she knows this job.

See complete results here.