Wendy Bebie was competing in her first advanced horse trials at Pine Top, March 4-6 in Thomson, Ga. But she and Phoenix, a former show jumper that she trained from novice level up, didn’t look at all inexperienced as they took a win in their first start.

Phoenix, a 13-year-old Selle Fran硩s cross, has been competing at intermediate for 21³2 of the five years that Bebie has owned him. She had never imagined that they would make it to advanced, let alone walk away with the blue ribbon in advanced test C, division 3, edging out Canadian Olympic rider Mike Winter on Kingpin.

“Jim Wofford suggested that I move up,” said Bebie, 50, who trains with Kim Keppick of Rectortown, Va. “Cross-country was really fun. Nothing fazed him. Compared to the intermediate courses we have done, it was not much bigger, but the combinations were difficult. He was fine with all of the braveness and courage questions that the course asked. The second water jump was huge! It was a real power question. I’ve never jumped a bounce that big, but it was no problem.”

Bebie, of Round Hill, Va., and Phoenix took the lead on cross-country, moving up from fourth place after dressage. “He’s only 15.3 hands or so, but he has finally learned to gallop and cover the ground,” she said. “The thing that amazes me is, the harder it gets the better he gets. He is a phenomenal athlete.”
Bebie won the 1999 Morven Park CCI* (Va.) on Lunar Eclipse, a Connemara cross, but he was not athletic enough to compete at a higher level.

“Phoenix is the horse of a lifetime for me,” she said. “He has so much to spare. I don’t have to be perfect; he just gets the job done. I took all the inside lines and turns on the stadium course, and he was just like a machine.”

Bebie is also a mother of three. She usually handles everything herself, but for this occasion her daughter, Katie Gordon, flew down from Virginia to groom and take the pressure off her mother. “She finished her last exam at UVA on Thursday and flew down to help,” said Bebie. “It was great to have her here as a groom, and she gets along so well with my horse. I tend to get nervous, so it was nice to just focus on riding.”

Courageous Comet StreaksTo A Win

Becky Holder and Courageous Comet have added Pine Top to their winning streak, which includes advanced victories at last fall’s Richland Park (Mich.), Poplar Place (Ga.) and Wayne (Ill.). This summer, Holder hopes to go to the Luhmuhlen CCI**** (Germany).

After cross-country, Holder followed Kim Severson and Winsome Adante in second place, but she claimed the win when Severson had an uncharacteristic run-out in show jumping.

“I was so happy to have made it through the triple without grabbing mane that I came to fence eight and didn’t know where to go,” said Severson, who won the 2004 individual Olympic silver medal on Winsome Adante, who is owned by Linda Wachtmeister’s Plain Dealing Farm.

For dressage, Holder and Severson rode advanced, test D, which is used at the four-star level, since they plan on heading to Rolex Kentucky in April. “I made a mental blip and had an error in my test,” said Holder. “He is the only horse that I ride and get caught up in his movement and forget what I am doing. His attitude is like, ‘I’m too sexy for this ring.’ He’s a very fancy mover.”

Holder had a scary moment on cross-country, when her horse got too close to the jump into the water, and she almost tipped out of the saddle. “I got it back together and had a big sigh of relief and carried on, but it cost me time as I gathered my wits,” she said.

Holder’s student, Coren Morgan, also won her division of intermediate on Higher Learning.

Although Courageous Comet has a resume of advanced wins, Kelli Temple and Paris were competing in their first event at that level. Temple and her Selle Franç¡©s gelding Paris, owned in partnership with Christine Stiller, took first place (53.5) over Tiffani Loudon-Meetze and Above ‘N’ Beyond (53.58).

“Tiffani had a great dressage test but had a few time faults. It was very close!” said Temple, of Round Hill, Va. “My horse is very much a show jumper. He handles well, so he cut the turns a little tighter and saved a few seconds.”

Paris competed at intermediate all of last year, winning the horse trials at North Georgia. He completed a preliminary and intermediate horse trials in preparation for Pine Top. “He’s very bold; that is almost his weakness,” said Temple. “He doesn’t look at anything. It’s a matter of keeping him focused, and the bigger fences at this level made him back off a bit, which was good.”

She said the cross-country looked technical, and that fence 4, a triple corner combination, was especially challenging so early in the course.

“It was the first combination, and it tested the rider’s ability to get the horse back and be accurate,” she said. “It was a serpentine, so it tested the suppleness of the horse. It separated the horses out–I was glad that mine was able to handle it.”

Paris is still only 8 years old, so Temple plans to compete in the Foxhall Cup CCI** (Ga.) for qualifying purposes, so that he can do a three-star later. “You can never get in too much of a rush,” she said. “They kind of tell you what they’re ready for.”

Swayne Scores

Mark Weissbecker and Swayne, a 10-year-old American Thoroughbred owned by Birch Hill Farm of Southern Pines, N.C., and Richland, Mass., won advanced, test C, division 2. Swayne has a year of mileage at the advanced level and completed the Foxhall Cup CCI*** and Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) in 2004.

“This year he is still a little immature at this level, so we are heading to Foxhall again rather than going to the four-star at Kentucky,” said Weissbecker. “He was fabulous this weekend. I was really pleased with him. He’s quite a good mover, and his dressage is really getting reliable and his attitude is more relaxed.”

On cross-country, the gelding was focused the whole way around. “Even when I got him there on a half-stride, he bailed me out. That’s really a sign of maturity, when they take over for you if you’re a little wrong.”

Weissbecker’s intermediate horse, Top Gallant, hasn’t quite figured that out yet. Weissbecker had a spectacular fall off Top Gallant when the horse put on the brakes in show jumping.

“He’s 9 years old, but he raced until he was 71³2, and then he steeplechased,” he said. “He’s only had half a season eventing. He has marvelous ability and talent galore; we will just see if he has the brain too.”

Adrienne Iorio-Borden said her new mount, Better I Do It, has plenty of talent too. Iorio-Borden, who has spent the winter working with Phillip Dutton in Aiken, S.C., purchased Better I Do It from Abigail Lufkin, and Pine Top was her first advanced competition on the 17-plus-hand gelding.

Better I Do It had already competed at the advanced level with Lufkin, and Dutton suggested to Iorio-Borden, of Millis, Mass., that she should have a look at him.

But at 5’8″ herself, Iorio-Borden thought the horse was too big and did not even sit on him.

Later, the horse was at Dutton’s, and she changed her mind. “I sat on him anyway and I loved him,” she said. “I am trying to get smaller horses, but it’s not working.”

The pair competed in the intermediate at Pine Top two weeks prior to the advanced horse trials. “Our dressage was good then, but we were slow on cross-country, getting used to each other,” she said. “Before that I had taken him to Poplar Place [Ga.], and he was very naughty in dressage–he cantered the whole test!”

Things turned around for the pair at Pine Top, though. “Dressage was great. There was room to improve, but he was relaxed and obedient. We don’t know each other well enough yet for me to know how far I can push him. Cross-country was fantastic; he’s braver than he is smart sometimes. He’s not a fast thinker, but I think he’ll get there. I put my foot down for the first time and really ran, and it was great. It was a fairly challenging course and asked good questions, and the footing here is always consistent.”

She plans to take him to Kentucky if things are going right. “We have rough edges in all three phases to work out, but I am ex-
cited about the next year; I just love him,” she said.

Iorio-Borden also rode Urban Legend in advanced, test C, division 1, finishing in seventh place. She has had him since last August, purchasing him from Weissbecker. “He’s getting used to a different ride from me,” she said. “These horses are total opposites, but I love that. It’s fun.”