Many professional event riders compete for their entire careers without winning an advanced horse trial. And nowWendy Bebie, an amateur rider from Round Hill, Va., has won two of them in twoweeks–in the first advanced starts ever for her and her dream horse Phoenix.

But this time Bebie and Phoenix added a new twist: They performed an unexpected face plant into the sand of the show jumping warm-up after landing off a fence. And then they executed a smoothly faultless round to retain first place in advanced test C, division 1, at the Southern Pines Horse Trials in Raeford, N.C., on March 18-20.

That perfect round was one of only two in that division (one of three advanced divisions), and it lengthened the lead she’d grabbed after cross-country to 4.8 points. Bebie rocketed from seventh to first at the three-day horse trial by recording the division’s second-fastest cross-country time (11.6 time faults), behind only Will Faudree on Wild Frontier (7.2 time faults), who wound up second.

Bebie, 50, had no idea why Phoenix, 13, lost his balance in the warm-up ring, but the bay gelding’s knees and shoulders were streaked by sand and Bebie’s helmet brim still carried noticeable chunks of sand as they entered the Carolina Horse Park’s ring.

“He’s got an enormous ego, and that’s what carries him through sometimes,” said Bebie, beaming at Phoenix, a Selle Franç¡©s.

She also benefited this time from decisions made by Amy Tryon and John Williams. Tryon withdrew dressage leader My Beau, because she was only tuning him up for owner Leigh Mesher to run him in advanced at Poplar Place (Ga.) the following weekend, and then she kept her brilliantly headstrong partner Poggio II to a steady pace that incurred 28.0 time faults and dropped him from second to fifth. Williams withdrew because he said he never runs Carrick on cross-country this early in the season.

The two horses with whom Carrick had been tied for fourth–Royal Bart (Michael Pollard) and Lionel The Stalker (Stephanie Wear)–retired on cross-country.

Arriving at the advanced level has been a carefully planned progression for Bebie and her coaches, Kim Keppick and Jim Wofford. Phoenix did two one-stars and then placed in two two-stars (14th at Radnor [Pa.] in October and ninth at Jersey Fresh [N.J.] in May) before Bebie took the giant step to advanced.

But Phoenix also had a six-month forced break–from August 2003 to the following spring–after sinus surgery. Veterinarians made an incision between his eyes to remove a cyst, a bony mass and a ridge formed by two sets of bones.

“It was such a mess for months, and he lost so much weight. But he came back strong,” said Bebie.

Bebie readily admitted that in her victory at Pine Top (see March 18, p. 38) she and Phoenix had galloped happily over a relatively straightforward, early season course. But the Southern Pines course, designed by Capt. Mark Phillips, was full of challenges. One fence in particular–fences 5AB, a trakehner spanning two banks, followed in five downhill strides by a narrow and sharply angled corner–had nearly everyone popping antacid tablets or scurrying out to watch the first few horses attempt it.

Unfortunately for them, Poggio was first on course, and he negotiated the line in just four strides. Then four of the next seven horses ran out or past the corner.

Phoenix, the 15th starter, patted the ground and popped over the corner as if he were schooling.

“This was like moving up two levels [from the two-star level],” said Bebie. “But he’s really scopey, and I had a lot of conversations with myself as I walked it about just how scopey he is.”

Perfectly Suited

One of the riders studying those early horses at fence 5 was Kim Severson. But as soon as she left the start box on Winsome Adante, her partner in winning the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** twice, there was no question they were on their game. “Dan,” 12, galloped to the fastest time in any of the three advanced divisions, finishing just 12 seconds slow (4.8 time faults) to handily take advanced test D division over 11 other experienced competitors.

“That’s just him–he lands faster than he takes off,” explained Severson, 31, of her speedy trip. “And this course just suits him.”

Even though Dan was naughty in dressage (breaking on the medium and extended trots) and “pretty wild in the [cross-country] warm-up and going to the start box,” he displayed the admirable level of communication he and his rider possess while traversing the sandy track.

“We really do know what each other is thinking,” Severson said.

That communication was essential on Phillips’ course. Severson thought the real challenge to fence 5 wasn’t the sharp angle of the left-facing corner, but that the complex was surrounded by combinations for the intermediate, preliminary and training divisions. The red rolltop the intermediate horses leaped sat perhaps 50 feet to the left of the corner, and the only option was to take extra time to gallop around and jump the right side of the triangular obstacle.

“I think there were so many jumps in the area that the horses just didn’t know where to go, so you had to be really definite about what they were supposed to jump. And if you weren’t, they just didn’t pick it up until too late,” she said.

Severson had both the best and one of the worst rides on the course. She retired Maguire after he slid into the ditch underneath the double trakehner at fence 6. She said she figured if Maguire had problems there, things weren’t going to get any better. So she felt ambiguous in analyzing the course.

“Mark made a lot of changes, and for Dan it was fine. But for a lot of people and horses it wasn’t,” she finally said.

Of the 52 horses who started on cross-country, 22 finished with no jumping faults, but 19 incurred at least one refusal or run-out, at least nine of them at 5B. Two horses were eliminated, eight retired on course, and there was one mandatory retirement for fall of horse.

Severson would have preferred to have had an option at 5B and at fence 22, the American Garden triple combination. This fence features white boxes (as the A and C elements) on which the spread is deeper than the fences’ vertical faces is wide, with a long two strides between them and the B element, a more inviting pavilion. It’s a gymnastically demanding and illusory fence, with no margin for error.

“I’m not in love with jumping those boxes,” said Severson with a grimace.

“There’s a lot to do out there, and it’s starting to be almost too much too early in the season,” she added. “I don’t envy Mark. I mean, I build things in my ring and can rarely guess how they’re going to jump them. So it amazes me that you can put things up like that corner or [the American Garden] and know how they’re going to ride.”

In The Upper Echelons

Although he claimed advanced test C, division 2, with Fleeceworks Starlight, Stuart Black shared Severson’s apprehension about the course. “I think a lot of riders thought that these kind of challenges would come later in the year,” suggested Black.

“The hardest thing about it was the consistency of the difficulty all the way around. The level of difficulty was definitely in the upper echelons,” he added.

Black said he’d never liked the American Garden, and he liked it even less after student Skyeler Icke fell there with Dillinger, fracturing her pelvis in five places, fracturing her fifth lumbar vertebra, and lacerating her liver. He too would have liked to have seen options at fence 5B and the American Garden, for the benefit of less experienced horses and riders.

Black, 45, rode Fleeceworks Blackout, a four-star veteran, first and jumped both fences faultlessly to finish with 15.6 time faults, propelling him to third in advanced test C, division 1. But he said he’d felt “a little bit lucky” on the corner, so with Starlight he turned right in front of the jump, then sharp left to clear the right-hand corner.

“I understand that Mark was trying to implement a European design standard here [with the sharply angled face and no easier option], but I’m not sure that this fence conveyed it,” said Black. “Maybe the difference is that a fence that difficult shouldn’t be in the middle of three other courses.

“If Mark’s trying to show us we have to up the ante, I guess we’ll have to step up to it,” he added.

Starlight, 8, certainly stepped up to it. Black said he would never have expected to have won because of his cross-country score since Starlight is still relatively inexperienced. He would have expected the mare’s stellar dressage and show jumping to get the blue ribbon, but instead they just barely held on in the final phase. The dark brown mare lowered two oxers on Sunday when she and Black miscommunicated and got too deep.

“I went in there with a different girl than I had in the warm-up,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s her new-found enthusiasm for the job or what, but she went in the ring and flicked her head and flicked her toes, and I’ve never had her be so excitable and take me to the jumps like that.”

Starlight won the Radnor Hunt CCI** (Pa.) last October, having already won the Colorado Horse Park CCI** in May 2004 and the Virginia CCI* in May 2003.
Tryon rode Woodstock to second place. The bay gelding had been out of competition ever since injuring his anular ligament at the Burghley CCI****

They’re Heading For Kentucky

Kim Severson and Amy Tryon, teammates on both the gold-medal 2002 World Championship and 2004 bronze-medal Olympic squads, have lately been two of the more outspoken proponents of the short or Olympic format for the three-day event. But they’re each aiming their team horses, Winsome Adante and Poggio II, for the classic-format Rolex Kentucky CCI**** on April 28-May 1.

Tryon, of Duvall, Wash., said she might take Poggio to the short-format Luhmuhlen CCI**** (Germany) in June if he were to miss Kentucky, but that she preferred not to put him on a plane to Europe since he’s flown there for the last five years.

Severson, who won Kentucky in 2002 and 2004 with Winsome Adante, said she’d thought of making her first start at the Badminton CCI**** (England), but she too said she’d rather skip the expense for owner Linda Wachtmeister and the risk of a plane trip.

“Why would you go there when Kentucky is right here? And we should support it too,” said Severson, of Keene, Va.