As a special gift on the 50th anniversary of his first win in Rome, Italy, George Morris’ young protégé Ashlee Bond brought honor to the godfather of U.S. show jumping on the second leg of the Meydan FEI Nations Cup Tour held at the Rome CSIO.

Under the watchful eye of her chef d’equipe, Bond went double-clear the weekend of May 28-31, logging her second consecutive fault-free league score and leading the U.S. squad to a big win in the ancient city.

Bond’s flawless performance on the first leg of the tour in La Baule, France, earlier in May, unfortunately, couldn’t save the U.S. team from a disappointing seventh-placed finish there. But she helped the squad stage a stunning coup in Rome—the four riders totaled just 4 faults and climbed five spaces in the overall standings to second place.

The 26-year-old Californian’s recent successes with Cadett 7, a 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Cor de la Bryere—Ginella I), have made quite an impression on the European circuit. One journalist in Rome told Bond quite frankly that people were “flabbergasted with her.”

“I love riding for such a great country, and to be riding for George Morris—it’s an honor, it really is,” Bond said. “I hadn’t come over to Europe before, because I never had the horse, and now I do, and things are really coming together.”

Things came together for all of the U.S. ladies, who seemed right at home in Rome. Lauren Hough and Quick Study and Laura Kraut and Cedric also went clear in the first round. That left what amounted to a practice round for Richard Spooner and Cristallo. Their single fault was the drop score, so the team advanced into the second round in top position with 0 faults.

U.S. fans squirmed to the edge of their seats in Round 2, however, as the French team applied significant pressure. Hough faulted twice for 8 faults, and Kraut had one rail down.

“That triple bar was really big,” Kraut noted. “And the oxer going into the double was really wide and tall. My horse didn’t like the first jump—the [Colosseum] wall.”

Kraut and Cedric cleared both of those fences, but the crowd collectively sighed for them when the light rail on the vertical before a big combination came down.

Meanwhile, the French team posted one eight-fault round (a drop score) and two double-clears, setting up a tie with the United States. So it was up to Spooner to clinch the win, and he didn’t let his fellow riders down. Cristallo gave an exemplary effort, shaving off the victory for the team.

Taking One For The Team

When asked why he even rode in the first round—it wasn’t required, given the three previous clears—Spooner, who had had to retire from both rounds in La Baule, said, “If you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t been having a very good week. I had to ride the round to qualify for the grand prix.

“The course was quite difficult, especially in the first round,” he continued. “It was better in the second round— I got lucky. The footing was amazing, and I think that helped. It was harder than La Baule. They tightened the noose a notch here. In La Baule, I was lucky enough to be the anchor. I had that advantage—to know the score—and when I saw the second rail down, I knew I was just wasting my horse. I felt I’d let the team down.”

“Not today!’’ Kraut interrupted, as the rest of the team nodded in agreement.

The U.S. riders missed winning the SNAI-Marine & Aviation super bonus prize of $70,000 by a single rail. The prize is only awarded if the winning team completes three clears in each round, and both Hough (8) and Laura Kraut (4) faulted in the second. But the team was too thrilled with their victory to notice.

“We have a fantastic system and team support to get us to Europe,” Hough said. “We choose our riders using our computer list that comes out weekly, so we pick our teams only five weeks prior to the first show. I’m very proud of our system, in that it gave Ashlee the opportunity to come here, and she did two double-clear rounds in two super leagues.”

Morris has the authority to subjectively select two riders, however. He plucked Bond from relative obscurity last year and offered her a bid to the Nations Cup in Argentina, and that choice is obviously already paying off for the U.S. team.

“You never expect—with a horse—to win any class, but I had a good feeling about today,” Morris said.

The U.S. team has won in Rome on four other occasions: 1959 (when Morris competed), 1983, 1989 and 1997. But the French have typically been dominant there, with 18 wins to their credit since 1927. So Morris and his riders were relieved to escape the necessity of a jump-off against them.

“I fear the French,” he said. “I always fear the French, and I respect their dressage techniques. They applied the Italian training achievements and improved on them.”

While he’s happy to see his riders succeed anywhere, Morris was especially proud to see them step up in Italy.

“I worship [Federico] Caprilli,” he said. “He totally transformed how the sport is practiced, and now we see that he was right. And I worshipped Raimondo and Piero D’Inzeo, especially when I was young and riding. My heart burned warm for those reasons, and others—when I was in Italy.”

More Than Just The Meydan

Bond, Spooner, Kraut and their fellow U.S. rider Christine McCrea racked up top-five finishes all weekend in the open classes in Rome as well. McCrea and Promised Land jumped to second place in the smaller grand prix on Sunday.

In Thursday’s 1.45-meter class, Kraut and her fast and fearless mare, the British-bred Billy Bianca, left up-and-coming French star Penelope Leprevost in the dust with more than a second to spare. Kraut’s mare is green at only 8 years old, and she jumped with that adolescent exuberant joyfulness.

In addition, Spooner placed on every one of his horses. He had the fastest time in the smaller grand prix on Sunday with Ace—nearly a second faster than winner Rodrigo Pessoa on Cazino—but dropped a rail on the second-to-last jump to finish fifth. That same evening, Pako took him to second place in the puissance, just shy of the 2.25-meter mark (7’4″).

And on Sunday, Spooner and Cristallo placed second in the Loro Piana Grand Prix, again won by Pessoa, this time on Let’s Fly. Spooner had set a searing time of 41.79 seconds to lead, with only Pessoa up, and Let’s Fly managed to shave off fractions, earning the victory in 41.59.

“We get to see both the future of show jumping and the history of civilization in one beautiful country,” Spooner said.