The rails were dropping, the pressure was on, but veteran Stephen Bradley didn’t falter. Instead he jumped clear and took home the Foxhall Cup for the CCI***, held April 13-17 in Douglasville, Ga.

Riding Brandenburg’s Joshua, Bradley lay in fourth place coming into the show jumping, but riders were consistently lowering three and four rails in the rounds before him. Bradley couldn’t see them, but he could hear them from the warm-up arena.

“It was disconcerting to hear all the rails falling down,” he admitted. “But Josh is a very careful jumper, and he doesn’t like to touch the rails.”

And Bradley’s no stranger to pressure. He was a member of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic team and won the 1993 Burghley CCI**** (England), but his last big win came in 1996 aboard Dr. Dolittle at the Rolex Kentucky CCI***.

Until Bradley and Josh entered the ring, no rider had left all the jumps up on Richard Lamb’s technically demanding course.

The audience cheered enthusiastically when the pair crossed the finish line, just 1 second over the time. Jan Thompson and Waterfront followed with another clear round, but 3 seconds slow.

And the leaders, Leigh Mesher on My Beau and Bonnie Mosser on Jenga, couldn’t quite match their performance. Two lowered rails dropped Mosser to third, and three rails dropped Mesher to fourth.

Still, most riders appreciated the difficult course.

“I think this was one of the harder show jumping courses this year,” said Mosser. “They’re putting the pressure on us, which is great.”

This was the first year that Foxhall has been run in the Olympic format (without steeplechase or roads and tracks), and though the cross-country was decisive, it was very much a modern competition.

Eleven of the 35 three-star competitors had no penalties on cross-country, and that insured that the scores of the other phases would prove influential.

Improved footing was one benefit of running the competition without steeplechase. The hard ground has been an issue in the past, but event owner and chairman Jim Richards skipped his fall grass cutting on the course, providing a soft, springy cushion.

“It’s the best footing that we’ve ever had,” said Bradley.

By eliminating steeplechase, the course could run over more of the riverside property and only on the places with the best
footing. And they were able to add the two-star competition.

An International Atmosphere

Dressage day dawned crisp and windy. In an attempt to mimic the conditions at the Athens Olympics, flags lined the grandstand, making a noise that sounded a bit like a helicopter landing.

“The event has the atmosphere of a European event,” said Thompson, even though there were only a couple of dozen spectators in the stands. “It really gives you that grandstand atmosphere.”

Many of the horses grew agitated on entering, but the top 10 stood out in their riders’ ability to keep them focused. Bradley rode an accurate and impressive test on Josh for fifth place (55.6).

It was only Josh’s third outing of the spring. An injured hock before the 2004 Rolex Kentucky CCI left him on stall rest for most of 2004. Bradley started bringing him back into work in the fall and aimed for the intermediate at Pine Top (Ga.), but a bad case of the flu kept them at home.

He did run Josh intermediate at Southern Pines (N.C.). “You could tell he hadn’t been out in an year, and that’s when I decided definitely not to go to Kentucky,” said Bradley. “He had a very uncharacteristic run-out at a corner, and he was spooking at jump judges. He was just being silly. I think he was happy to be out, but he wasn’t really on his job, so I decided to wait on the four star.”

That was the only cross-country run Bradley managed to fit in before heading to Foxhall. Rain at Morven Park (Va.) pushed cross-country to Tuesday, and he wasn’t able to return midweek because of a commitment to teach a clinic in New Jersey.

“I’m not one to compete a whole lot,” said Bradley. “I did a couple of serious schools.”

By the time he started warming Josh up for cross-country at Foxhall, he had a second strike against him. Bradley was riding another horse, Stonehenge, in the three-star, and he fell off early in the course.

“He was running off and wouldn’t slow down,” explained Bradley. They fell at fence 8, the Genevieve Goose.

“I knew in the air that it was really going to hurt, but I didn’t want to get hurt because I wanted to run Josh,” he recalled.

Bradley sustained nothing more than a badly bruised bottom, so he limped off the course and prepared to ride his second horse.

“I was a little shaken,” he admitted. “In the first few fences I could feel how on Josh was, and then I could relax and give him the ride he deserved.”

They had a super run, took all the fast routes, and moved into fourth place when they added no penalties to their score.

Bradley, 43, of Leesburg, Va., has ridden Josh for four years. He first saw the Thoroughbred gelding when he was a 4-year-old, just off the Charles Town (W.Va.) racetrack.

He belonged to rider and former trainer Joerg Eichman. “I told him the first time I saw him that if he ever wanted to sell him, he should give me a call,” remembered Bradley.

Two years later Bradley was able to purchase him with co-owner William Lowe. The pair moved up quickly, competing at the Foxhall Cup in 2003 as well as riding on the gold-medal team at the 2003 Pan American Championships at Fair Hill (Md.).

A Slippery Slope

Josh is a superior show jumper, and Bradley actually competes him in jumper shows to keep them both tuned up.

But he was a little concerned about the footing for the show jumping. In an attempt to make the arena even more attractive, the grass had been trimmed the night before, leaving it a bit too short and slippery.

Stuart Black actually fell after fence 1, when Fleeceworks Blackout’s feet came out from under him.

“I think we all had big studs in,” said Bradley.

Thompson, of Purcellville, Va., was the only other rider to manage a clear round, which moved her into second place. Although she’s had Waterfront for four years, this was the 10-year-old gelding’s first three-star. He injured himself before cross-country at the Fair Hill CCI*** in 2003 and spent the next year sitting in the field.

“He’s a very talented horse, a good mover, a scopey jumper, but he’s green,” said Thompson. “He doesn’t always pay attention, and he gets distracted easily.”

She was enthusiastic about the event from start to finish, praising Capt. Mark Phillips for designing a good cross-country course.

“He asked great questions,” she said. “I was nervous the morning before cross-country, but as he went, he just got better and handled the course well.”

Thompson, 37, knew she had a chance to jump clean on Sunday because of Waterfront’s jumping ability, but she worried that he might lose his focus.

“He pays attention to everything else but the jumps,” she said with a laugh. “He’s very cocky, he thinks the world of himself, but he’s a super jumper.”

Thompson and Bradley are both hoping to take these horses to Luhmuhlen, Germany, in June for the Olympic format four-star there. “I would have very happily gone to Kentucky, but [because of his horse’s greenness] I had this to fall back on,” said Bradley.

Mosser is also thinking about heading to Luhmuhlen after her third-placed finish. She and Jenga led for the first two days.

This pair took home the Foxhall Cup in 2002, but injury sidelined them in 2003. Last year she began making her comeback and competed at the FEI Eventing World Cup in Pau, France.

“I never expected him to come back to this level,” said Mosser. She looked determined to do well from the outset, riding an impressive dressage test, despite the snapping flags, for a score of 55.6.

She held onto her lead by adding just 0.8 time penalties to her score. “I really liked the course,” she said. “There was a lot to do. The horses were on a long step for most of the course, but you had to be prepared for the technical questions.”

Mosser describes the 12-year-old Jenga as an efficient horse. “My horse is not the fastest horse out of the box, so I really had to get after him to go fast on cross-country,” she explained.

She was clearly disappointed by her rails in the show jumping, but she didn’t blame the pressure.

“It is what it is,” she said. “I have a really good horse, and he’s going to go do what he does.

The Great Horse Swap

For two-thirds of the three-star competition Mesher held the second spot on My Beau, who was Olympian Amy Tryon’s mount for the past six years. Under Tryon, Beau placed 11th at the 2002 Badminton CCI**** (England), fourth at Rolex Kentucky in 2004, and placed in many more CCIs and advanced horse trials.

Mesher, 25, rode Beau at the North American Young Riders Championship in 1998, but she turned the ride over to Tryon when she went to college. Now, she’s got her horse back and was able to complete her first three-star.

“He’s going to teach me how to ride,” said Mesher. “I’m here to learn how to ride better. I’m not trying to compete with what Amy did with him.”

Her dressage test put her in second place, and she ran around the cross-country with no penalties to remain there, even though she’d only ridden him cross-country twice since 1998.

A back injury from a fall this spring prevented Mesher, of Redmond, Wash., from competing Beau at Southern Pines (N.C.), and was part of the reason that she decided to let Tryon ride her other horse, Smoke Signal, in the two-star.

“I rode Smoke Signal advanced at Southern Pines, and it was the first time I’d ridden him,” said Tryon. “We thought Leigh would ride him here, but between her back injury and doing her first three-star, it was too much, so she kindly offered him to me.”

It turned out to be a good swap, since Tryon, of Duvall, Wash., won the CCI** aboard her borrowed mount.

Smoke Signal is by Polynesian Flyer, the same sire as Poggio, Tryon’s Olympic mount. Tryon first saw him as a 5-year-old, when
she went horse shopping with Janet von Pressentin.

“He was insecure, but talented,” recalled Tryon. “I rode him for an hour, which I almost never do when I’m trying a horse. I kept him for a few months, and then we decided that he would suit Leigh.”

Mesher trained “Gilly” up through the levels with Tryon’s help. “He’s not an easy horse,” explained Tryon. “He’s fabulous to ride and has a super careful jump, but he needs confidence from his rider.”

Although dressage is Gilly’s weakest phase, Tryon was able to ride to fourth place, and they maintained that position after adding 2.4 time penalties on cross-country.

“Leigh walked the two-star course with me, and I walked the three-star course with her,” said Tryon with a laugh.

“I had to find the balance between giving him a confident ride and overriding him,” she continued. “I was a little bit slow because I wanted to make sure he had a positive experience. I did find him quite strong, a little bit like [Poggio].”

She knew he could jump clean in the show jumping because of his careful nature, but she didn’t count on it. “I didn’t want to overdo it and have a silly rail,” said Tryon. “If you give him the chance to jump clear, he will.”

There were more fault-free rounds in the two-star than the three-star, but Tryon was still able to move up from fourth into first with her clean round.

They’re Still Experimenting With The Warm-Up

Stephen Bradley rode Brandenburg’s Joshua at Foxhall two years ago, but this is the first time he’d competed the Thoroughbred gelding in the Olympic format.

He planned his warm-up as a miniature of a traditional three-day event. “I got on about 45 minutes before I went cross-country and did my own abbreviated version of A, B and C, and then I went to the vet box,” explained Bradley.

“It worked very well,” he continued. “We’re all still trying to learn and figure the best way to warm-up for the short format.”

At the 2004 Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.), where Bradley rode Stonehenge, he had a different plan. “I rode two hours before I went cross-country and cooled him down,” said Bradley. “I put the horses away for a short while, and then I kept them walking.

“I guess we keep studying and trying to figure out the best way,” he continued. “If anything, the steeplechase would help Josh to settle a little bit, but I did enough in my warm-up.”

Keeping It In The Family

Virginia Jenkins and Always A Lady led the two-star division of the Foxhall Cup after cross-country, but three displaced rails knocked them to seventh. She put the 14-year-old Thoroughbred mare back into work this year after she failed to conceive when bred.

But it wasn’t “Lady” that made Jenkins most proud. It was her 7-year-old daughter, Lady’s Pride, whom she also competed in the two-star division.

“When you have a young horse, it’s exciting to see their potential,” explained Jenkins.

Jenkins has had “Leonie” since she was 2, when John Strangfeld and Hope Greenfield bought her. Brendan Furlong, who owns Lady, bred her to the Thoroughbred stallion Lion King, and Leonie was the result.

“They’re very different,” said Jenkins. “Lady is very strong, and Leonie is not. She’s easy to control. They have a different technique over fences too. Lady jumps across, almost too much so, and her daughter jumps much rounder.”

Leonie had a stop on cross-country, but stood in 16th after dressage and finished in 25th with a clear show jumping round.