Thermal, Calif.—March 9

Last year Sabine Close made her debut in the R.W. Mutch Equitation Championship, and it didn’t go quite to plan. She and her partner Off To Neverland ticked a few rails on the course, which she attributed to an imperfect warm-up. So this year she came back determined to nail both the warm-up and the rounds in the ring.

That determination paid off with two stellar rounds that gave her first place in the class by a solid 12 points.

The warm-up is especially important in the R.W. Mutch Equitation Championship, the feature equitation class of the Desert Circuit, which was held Week 9 in the grand prix stadium. The format for the class requires junior riders who qualify throughout the circuit to surrender their cell phones, stay sequestered from their trainers and both walk the course and warm up by themselves.

Forty-four riders contested the first round of the two-round class, which had plenty of challenges built into it. Judges Don Stewart and Connie Tramm Hunt along with course designer Archer “Skip” Bailey asked riders to canter a jump, halt, then trot over a set of cavaletti. They then had to counter-canter around the short end of the ring and over an oxer. The course also included tests of collection and extension and a bounce.

“I think the trot poles were what I was most conscious of,” said Close. “I really wanted to halt and take a breath and maybe give my horse some time to breathe as well so we didn’t rush it. I wanted to show off there because I knew the counter-canter was coming afterward, and I thought that would be a good way to lead into it with some good trot poles that would set him up to do well.

“I have three main steps I go through in my head before I go in, which are pace, straightness and impulsion, and I try to stick to those things the most when I go in and it seems to pay off the most when I’m focusing on that,” she continued. “Just kind of establishing a pace in the beginning and having short reins and flowing on that pace is the most important for me, and that way you can kind of adjust back and forth when you start out with enough.”

A strong first round put her in second place, and then the top 10 riders were invited back to compete over a jumper-style course with an influential time allowed and automatic deductions for rails.

“My main goal was to not have time faults; I wanted to be pretty conscious about in between the jumps keeping the pace and being pretty tidy in the corners, and that seemed to work pretty well,” said Close, San Carlos, California.

Close put in another strong trip to move into the lead ahead of Lily Grosz. Close was also thrilled that her mount, Off To Neverland, was named Best Equitation Horse. She’s been riding the 9-year-old Swedish Warmblood (Diabeau Van De Heffinck—Capisce L) for a year, developing him into a solid partner.

“He was a little bit green, he’d never done the equitation before so we had to work a lot on the flat,” said Close, who trains with Olivia Dawson-Grove. “From there it developed really well to the jumping. He’s just the best. He’s the best in barn personality and he always steps up to the plate in the ring, he always tries his hardest. I love him so much; he’s my favorite thing in the entire world.”

Next up for Close? More equitation, as that’s the ring she focuses on. She’s hoping to make her second trip east to go to the Dover USEF Medal Final (Pennsylvania) and the ASPCA Maclay Final (Kentucky) to close out her junior career. Then she’ll focus on her academics, as she’s already committed to the riding team at University of California—Davis.

“I think [equitation] is great because it kind of incorporates everything a little bit from all the divisions,” said Close, 18. “You want to have the turnout of the hunter ring and the courses are jumper style with the track. You have to get so good at doing it maybe at a little bit slower pace than the jumpers, but I think it sets you up really well to then pick up the pace to go faster and over bigger jumps. I think it’s a great foundation for that. It teaches you how to ride properly and efficiently.”

Find full results here.

Catch up on all the action from Desert Circuit 9 in the March 25 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse, and be sure you’re following the Chronicle on Facebook and Instagram.