Wellington, Fla.—March 21

Golden Road and Paradigm shared top honors in today’s $15,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Winter Equestrian Festival when they earned equal score totals from judges Michael Newman and Rob Bielefeld.

While the rules dictate that in case of a tie for first place the horses compete in a jump-off round to determine the overall winner, riders Tori Colvin (Paradigm) and Nick Haness (Golden Road) opted to save their horses for tomorrow’s $50,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby and stay tied for first.

“If there wasn’t a derby tomorrow, then I think both of us probably would have done the jump-off,” said Colvin, Loxahatchee, Florida. “But I think they all do a lot, and it [makes sense] to save their legs for tomorrow. I think if there was a jump-off tomorrow, it would be a different situation.”

Fifth to go in the ring, Golden Road set the standard in the hunt-and-go format derby, which, along with tomorrow’s $50,000 class and Thursday’s trio of USHJA national hunter derbies, was held on the grass derby field across the street from the main show grounds. Paradigm matched his score a few rounds later. No one fence caused too many problems, and course designer Ken Krome built the last fence so it could be jumped in either direction, as well as a few other options for taking creative routes.

“This is a fun part of the end of the season for these horses, to be able to showcase themselves on this beautiful field,” said Haness, who flew in from Temecula, California, for the last two weeks of competition in Wellington.

“I went early in the class this morning and had no expectations other than just getting a nice feel of this horse again. I obviously know Golden Road pretty well, but I haven’t been here for a few weeks. … So my goal today was to get out on the field and just get really prepared for tomorrow’s bigger derby.”

Golden Road, owned by John & Stephanie Ingram LLC, is in training with Tom Wright, and Haness rides him when he’s in town. But Colvin rides Paradigm for Meredith Lipke all the time, though he has a lighter schedule these days. The horse who won 2023 Platinum Performance USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships with John French hasn’t shown since the USHJA WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular during Week 6.

“He’s just living his life in his grass paddock,” said Colvin, 27. “He loves his grass paddock—he lays down flat out on the ground. He has a very great owner, Meredith, and she doesn’t like him to show too much, just enough to shine in the special classes. So he knows his job, which is really nice.”

Colvin described Paradigm, a 13-year-old warmblood (Carrico—Queensberry PJ) who she started showing at the end of the 2024 season, as preferring a loose ride with a good gallop. To prepare for today’s course, Paradigm went for a hack on the grass field yesterday and again this morning. Colvin rode in one of Thursday’s USHJA national hunter derbies so she felt especially prepared.

“The course was really nice,” she said. “It was similar to yesterday’s course, so I kind of already knew it a little bit coming into today. I’ve never ridden him out on the field. He did well in there once, I think, with John, but I didn’t ride him there. [The course] flowed very nicely. There wasn’t too many sharp turns. So it actually was nice for me to just kind of get out there and let him gallop a little.”

Haness has been riding Golden Road, a 9-year-old Selle Français gelding (Cornet Obolensky—Oreade De Preuilly), since the end of 2023.

“He’s really fun,” said Haness, 36. “He’s coming into his own. He’s a horse that started off with a big bang in his career, winning the [$100,000 USHJA WCHR West Coast Hunter Spectacular] at Thermal a year ago. But he was relatively green, and now his body has matured so much, and he is, thanks to the Ingram family and all of the caretakers at their farm, [including] Torrey Hardison and Jared [DePermentier], they’ve developed him and have him feeling so magnificent for me right now. I just told them both today, like this is the easiest he’s ever been to ride. He’s really mature, he feels really smart. He’s listening to my cues. But he’s really a fun horse ride because he’s very brave, but he’s super scopey.”

Golden Road and Paradigm will return to the grass field tomorrow along with 26 other combinations to contest the biggest derby of the WEF circuit.

Full results

Follow along with the Chronicle on Instagram and Facebook, and check out more from the last two weeks of competition at the Winter Equestrian Festival in the April edition of the magazine.