At 18 years old, Lucy Davis is one of the youngest riders on the grand prix circuit, but now she’s proven she’s a threat to even the most experienced show jumpers. She topped a field that included Olympians and World Cup veterans on March 5 in the $50,000 HITS CSI-W Grand Prix aboard Old Oak Farm’s Nemo 119 in Thermal, Calif., at HITS Desert Circuit V.
Davis was the last of five riders to go clean in the first round over Olaf Petersen’s demanding track in the indoor arena. The technical course featured an oxer-vertical-oxer triple combination that racked up faults for a third of the competitors in the 25-horse field.
“I don’t think tonight was the biggest course of the circuit, but most of the riders told me it looked like the most technical one after they walked it,” Petersen said.
By the time Davis, Los Angeles, Calif., headed into the jump-off, Saer Coulter had laid down the time to beat of 42.96 seconds on Copernicus Stables’ Spring-time.
Crowd favorite Rich Fellers, who is set to represent the West Coast at the Rolex FEI World Cup Final (Germany) in April, had gone around in a blazingly fast 39.42 seconds aboard Flexible. But the duo had a knockdown at a skinny vertical and ultimately settled for fourth place behind Kirsten Coe on Tristan.
Coulter, 19, and Davis share a trainer in German rider Markus Beerbaum, and they have a long history together as teammates. The teenagers scored a win for Zone 10 in the USEF Prix Des States National Junior Jumper Team Championship at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in 2009. Then last year they helped Zone 10 earn gold at the Adequan FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, and once again they scored a victory with a Nations Cup win at the CSIO Buenos Aires in Argentina in November.
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“Saer and I have a really good relationship, and we’re always challenging each other,” Davis said. “She always pushes me to work harder and really step up to her level, and so I’m really grateful I have a friend and a competitor like that.”
Davis got off to a rough start in the jump-off as Nemo bucked and reared before the pair crossed the timers to begin. She appeared unfazed by the commotion, as she made sharp rollback turns and boldly galloped the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Cambridge—Zullia, Cantus) to the final vertical, stopping the clock at 41.01 seconds and snagging the lead.
“He got extra excited, but it’s part of his personality. He’s a little bit of a rascal, but I’m used to it,” Davis said. “The rollbacks were challenging. Sometimes we have steering issues, so I was a little worried about that, but it worked out that we got lucky.”
“Lucy is an extremely dedicated and talented rider,” said Beerbaum. “Tonight she went toe-to-toe with some of the best riders in the world and came out on top. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
Davis scored her first grand prix win last May at the Memorial Day Classic (Calif.) with True Love, the horse she also rode to victory in the 2009 Young Masters League Final at the Frankfurt CSI in Germany.
“It’s hard to shoot for anything like the World Cup right now. That’s obviously a long-term goal, but I’m new at
it, so I just want to do as well as I can,” she said.
