Winning horse trials and three-days is what Phillip Dutton does best, and the Radnor CCI** in Malvern, Pa., Oct. 12-15, was no exception. He came out on top aboard Lucky Stripe and added another three-day victory to his long list of achievements.

“This was a very big performance for my horse,” said Dutton. And it was special for Dutton because Radnor is one of the few three-days in the United States that he hadn’t won before.

Dutton, West Grove, Pa., started competing Rebecca Broussard’s Lucky Stripe in February this year. The 11-year-old British Thoroughbred had been ridden by Cindy Burge at the preliminary level, but she was killed in a tragic accident when the horse slipped and fell on course at Rebecca Farms (Mont.) in 2004.

“It wasn’t the horse’s fault,” said Dutton. “A lot of credit goes to Cindy. He’s obviously quite talented, and she did a great job preparing him.”

The pair came out with a bang by winning the Red Hills CIC** (Fla.) in March, but then they hit a few roadblocks when Dutton tried to take him advanced.

“I got into a little trouble with him getting strong on cross-country,” said Dutton. “He’s been a difficult horse for me. I’ve hit the dirt twice with him this year.”

So he backtracked a bit and worked on the gelding’s rideability. “I was pleased [with him on cross-country] because it was a long course, and he kept his focus,” said Dutton. “His instincts were to be careful.”

This was the first time the two-star at Radnor was run without steeplechase, and it was the second year that Tremaine Cooper designed the course.

It was also the first time that the course didn’t go across Goshen Road but used the infield of the steeplechase track instead.

“This facility is ideal for the short format,” said Cooper. “I really liked not going across the street. It wasn’t really a twisty course to make up for the lack of land. Radnor is a social event, so it’s good not to have to hike 5 miles out to see some of the fences.

“I knew that I put up quite a difficult course, a championship course,” he continued. “The people who ended up at the top made it look easy. It rewarded forward riding. You couldn’t pick at the jumps and make it.”

And it was a championship course. Of the 60 starters, half completed the three-day and only 22 went clean cross-country. Twelve riders had jumping penalties on cross-country, and 14 were eliminated or retired on course.

Yet for all the apparent trouble, there were no major falls, and 13 riders rode double-clear rounds. The footing and weather remained perfect, unlike last year when rain forced the organizers to move the cross-country to Sunday.

“There wasn’t one fence I was really displeased about,” said Cooper. “I’m happy that the problems were glance-offs. There were a fair amount of questions out there, so you couldn’t let your guard up.”

Dutton said that the high level of difficulty was a good thing. “It caused a fair bit of trouble, but it is a championship course,” he said. “It’s meant to be a test to find out if you and your horse are ready for the next level. I don’t think the horses came out of it badly. The trouble was in accuracy and disobediences, not zapping horses’ confidence. I think it was a well-designed course.”

Dutton was actually a bit more worried about the show jumping, as Lucky Stripe can get overly bold over fences.

“When I rode him this morning [before show jumping] I tried to get him to forget about yesterday,” he said. “I was not the most confident guy in the show jumping. He’s a very good jumper, but too aggressive.”

But if Dutton wasn’t confident, no one would know it. The four riders before him all went double clear, giving him no room to drop a rail or incur time penalties.

So he followed suit, cantering around Cooper’s show jumping course with ease to finish on his dressage score of 43.5 penalties.

“It was a good course,” said Dutton. “Rails were coming down until literally the last fence. It wasn’t the biggest or the squarest, but it was out on the grass field.”

As for the future, Dutton said that Lucky Stripe is at the end of his two-star career. “He’s an experienced horse. I’ll move him up and try and do a three-star,” he said.


In Hot Pursuit
Donna Smith didn’t expect Dutton to make a mistake, but she did everything in her power to put the pressure on him, finishing just 1.5 points behind him with Jacqueline Mars’ Rocket.

“I was really proud of him,” said Smith of the 7-year-old, Selle Fran�ais cross homebred (Galoubet–Pleasure To A Tee).

Smith, 27, acknowledged the Galoubet breeding, explaining that Rocket was both a phenomenal jumper and an opinionated one.

“He has a unique style of jumping,” she said. “He does kick out. If he does make a mistake, he makes it through being green. He is a lot like Galoubet.”

But his talent and their long relationship have allowed the pair to ascend the levels quickly. “We’ve had him in the program the whole time–started him as a 4-year-old,” said Smith. “I know his whole past, which makes a difference. I really trust him.”

She lives in The Plains, Va., and trains with David and Karen O’Connor. Smith just returned from the World Equestrian Games, where she represented New Zealand as an individual.

Smith placed third in dressage after a warm-up under the stars at 5:45 a.m. for her 7:40 a.m. ride. “It was very romantic,” said Smith with a giggle.

She was a bit concerned about the difficult cross-country track before riding it. “The cross-country is a lot to do,” she said. “I like it. It’s a good test. If you’re a little bit off you’re going to pay the price.”

But Rocket went around with no surprises, finishing just 1 second over the optimum time.

“It was a tough accuracy test,” confirmed Smith. “The horses got tired, so then you had to be accurate tired. I walked it as a tough track, a two-star national championship.”

Smith commented on the fact that horses seemed to either go double clear or end up with mul-tiple stops or retiring: “Very few seemed to have just one problem. If the horses stopped then they didn’t want to go again. If they kept running and jumping, they were great.”

If horse and rider weren’t prepared, then Cooper’s course proved it repeatedly because it remained tough until the end.

One of the earliest combinations on course, The Fox Drop at fence 5ABC, caused more than its fair share of problems for a jump that’s been on the course for years. Riders jumped a beautiful carved fox before dropping down a steep drop and then over a skinny arrowhead. Thirteen competitors had trouble there, and three were eliminated or retired.

“I changed the arrowhead to a different striding [from last year],” said Cooper. “It comes up fairly early, and with the crowd there, there’s a lot to look at.”

A new log at the Radnor Splash looked imposing but rode fairly well. Riders had to run up a hill and jump a log at the top before descending into the water and then bouncing down into a second pool over a steep drop. But only three riders had difficulties there.

One of the most challenging accuracy and scope questions came late in the course at fences 23 and 24AB. The combination consisted of three maximum offset tables one stride apart. Seven competitors incurred penalties at that obstacle.

But Dutton didn’t think it was too much at the end. “You need accuracy before you move up to the three-star level,” he said. “You need to be able to place your horse with enough energy.”


This Pair’s Got Promise
Finesse and accuracy certainly described Will Coleman’s cross-country ride aboard Kiki du Manoir. The 23-year-old from Gordonsville, Va., made the course look like an equitation round with the inexperienced 8-year-old, Selle Francais gelding.

“In the beginning he was a little green,” said Coleman. “It’s only his fourth intermediate. I was pretty aggressive coming out of the box. After the first 3 to 4 minutes he felt like a real two-star horse.”

Coleman praised the course for being challenging: “The questions were evenly distributed, and they were good questions, very fair questions. It rewarded positive riding.”

He didn’t have many worries about show jumping because that is one of Kiki du Manoir’s strengths. “I was just thinking about jumping a clear round,” he said. “This horse doesn’t jump as well out of grass. He doesn’t come off the ground quite as neatly, but he went in there and perked up. He’s a careful horse.”

Although Kiki du Manoir is an excellent jumper, Coleman has gone slowly with the horse to allow him time to develop.

“The only thing holding him back has been his physical stature,” he said. “He was not that strong. Warmbloods take longer to develop. I focused on getting him trained and did his first one-star this spring.” He won the Bromont CCI* (Que.) in June.

Although Coleman placed third overall, he won the U.S. Equestrian Federation National Two-Star title because Dutton rides for Australia and Smith rides for New Zealand. He also walked away with the award for the highest-placed rider 22-26 years old, and Kiki du Manoir won the best conditioned horse award.

A student at the University of Virginia, Coleman is majoring in history. He plans to do another two-star with Kiki du Manoir before moving him up.

Although the number of competitors was still down from 2003 and 2002, the healthy turnout for the event suggested that Radnor is not going to go away, even with the addition of the Virginia two-star on the first weekend of November. The conversion to the short format and the perfect weather this year were much-needed incentives to spur competitors to return to Radnor.

“It’s nice to know if you come here, then you have Virginia as a back-up,” said Coleman. “But this is the destination two-star in this country.”


Sara Lieser