Coatesville, Pa.—Sept. 16   

Two years ago Phillip Dutton took on I’m Sew Ready for his regular rider Kristen Bond while she took time off to have her first child.

Now he’s reunited with Kristie and John Norton’s 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding as Bond is pregnant again.

You wouldn’t have known that Dutton had just five days to get reacquainted with “Jackson” as they put in a flawless test to score a 43.4 and take the lead.

Dutton also holds second with Mr. Candyman (46.9), while Ryan Wood and Powell, fresh off a win in the advanced division at the Nutrena/U.S. Eventing Association American Eventing Championships (N.C.) are third (48.9).

Dutton and Jackson won the Cloud 11-Gavilan North LLC Carolina International CIC*** (N.C.) in 2015 before Bond took him back for the rest of the year to campaign at the two-star level.

Dutton gave most of the credit for his score today to Bond, and said Jackson is a naturally good mover.

“He’s a good mover, and he does the movements pretty easily, so I was just trying to make it look soft and easy, and present him in the right frame. He’s a very good horse in the ring—he doesn’t change when you get in the ring. He’s got three good paces and generally scores pretty well,” he said.

Mr. Candyman, owned by Annie Jones, Bridget Colman, Caroline Moran and Tom Tierney, has had a quiet year as Dutton’s been busy with the Olympics, where he earned individual bronze on Mighty Nice, and focusing on his other top rides.

Phillip Dutton and Mr. Candyman. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“He hasn’t had the greatest year actually. I was thinking I had a world-beater last year because he went so well at Galway [Downs CCI*** (Calif.),” said Dutton. “I think a lot of it’s my fault. I haven’t put as much time into him with the Olympics and the other horses, so now’s his turn. I’ve got to really get a tune out of him and hopefully have a good performance at Fair Hill [CCI*** (Md.)] and build on it better than I have done so far this year.”

Wood was thrilled with Powell despite a couple of missed flying changes. He’s also eighth with Woodstock Bennett (51.8). Both geldings stepped up to the advanced level this year and have each won a CCI***.

“It’s been awesome. Best year of my life I think,” said Wood. “2016 I’ll remember that one—my first three-star win and my green card [which he received two months ago.]

Ryan Wood and Powell. Photo by Lindsay Berreth.

“Bennett had a personal best at this level, so I was pretty happy with him. Powell was great. I made a couple of mistakes but still got a solid score,” he continued, “Everyone makes mistakes. We’ve been traveling a lot, between the AECs, jumping them, galloping them and that sort of thing, there probably hasn’t been that many days of fine-tuning. Between now and Fair Hill we’ll have a bit more time to group ourselves and get everything polished up.”

Show jumping for the CIC***, CIC** and advanced divisions will take place tomorrow, while the CIC* will run cross-country.

USEF Network will be live streaming the CIC***.

Full results can be found here.