Lexington, Ky.—July 18

“I left the box and I felt like I was riding a hurricane,” said Morgan Booth after cross-county at the Adequan/FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships. She and Twizzel along with Area II’s Camilla Grover-Dodge and Remington XXV put in double clear rounds to help their team hold onto their lead after taking a commanding lead in dressage the day before.

“He thought he was at Rolex. And I just let him go for the first three [fences] because I knew those were galloping fences, and then came to [fence] four and I was like, ‘Excuse me—I’m up here!’ ” Booth added with a laugh. Twizzel placed fifth on his dressage score at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2012  with Will Coleman before deciding retirement wasn’t for him and partnering up with Booth, who takes lessons from Coleman.

You’d never guess the bay Westphalian is 19 by the way he blazed around the familiar Kentucky Horse Park at NAJYRC with no sign of fatigue. With ears pricked and a massive ground-covering stride, onlookers could tell this is a horse that clearly enjoys his job.

Twizzel and Morgan Booth

Area II—Grover-Dodge, Skyler Decker on Inoui Van Bost, Amanda Beale Clement on Peter Pan and Booth—didn’t see a jumping fault all day. Grover-Dodge and Booth sit in respective first and second places individually, while Decker and Clement picked up a handful of time faults apiece.

“My horse [Inoui Van Bost] left the box and he was kind of crazy—Sinead [Halpin, our coach,] had to walk me into the box!” said Decker. “Normally I can do it myself but today was just an exception; he was over the top! So I left the box and he had this huge gallop going and I just let him take the first two or three fences out of stride and then I had to check him back to make sure I had some brakes, which I did.

“Then I just kind of rode every combination like settling him and setting him up and then pushing him to it,” she continued. “He was awesome.”

                                                  Inoui Van Bost and Skyler Decker

The footing was boggy on cross-country due to heavy rain from the night before, but the sun came out when it came time for the 46 horse and rider combinations to contest the one-star course, which started off in decent condition but worsened as the division went on. Still, due to the mud and slippery grass, three elements were pulled from the course, including the water jump at the Head of the Lake, which saw numerous falls and jumping faults at NAJYRC last year, and volunteers stayed busy adding gravel to and raking progressively swampy approaches to particular fences while officials pumped water out of ditches.

However, far from the outcome of last year’s very challenging cross-country phase, 22 pairs were double clear. There was one rider fall—Madelyn Holtzman hit the dirt when Footlight’s Ollie left from an awkward distance and banked a broad table just two fences from the finish flags. Alexis Murray on My Principle had refusals and were the only pair to be eliminated from the competitive division.

“ ‘Remy’ was really good; he was a little excited but he just went into the box and went out there and he just felt so good—so rideable to everything,” said Grover-Dodge. “We kept up the pace a little at the beginning because the footing was good and then at the combinations I had to collect him and ride again forward, but all the combinations rode really well and when I went the footing was really good, so I was able to keep my pace up the whole time.”

Twizzel was the last horse to go and wasn’t so fortunate with the quality of turf. “I could have used a pair of goggles to keep the mud out of my face,” Booth joked. “For the first half I was really quick and then I was able to just let him coast home. He was amazing; it was probably the cross-country ride of my life.”

10 teams competed, the majority from the U.S. but also Ontario and Alberta/British Columbia. Following Area II is Area IV in second while Area V slotted into third heading into tomorrow’s show jumping.

Madison Temkin, 14, and Kingslee moved into individual third place after picking up just 2.8 time penalties.

“I’ve never competed here but last year I groomed,” said Temkin, who traveled from Petaluma, Calif., to compete. “It was pretty stressful but once we got here I was really happy we all came and we qualified and [thankful to] everyone who’s helped us get here and sponsored our team and coaches at home and family members—I’m really lucky to be here.”

Kingslee and Madison Temkin