Wellington, Fla.—Feb. 27

When McLain Ward joined his United States teammates at the top of the podium after the $100,000 FEI Nations Cup presented by Kingsland Equestrian, he joked that he should have watched the live stream online and just showed up to help claim the blue ribbons.

“I told Todd [Minikus] the time allowed; that was my contribution!” he said with a laugh. “They made my work very easy.”

Thanks to three faultless first rounds from Minikus on Babalou 41, Margie Engle on Royce, and Candice King on Kismet 50, the U.S. team didn’t have to field a fourth rider. And even though Engle and King each had one rail down in the second round, they still held onto the lead over Canada, the defending champions, who finished with a total of 12 faults, so again, Ward didn’t make it past the warm-up ring.

Team coach Robert Ridland noted that this is a rare feat for the U.S. “We’re so used to being in the hole after the first round and having these amazing comebacks,” he said. “It was a real course and real courses tend to favor the stronger teams so I felt that was an advantage for us. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that we had the lead so early and we were able to maintain it. It’s nice to not have to have a rider to go; it’s quite stress-free. Even if we had to use [Ward] in the second round, he would have been fresher in the jump-off than anyone in the class because he would have had one less round.”

Keeping the horses fresh was a priority and Ridland was also pleased that the U.S. was able to field a unique team for this competition at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.), considering Ocala, Fla., became the host of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series final qualifier this year, due to a sponsorship agreement, and the two events were held two weeks apart.

“This is the most experienced team that the U.S. has put together in a while and McLain didn’t want to be a part of it [because] it might also be the oldest team!” said Minikus with a laugh. “Between the four of us, there have been some miles and a lot of jumps.”

Minikus typically saves his top mount, Quality Girl, for bigger competitions, but he asked Ridland in advance if he could ride the greener Babablou 41 as the mare was really coming into her own and now ranks higher in his string than ever. 

“A friend of mine, Stewart Moran, owned Babalou and I have been showing her since she was a 6-year-old, doing two years of schooling jumpers with her,” he said. “She was not that easy and she was very exuberant about her jump, and over-jumped, so we spend a lot of time at schooling jumper which now seems to have paid off. I really appreciate the fact that I had the opportunity to bring her from schooling jumper to winning a Nations Cup. She’s got a big future.”

The victory marked a milestone for Candice and Kismet 50 as well since only the former has Nations Cup experience. “Coming in tonight I talked with Robert and we made a good plan and my biggest thing was having her conditioned and ready for tonight,” said King. “I was very excited and I knew what a team event is about, so I tried to come in here as strong as we could and put in a good, solid performance like we did. We discussed [the water jump] and I kept my mind open and rode what the mare needed and it went quite well.”

Though the wide liverpool, Fence 4, created a few splashes for most teams, Kismet negotiated the question without fault, but ended up having a rail down at 9C, the last oxer of a triple combination in the second round.

Royce was even still so frisky after his two rounds that Engle chose not to gallop a victory lap at the end. “He’s a trier,” said Engle, “but he’s not great with presentations. He’s good for everything else!”

Ward weighed in on Anthony D’Ambrosio’s track: “The Nations Cup is always a very hard thing for the course designer to build because you have a pretty large variety of level and riders,” he said. “There are some of the strongest in the world and then you have some emerging countries looking for opportunities to compete at this level. You want to test the best ones without having the less experienced horse and rider combinations do too badly, and I think [D’Ambrosio] did a good job. It was a big enough course and it was straightforward enough and out in front of you. I think from this class he’s going to continue to build it a bit stronger and it will be a great class.”

Of the nine teams who competed—the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Venezuela, Mexico, France, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, placed respectively—Minikus, Mexico’s Sofia Larrea, riding Jumex Sport Archimides, and Venezuela’s Pablo Barrios on Zara Leandra were the only three combinations to finish the Nations Cup without any faults.

You can watch the $100,000 Nations Cup in its entirety in the live stream archive.