Raeford, N.C.—March 16

Going into the cross-country today at Carolina International, Liz Halliday had one goal in mind: test the rideability. Since pairing up with Miks Master C two years ago in May, she’s been working on improving the gelding’s rideability when going at speed.

By finishing bang-on the optimum time of 6:28, “Mikki” earned the Antigua Cup, and proved that the work they’ve done has been fruitful.

“He was fantastic,” Halliday said. “I was really happy with him, and he was very thoughtful and organized at all the questions and galloped well and came back to me, which was great. That was sort of the big question, and obviously he’s always going to be a strong horse; you’re not going to take that out of him, but he did come back to me, and I would say was very thoughtful at the fences, very organized and very clever on his feet, so I was really thrilled with him.”

One small change that has made a big difference is taking the curb chain off his bit. Though he still goes in the same cherry roller American gag bit, removing the chain—a suggestion that came from the U.S. eventing team’s cross-country advisor Ian Stark—proved prudent.

“He’s actually a very sensitive horse; people probably don’t think that,” she said. “He’s got a very sensitive mouth. I know a lot about bits, and one of the most important things I always focus on is making sure the mouthpiece is right for the horses because not all horses like a sharper bit, and this is actually a big, fat, single jointed with rollers on it, just obviously with a bit of leverage because he’s very strong, but he’s so much happier in this particular mouthpiece. I’ve tried others, and he gets upset, and then he doesn’t focus, and in this he still focuses, so I was happy.”

Watch their round, courtesy of Horse & Country TV:

While Halliday had Stable View (South Carolina) in three weeks as a question mark run for the 12-year-old Swedish Warmblood (Mighty Magic—Qui Lumba CBF, Quite Easy) owned by Ocala Horse Properties and Deborah Palmer, he proved today that he can school at home to prep for the four-star in Kentucky in April.

“Finishing on a 22.5 on his dressage score—he doesn’t need to give me any more than that at this stage in the season,” she said. “It would just be having a run for the sake of a run, and I don’t think that’s worth it.”

Caroline Pamukcu made steady moves up throughout the weekend, from fourth after dressage to second with HSH Blake on a final score of 30.7. The 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse (Tolan R—Doughiska Lass, Kannan) has been in Pamukcu’s barn since he was 5, and while initially he was for sale, a couple potential buyers passed on him after vetting, so she talked to Mollie Hoff about securing his future in her barn.

“It’s funny; in warm-up I wasn’t nervous,” Pamukcu said. “I was just looking forward to riding him and just looking forward to [it.] In my head I was like, ‘Oh it’s just a schooling round.’ I don’t think I’ve ever been in the position in my career on a horse that it feels like a schooling round at the four-star level. I think this is his third advanced now, and it feels like he’s been doing it for 200 years.”

Pamukcu hopes to make a case for herself to be considered for the Paris Olympic team, so she wanted to make a strong case this weekend.

“My thought going out there was to jump around clear and have an educational round, not a risky round, so there’s nothing massively on the line, so do more good than more harm and then listen to your horse,” she said. “Blake was a bit fresh at the beginning, so I went a little bit steadier, and then I made up a little bit of time, but I didn’t take any big risks. That was my top goal, no risk, and that made me really happy because I only had seven seconds over, and I took no risks. That makes me feel really confident because if I had him a little more subtle I would’ve been easily faster.”

Meghan O’Donoghue and her 18-year-old Thoroughbred Palm Crescent added just 1.6 time penalties to move into third at the end of the weekend.

“I feel like it’s taken a long time to pull three solid phases together, and I think that today I went out with the mindset that he’s aimed at a five-star, and I want him to feel good about himself, but also, I haven’t been put in this position to be competitive too often yet in my career, so I kind of felt like I had something to go out and prove that I actually like the pressure and thrive under the pressure, so without being too crazy, tried to make good choices, let him have a good run and do as competitively as I thought was safe today.” Next up, Palmer (Quiet American—Edey’s Village, Silver Deputy) will have one more run at Fair Hill (Maryland) before heading to Badminton (England) to contest his sixth five-star.

See results here.

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