The first two-star win for horse and rider comes with a great bonus.

Ralph Holstein couldn’t stop smiling after he and his partner, Franklin, jumped a double-clear show jumping round to win the Colebrooke Cup CCI** and a $10,000 check at the Florida Festival Of The Horse in Ocala, Fla., on April 16-19.

“This is Franklin’s biggest win, for sure,” said Holstein, Hinckley, Ohio. “It’s amazing what [sponsor] Brooke [Crozier] did for the two-star down here. When some-one is so generous to reward you and help you out and give money back to the sport, I think that’s a very encouraging thing.”

Holstein purchased Franklin, a 10-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, about six years ago. While his training was a slow process, Holstein said that as long as the horse fully understands his job he’s brave and willing to do anything. The horse has been competing at intermediate since 2007, and he’s contested some advanced tracks this spring, including the CIC*** at The Fork (N.C.) only a few weeks earlier.

“He basically came straight from the track and hadn’t been started or anything,” said Holstein. “He was very careful, so we had to make sure that we took our time. But now he seems to have the knack for it and enjoy it.”

After dressage, the pair was sitting in fourth with a respectable 53.3. Darren Chiacchia and Windfall 2 led the way with their typical fluid test, and Buck Davidson was in second and third with Fuerst Edition and L.A. Albert, respectively.
 
“Our dressage was OK; it was definitely one of his better tests at this level,” said Holstein. “There are still a lot of things to improve on, but it’s nice to see the things we’ve been working on start to show up in the ring.”

Cross-country proved challenging for some pairs, but Holstein and Franklin had no problems navigating Capt. Mark Phillips’ course. While most of the track allowed riders to carry a nice gallop, there were a few tough questions that separated the field.

“I thought the course was great,” said Holstein. “It’s always such good footing down here, and I thought that the track asked very appropriate questions for a two-star. I think that it challenged the horses in good ways but left them coming off the course feeling pretty confident.”

Only three pairs were eliminated, but five combinations had trouble, including Chiacchia and Windfall 2, who had a refusal at the eighth fence, a ditch and brush. Oddly enough, Davidson and Fuerst Edition had a disagreement at the same fence, and both pairs fell out of contention.

Davidson’s other ride, L.A. Albert, jumped clean but had 5.6 time penalties that dropped them down to fourth.

The two water elements were run in reverse in comparison to the 2008 event but rode well for most competitors.

“I thought they were good questions,” said Holstein in reference to the two water complexes. “I thought the horses got a good chance to get their feet wet at the first water. It was a nice jump into it and a good bend out to the corner. It set them up well for the question at the second water [a drop in, about four strides to a skinny chevron].”

The placings were tight at the conclusion of the cross-country, with only a rail separating the top four riders. Peter Atkins on Figjam moved into second, and Andrew Palmer on Stilletto slipped into third. Rails plagued both riders during show jumping, however, and their 12-fault rounds left them in the ribbons but out of the top spots.

Unbeknownst to Holstein, he had a rail in hand as he and Franklin entered the ring. It didn’t matter, however, as Franklin rose to the occasion and jumped clean to win blue.

“He’s usually very careful [in the show jumping],” said Holstein. “We jumped some bigger tracks this spring, and it gave him a lot of confidence going into the ring. Last year he had a couple of rails here. He made some green mistakes, but I think this year he went in and showed he had a bit more experience and is a bit more capable of his job.”

A Happy Return

For Mary Bess Sigman and Guinness X, taking home the second-placed ribbon in the Colebrook Cup was more than a good finish. In many ways, it was a “welcome back.”

“It’s just been a hard road,” said Sigman, who broke her back in late 2007 while riding a young mare. “She was nibbling on my boot, and I just didn’t even notice it. She got her baby teeth caught on the stirrup. It took two seconds—she flipped and I couldn’t get my foot out. I literally had time to say whoa and she was on top of me.”

Sigman, Covington, Ga., burst fractured her L5 vertebra and was airlifted to Atlanta Medical for surgery. Initially, doctors told her she wouldn’t ride again, but a change of surgeons and a lot of determination had her back in the saddle in May of 2008.

“They put rods and screws in my back, then took them out three months later so I could have some flexibility,” said Sigman. “I started with the novice horses and went on. When I could start sitting the trot I moved on to the upper levels again.

“My parents have just been amazing through all of this because they took care of me, and they’ve been unreal and an incredible support,” Sigman added. “I’m a very, very lucky person to have the people I have in my life. All of us are just so glad that everything is the way it is now and so happy about this past weekend. It was very scary, but it makes all this so much sweeter.”

Guinness X, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse, is owned by Jenny Segal. Sigman worked with Segal and helped her at the preliminary level.

“She’s an adult amateur, and her goal for 20 years was to go prelim,” said Sigman. “At the end of last season, she was happy with what she’d done and she wanted to see him go on and fulfill everything he could do.”

Guinness started the year at preliminary but quickly moved up to inter-mediate and had solid placings before his two-star debut. Sigman hopes to run him advanced this year and is aiming for the Fair Hill CCI (Md.) in the fall.

“He’s an amazing animal,” she said. “He’s a total workman. I’m so excited to have been given the opportunity by the owner to have him.”

While Sigman was happy with his dressage test, she said he was a little tense in his canter work because he
hadn’t been in that kind of atmosphere in quite sometime. She was thrilled with his score, however, and was even happier with his jumping performance.

“He didn’t miss a beat, he was just wonderful to everything,” Sigman said about their tour of the cross-country course. “He used to be a little bit of a ‘ditchy’ horse, and I was concerned about the ditch and brush on the backside of the course, but he couldn’t have jumped it any better.”

Guinness did stumble in the water after the big drop, but Sigman said he zoned onto the second flags and just took care of her.

“He was so focused on getting to the next element, that was the only way he stayed on his feet,” she noted. “[The course] almost seemed effortless. It was the time of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cross-country ride where I felt so confident and trusted so much in him the whole way around.”

The pair was in fifth place going into the show jumping, and while Sigman was confident in Guinness’ ability, she wasn’t too sure of herself.

“I was more concerned about my nerves than anything,” she said with a laugh. “I knew that show jumping is our thing, we do really well with it, and I just trusted in that. We got into the ring, and he was the same horse he
always is.”

Their double-clear performance launched them into the second place slot, and Sigman took home a check for $6,250.

“I’m so grateful [to Brooke Crozier],” she said. “It’s an amazing thing. As professionals, we do struggle. We love the sport, and we’re so passionate about it so it’s so nice to be able to take that money and put it toward the horse’s future.

“I feel like I’m almost back to where I was before I got hurt,” Sigman added. “That feels great; it’s a relief. This weekend was my first clean show jumping in a three-day. Guinness really stepped up, and this was one of the best memories of my life, for sure.”

A Confident Trip

Leahona Rowland traveled a long way from her home base in Ontario, Canada to contest the winter eventing circuit in Florida, but the trip paid off when she jumped to the CCI* win on Lorenzo III.

“He was wonderful,” Rowland said of the 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood. “He’s a super jumper and lovely to ride.”

While Rowland has only been riding Lorenzo, owned by Kathy and Jessica DiGenova, for about three months, they’ve settled into a nice partnership. They led the field from start to finish, only adding a few time penalties to their dressage score.

“I was very happy with his dressage test,” she said. “He was really relaxed.”

Rowland was also happy with his cross-country trip, and she complimented Phillips for his efforts.

“The course rode wonderfully; they did an amazing job here,” she said. “It’s really a nice course to ride and gave a good feeling at the end. [Lorenzo] was with me the whole way, listening and paying attention and being a good boy.”

While Rowland and Lorenzo didn’t have any problems, several others did. Five pairs had trouble with the two corners on course, and many horses didn’t like the jump that was carved and painted to resemble an alligator in the first water complex.

“He jumped everything really well—there wasn’t anything that didn’t feel really good, which is kind of rare on cross-country,” said Rowland.

Show jumping on Sunday proved to be exciting, as the top five riders were separated by less than a rail. Sara Dierks on Puzzle It Out and Lauren Kieffer on Bally Whatnot both posted clean rounds to keep the pressure on Rowland, but she didn’t crack. They finished with a single time fault.

“Everybody feels a little bit of nerves; you’d be lying if you said you didn’t,” said Rowland. “The best in the world feel nerves. But, I felt fine, relaxed, like we were ready and he was wonderful. He’s a super jumper. As long as you get him to the fence he’ll jump.”

While this was Lorenzo and Rowland’s first one-star together, Rowland has ridden advanced in the past. She sold her mare, Upolo, to Jessica DiGenova, who won the North American Junior And Young  Rider Championships twice, once at the one-star level in 2005 and the two-star in 2007.

“We just continued that relationship,” said Rowland of the DiGenovas. “I went to England this past year and rode for William Fox-Pitt. When I came back I got the opportunity to ride Lorenzo [because Jessica is in college].”

Rowland said her time spent riding in England really improved her skills.

“It really helped my cross-country riding. It was a really good confidence builder and gave me a kind of, get on with it, attitude,” she said. “William has been a huge inspiration for me.”