Bjorn Ikast and Van Beuren Enterprises’ Brave Heart led the $25,000 Nutrena Grand Prix at the Gulf Coast National II in a two-horse jump-off, Feb. 20 in Gulfport, Miss. Brave Heart’s clean run in 39.58 seconds gave Bruce Ginsberg and Hidden Sun Farm’s Napolitano a tough time to beat. Napolitano had to settle for second as he pulled two rails in his attempt to push the pace.

Brave Heart easily posted a second clear round, despite an electrical malfunction that forced him to repeat the first few jumps of the shortened course.

Ikast also won the Gulf Coast Winter Premier I $25,000 Bayer Legend Grand Prix, Feb. 13, astride his own I.Z.’s Lifetime, and he won the $35,000 Gallop Across Louisiana contest earlier in the year in Folsom, La., aboard Monte Cristo.

“I am very happy with my horses,” Ikast said. “We’ve had a good start to the season.”

The Nutrena Grand Prix course on thick grass bested 18 of the 20 entries, with many rails down and five horses refusing. The grass contributed to the poor performance of many of the horses, said Ikast, who retired Little Bullet and I.Z’s Lifetime. The course included a wide oxer that he said fooled several horses, but he primarily blamed the grass for the unusual number of mistakes.

“It was not very big,” he said of the course. “I was surprised there were so many faults. I think the grass was long, and I think the horses slid a little bit.

Some of the horses are probably not used to the grass. We would like to see better sport, but it was good for me.” Because Brave Heart went first in the jump-off, Ikast said his strategy was first to go clean, then fast. “I wanted to put just enough pressure on Bruce so that he had to take chances to beat me,” he said. Ikast imported 8-year-old Brave Heart from Europe and sold him to Van Beuren Enterprises on the condition that he ride him for two years.

Ikast, a native of Denmark, operates a ranch and barn outside Mexico City with wife Clara.

Consistency Pays Off

Earlier in the day, the amateur-owner, 36 and over, hunter competition resulted in an uncommon hack-off between Sandra Brown on Lennox, a 14-year-old Hanoverian, and Sara McEachern on Rodeo, a 7-year-old Dutch Warmblood. Brown, of Newtown Square, Pa., was surprised to take the blue ribbon.

But McEachern of Macon, Ga., knew she would take reserve before the call was made. “Her horse is a better mover than mine,” she said. “My horse’s trot is like stomping grapes. If I’d been on [one of my other horses], Prevail, he’d probably have won. He has great movement.”

“I would have been looking for the coin then,” Brown countered, laughing.

When Brown bought Lennox, he was a dressage horse. “He has had that background, and that made it easier for me because I’m not strong on flat,” she said.

Brown has had Lennox for four years. “He has been very, very consistent and willing to do anything I’ve asked,” she said.

In the amateur-owner, 18-35, division, Jaime Auletto’s Back For More took the championship, and Glenlivet, owned by Cortney Stallings, took the reserve.

Back For More, or “Lenny,” as he is known around the barn, is an 11-year-old Hanoverian that Auletto, originally from Tabernacle, N.J., took with her to college in Virginia. Until she graduated from college, she wasn’t able to show him often, but he won a championship at the Gulf Coast Classic two years ago.

Having graduated, she is now able to show him more consistently. She especially likes showing him at the Gulf Coast facility because it is horse friendly, with large stalls and good footing.

“I give him candy, anything he wants,” she said, rubbing his cheek against hers. “He’s so friendly, so personable and very inquisitive too. He keeps an eye on me. Everybody says he is the most spoiled horse in the barn.”

Amateur-owner hunter Pescado, or “Fish” as he’s called in the barn, posted a come-from-behind victory in the NHJL Amateur-Owner Hunter Classic.

Pescado, an 8-year-old from Argentina, got the English version of his name as a nickname because he moved like a fish when Lee Reynolds first got him.

“He was so green, he wiggled everywhere. We’d say he’s doing the fish,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds shows Pescado in between her side occupation of braiding manes and tails. She’d been up since 3 a.m. braiding before the Classic and had completed three manes and 11 tails before competing in the afternoon. “I’m pretty used to it,” she said of the long hours. “I take a lot of cat naps.”

More Trophies For Showcase

Terry Brown of Canton, Ga., also had a good week with the 12 horses she showed from her Showcase Ltd. barn. She won five divisions and two reserves. She rode Sequel to win the regular working hunter division and the reserve championship in the second year green division. Overseas, owned by Mindy Wurzburg, won the second year green title.

“Sequel is my personal pet,” Brown said. “I have a lot of favorites, and he is one of them. He’s one of the most gifted hunters I’ve ever had the pleasure of  riding.” She gave Sequel his name because he reminded her of another one of her horses, Likely Legend. Likely Legend had performed well before she sold him, and when she first saw Sequel she thought of Likely Legend immediately. They are both bays with two hind socks, and they jump in a similar style.

Brown also rode Posse, a 7-year-old she imported from Europe in November, to win the first year green tricolor. McEachern’s Rodeo, also of Brown’s Showcase barn, took the reserve. Posse is a good all-around hunter who excels in movement and jumping. “It’s refreshing to have a horse that tries to understand what you want,” she said. Brown also took Cuz-I-Can, owned by Kim Domenicone, to the lead in the conformation hunter division. Cuz-I-Can is a very special horse, Brown said, because he was given his name in memory of Domenicone’s father’s favorite saying. “Now every time she looks at her horse she thinks of her [late] father,” she said.

Also in the regular working hunter division, Brown won the reserve championship with Lori Christman’s Fictitious.

Brown travels to Europe about five times a year to buy up to 20 horses at a time. Buying there is a challenge, she said, because there aren’t any American style hunters in Europe. “You ride for five minutes and then decide. It’s a very big gamble.”

Nonetheless, she has found that the gamble pays off because Germans have been breeding sport horses for hundreds of years. “The American breeding program is very young. It’s hard to catch up with centuries of knowledge,” she said.

Brown has been competing on the Gulfport circuit since its inception seven years ago. “It’s a very nice facility,” she said. “It’s a well-kept secret. It’s the little things that make a good experience for the exhibitors–good footing, good weather and reasonably priced hotels.”