Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 16

Amanda Steege and Cheryl Olsten’s Lafitte De Muze rose to the top of 92 of the nation’s top hunters in the first round of the Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships. The pair put in a brilliant classic round to score a 92, 95 and 95 from judges William Sparks, Brian Lenehan, Bob Crandall, Shane George, Rob Bielefeld and Mark Jungherr.

Liza Boyd finished second with Ondine D’Orleans , owned by Finally Farms and Neil Sites, and Brian Feigus and Four Aces took third for Marita Zuraitis.

Steege was thrilled to win the first round with the horse she’s shown at Derby Championships six times before.

“This is our Olympics,” said Steege. “This is as exciting and as big as it gets.”

After walking the course and visualizing her initial plan Steege sought out advice from Boyd and Tom Wright.

“He went over the plan with me and gave me a few key things that are things I know and things that were in my plan, but there’s just something about when he says it to me, I feel calm and feel like I can do it,” said Steege, Califon, New Jersey. “So I was really thankful to have him and really thankful to have Liza.”

Feigus, Boyd and Steege had praise for the course designed by Meghan Rawlins and Ken Krome. They set a track with four option jumps in the Rolex Arena, including a final oxer that stretched up to 4’6” on the high side. Feigus pointed out that now that competitors at the championship don’t have to qualify, there are horses coming in with a variety of experience levels.

“What I liked about the course is that it was inviting for any horse, whether you had a massive-strided or small-strided horse,” said Feigus, Colts Neck, New Jersey. “And I also liked the fact that on Day 1 it was more inviting and something that—you’re not going to have any tragedies and it had enough of a riding test but also a horse test, and the quality of the horse, but also the quality of the rider [mattered.] You could do any number [of strides] and whatever suited your horse and the judges I thought were awesome with it. In the two to the nine [stride line] they didn’t hurt anyone who did 10.”

Steege agreed and pointed out that while a lot of rails came down, they were at different fences, there wasn’t one problem area.

“I felt like the top 10 or 12 or even 15 horses all went really well with no mistakes and it allowed the judges to separate the horses whose style they liked the best,” she said.

Steege paired up with “Lafitte,” a 13-year-old Belgian Warmblood (Darco—Everylychin De La Pomme) when he was 6 and she found him in Germany. Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength.

“He’s won all the major hunter classes throughout the country: the [Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular (Florida)], the [WCHR] Pro Challenge at Capital Challenge [Maryland], the National Horse Show Classic [Kentucky],” she said. “The one class he has not won yet is derby finals, but we’ve been slowly and steadily improving every year and we’re just happy to be back here. When I was riding him around out here this morning I was talking to him like I always do. I was like ‘Lafitte, we’ve waited a whole year to get to do this again.’ So I just hope to keep my nerves under control and do the best that I can for him tomorrow.”

While Steege has known her mount a long time, Boyd has a much shorter tenure with her horse. That mare was bred by U.S. breeders Monique Huntington and Casey Anzalone. They were inspired by seeing Vigo D’Arsouilles win at the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games (Kentucky) with Philippe Lejeune (in the very ring where derby finals takes place), and paired that stallion with mare Coco Chanel Z who threw Ondine D’Orleans. The plain chestnut has more in common with Boyd’s last derby superstar, the notoriously grumpy Brunello, than just fabulous jumping ability.

“When we got her back to South Carolina she was terrible,” said Boyd, Camden, South Carolina. “In her stall she rears, she leaped, she knocks the stalls down. It was terrible. Finally we moved her across from Brunello and she shaped right up. I have to thank him. He had his ears flat back, teeth open and she was like ‘OK, OK. All right. You took me down a few notches.‘ Anyway, we were just hoping to learn and get out here and she exceeded my expectations. I’m so proud of her. And what a fun horse for the future. I’m just glad to be back here.”

Boyd also pointed out that despite her tremendous success in the show ring, Ondine D’Orleans has inspired her to keep learning,

“Two weeks ago I was getting run away with at the walk with my mare,” she said with a laugh. “I think it’s so nice in this industry that we have older people that will help if you ask. So Andrew Lustig gave me flat lessons in Blowing Rock [North Carolina] and made me ride without stirrups and made me do lots of hard things. I went home with all my homework and my dressage book and I would go down to the field all week and work on things. I have to say, we obviously have much more to work on with rideability, but it really, really paid off in the ring. It matters so much about the counter-canter and holding the leads in those bending lines and being able to gallop. And I know that first line could have been 10 or could have been 11 [strides]. Two weeks ago my mare probably would have done it in nine and I was actually like ‘Oh whoa, I just got the 11.’ I think that’s fun about this sport that it is very humbling and we can keep learning.”

Like Boyd, Feigus hasn’t had the ride on “Ace” very long. He came out of quarantine this winter and he immediately entered him in a $40,000 international derby at HITS Ocala (Florida), where he scored a wire-to-wire win.

“He’s such a sweetheart, probably one of the kindest horses I’ve ever been around. And for the most part you know when you walk in the ring, he’s always going to want to perform and do his job. This is all so new to him that I wasn’t really sure what to expect today. He was completely different than he was yesterday. He was kicking quiet yesterday and then today he had more pizazz to him and I was like, ‘Uh oh!’  But then once I walked out in the ring and picked up the canter he was like ‘I got it.’ It was nice for me because I got to go with it and I didn’t have to do as much—he kind of did it all.”

The top 30 horse-and-rider combinations will return tomorrow afternoon for the handy, and the combined scores from the two rounds will determine the overall winner. The top 10 Tier II riders not already qualified for the Tier I handy will also compete for a separate set of prize money.

Horses and riders who didn’t qualify for the final will be eligible to compete in tomorrow morning’s consolation final.

Find full results here.

Be sure you’re following along with the Chronicle on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. You can also read full analysis of hunter championship week in the Sept. 23 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.