Tiffani Loudon-Meetze cantered into the show jumping ring at the Ocala Horse Properties CCI** on Lo Fino with a weekend of pressure on her shoulders. After taking an early lead in the dressage, she knew the win was hers to lose if she made any mistakes. The second-placed horse and rider, Leahona Rowland and Lorenzo, had jumped a clear round, and they were ready to move into the lead if any rails fell, but Loudon-Meetze and Lo Fino jumped a beautifully to claim the Ocala Horse Properties Cup and $6,600 in prize money.

“He was great the whole weekend,” Loudon-Meetze said of Lo Fino. “We had a lot of hard runs leading up to this so he felt solid.”

The first clear round in the CCI** came with the 12th rider on course, Jennie Jarnstrom and Prisma JMen, which moved the pair from 16th place into eighth. Only six riders had double-clear rounds around Marc Donovan’s course. So when Loudon-Meetze entered the arena, she had no rails in hand. Luckily she didn’t need them, and she and Lo Fino captured blue in their first CCI** together.

Hannah Burnett had a moment of tension at the end of the CCI* show jumping. She was tied for the lead on Jacqueline Mars’ Harbour Pilot, and she was the second to last to jump. She put in a clear round but was a second too slow on the clock to collect 1 time penalty. But her worry was soon relieved when Lisa Marie Fergusson and Smart Move dropped three railsto secure her top spot.

Burnett, who works for the O’Connor Event Team, only got the ride on “William” two weeks ago. David O’Connor was riding the big Irish Sport Horse gelding, but when he was going to be out of town for the weekend, he gave Burnett the ride.

“I’ve been begging for the ride for a while now,” Burnett laughed. “He surprised me at The Fork [Horse Trials (N.C.)] by saying that I could compete him at the one-star.”

Only two horses were held for re-inspection before the show jumping, Dynamic Image and Devon Brown in the CCI** and Lucky Teddy and Amanda Volle in the CCI*. Both horses were passed upon re-inspection, but Volle later withdrew Lucky Teddy and did not jump. Scott Keach withdrew Henry before the inspection.

While this is not the first year that an international event was run at the horse park, it is the first year that Equiventures took charge. Peter Gray and Jonathan Holling, co-founders of Equiventures, stepped in to organize events at the Florida Horse Park when the previous organizer stepped down. They came into the process with the goal of putting on a quality international event with excellent judges.

“One of our main goals is increasing the prize money,” Gray explained. “The Florida CCI is one of the richer three-day events offered to competitors in the United States, and Equiventures was able to present the $20,000 in prize money through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Carl Segal, who owns several horses for Buck Davidson, generously donated the $3,000 in prize money for the CCI*.

Equiventures brought in two FEI O-level judges, Christen Lindalt and Marilyn Payne, and U.S. dressage technical director, Anne Gribbons, as the ground jury. This not only gave good feedback to the riders in the CCI events, but also to the riders who competed in the advanced combined test before heading to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event next weekend. Karen O’Connor and Mandiba took home the honors in the combined test, with a dressage score of 42.3 and a double-clear show jumping round.

Full results can be found here.