The Plains, Va.—July 9

Clark Montgomery has ridden in some of the biggest events in England, but when it comes to competing in front of his home team, the nerves begin to set in. 

“I don’t know what is with me today but I’ve been more nervous for this event in front of all you guys than any of my past ones,” he said. “[Loughan Glen] jumped quite great, and I couldn’t be happier to be where I am right now.”

Montgomery maintained his dressage lead with “Glen,” turning in a double-clear show jumping round to stay on a 36.3 heading into tomorrow’s cross-country ahead of Maya Black and Doesn’t Play Fair (41.4) and Lauren Kieffer with her Olympic Games mount Veronica (43.7).

Nestled in the middle of Virginia hunt country, Great Meadow is an ideal venue for a Nations Cup. Knowledgeable crowds covered the hillside overlooking the ring to cheer on the American home team in the first FEI Nations Cup outside of Europe.

“It’s exciting for us to have some visitors come this way. Usually we have to go over to Europe to compete and ride, so thanks to the British team for coming over and supporting this,” said U.S. team member Phillip Dutton, who is tied for sixth with Fernhill Fugitive and sits ninth with Mighty Nice. “I think it can only get bigger and better, and it’s great for the sport, and I think we should all get behind this event and encourage them to keep going bigger and stronger every year. I think it’s very exciting.”

Marc Donovan’s show jumping course offered a unique twist, with two option fences on course. Fence 6, the Land Rover oxers, offered riders the option of approaching Fence 7 off of either lead, which was another option. While nobody took the option to Fence 6, several riders elected to take the inside fence at 7 depending on what track they wanted for Fence 8.

“It was kind of a strange option,” said Montgomery. “I couldn’t figure out exactly what he wanted you to do there, but he said that’s kind of what he’s been doing here recently with his courses was to get riders to think. It makes it fun. It kind of just changes it a bit. It’d be more fun if it was an option that more people would take.”

“I think everybody loves to ride Marc’s courses,” said Dutton. “It is a thinking course, and he is doing a lot of them over here for us now, so it’s exciting to have a course designer like Marc who’s still young but is prepared to try things, and I think everybody thought that it was a good education for both riders and horses.”

Clark Montgomery and Loughan Glen head into tomorrow’s cross-country on their dresage score. Photo by Kimberly Loushin.

The riders are looking forward to riding Mike Etherington-Smith’s cross-country track tomorrow. The course includes new land this year, with two obstacles in the arena, and greater use of the back field. While the course is big and inviting, the riders warned that there were some tricky combinations if you weren’t careful.

“The first water I think looks a little bit tricky because it doesn’t really look like a water, so we’ll probably have to ride the horses a little bit strong to get in, and then the three is quite short so then you have to make sure you have control so you don’t hang a leg there in the middle,” said Montgomery. “And then I think these corners here in the arena could cause a problem especially if you’re trying to go fast. You can easily glance off these corners here.

“Then the combination at the very back, the drop down to the triple brush, you’re going to have to make sure you’re really good on your four strides there,” he continued. “If the horse jumps in too big and ends up on three and a half, it’s asking for a run out and the same if it comes up too quiet and you get there in four and a half, so I think it’s important that you are on the stride. The rest I think is fair, big enough and that’s nice, and it should be a fun course to ride.”

“I think having not ridden here before it’s lucky to come out to a really nice galloping track, and you get to be presented nice big, bold fences,” said Jodie Amos, who is competing for the British team with Wise Crack. “Like Clark said there’s a few places that you could easily be caught out, but on the whole it’s a really inviting course, and it’s lovely to come over and have that to ride around.”

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