If there can be said to be a formula for winning national championships, Scott Monroe appears to have it. Monroe won his second consecutive USEF National Single Horse Championship, May 4�7, at the Garden State CAI-B at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown. In addition, he had just posted a win at the Cedar Lane Farm CAI-B (N.J.) the weekend before.

” ‘Shadow’ was ready,” said Monroe of his 12-year-old Morgan, Bethesda After Dark. “After a good rest, I began riding him during the late winter and early spring. It’s great for his conditioning and keeps his mind fresh.”

As a U.S. Equestrian Federation manda-tory selection trial for singles drivers hoping to compete at the World Championships in Italy this September, Garden State’s 15-kilometer marathon course included eight demanding obstacles, each with six gates, the maximum allowed. Conditioning, especially for those who drove at Cedar Lane the weekend before, was essential.

“We want this to be a real test,” said Ed Young, one of the selectors for the World Championship. “The list of eligible horses and drivers is pretty long, and we need to know that they can go the distance.”

As always, the test began with dressage. The international jury frequently disagreed in their marks, sometimes varying from one another by as many as half a dozen placings. As a result, the top 10 scores were only 12 points apart. Fred Merriam, of Newfane, Vt., had a lovely test and earned the best score, an outstanding 37.6. The judges also liked Kashmier, the elegant entry of Eleanor Gallagher, of Southern Pines, N.C., placing them .2 points behind Merriam at 37.8. Monroe was sixth of the 20 entries with 44.0.

Rain was forecast overnight on Friday, and no one would have minded it. Although the footing in the Horse Park is normally good, the lack of spring precipitation in New Jersey had left the ground hard and the dust and pollen a nuisance. But Saturday dawned sunny and dry, with only a five-minute shower mid-day.

A Close Marathon
Marjorie Margentino, Garden State’s long-time assistant course designer who was promoted to FEI level in January, had to remain at home on her ranch in Oklahoma to deal with the deadly fires there, so Great Britain’s Barry Hunter stepped in to design the course. Hunter made excellent use of the open fields to get the required distance between obstacles, and the obstacles themselves were appropriately challenging. The officials and competitors all agreed that the course was in great shape.

Despite the technical difficulty of the course, the drivers had few problems with it. The intense Monroe was on a mission as he drove, winning six of the eight obstacles, an amazing feat, and finishing in front of the class with 77.48.

Sterling Graburn, who was uncharacteristically in 11th place after dressage, put Alexander Hewitt’s Quincey through the obstacles in good time and came in a few seconds behind Monroe. Merriam was also fast and smooth and finished third in the marathon.

Gone are the days when half the entries in the FEI division posted a double-clear round in cones! With dressage and marathon scores coming in so close of late, cones has been the make-or-break phase of the competition. An excellent dressage score combined with a respectable marathon had put Gallagher in a good position, fourth from last to enter the arena. She really put the pressure on by leaving all the balls in place and crossing the finish line less than 5 seconds late for a final score of 134.25.

Next to drive, Graburn dropped one ball and had time penalties to finish at 137.31. Monroe entered the arena less than 5 points behind Merriam and was, again, intense. He left all the balls up but was 8 seconds late and ended on a score of 125.56.

Driving the Willey Farm’s Gaitwood Lightwing into the arena, Merriam now had a relatively safe lead over Monroe, almost 9 points. An audible groan rose from the crowd when the ball at obstacle 12 came down, costing 3 points, and all eyes were on the clock, minds trying to calculate the 20 seconds overtime that showed as the horse’s nose crossed the line. Merriam’s penalties in cones totaled 12.67, dropping him into second place and making Monroe the USEF national single horse champion.

There was an emotional moment when Monroe accepted the George W. Hoffman Memorial Trophy from George’s daughter, Margo Hoffman Miller. “My dad was so fond of you,” said Miller with a break in her voice.

“He meant a lot to me too,” said Monroe. “He was my first mentor, and he taught me not only about driving but about living.”

Entries in the single horse division came from far and wide. Drew Callahan, of Collinsville, Okla., winner of the 2004 national championship in Colorado, was competing with a different horse. The horse he won with in 2004, Proud Meadows’ Beau, was driven at Garden State by Bill Peacock from Belleville, Texas.

Eileen Davis, reserve champion in 2004, came from Prescott, Ariz. “just for fun.” A real pioneer from Newcastle, Calif., Leslie Berndl drove across the country by herself, stopping occasionally to walk Rio, her gray American Warmblood mare, and take a few hours rest before continuing on. Brian Gwartz, a plastic surgeon from Orange, Calif., flew his horse to New Jersey for the championship.

“We just wanted the experience of competing at a national championship,” said his enthusiastic wife, Cheryl Skigin.

Good Competition
In the FEI pairs, Califor-nia’s Fritz Grupe and Pennsyl-vania’s Lisa Stroud were literally in a class by themselves, he with his warmblood horses and she with her Connemara ponies. FEI rules do not allow horses and ponies to compete against one another, but the two had a “gentlemen’s wager” going during the weekend.

Although ponies are not required to do the difficult FEI test #8, Stroud gamely drove the test and scored 57.47 in dressage to Grupe’s 45.7. The tables turned when Stroud’s athletic ponies cruised through the obstacles to best Grupe, who went the wrong way through gate E in the first obstacle and corrected his course but incurred 20 penalties there. Both drivers posted penalties in cones. Stroud’s final score was 179.79 and Grupe’s 194.33.

One driver the jury agreed on in dressage was Rochelle Temple, of Powhatan, Va., who with her fluid chestnut Morgan posted the best score of the day–37.4–in the advanced single pony class. Temple backed up that superb score with a winning trip through the obstacles, nosing out Vermont’s Susan Rogers and Florida’s Colleen Sullivan by mere seconds. With 16 points in hand going into cones, Temple took the time to go clean, finishing 24 seconds late as she won the class with a final score of 141.52.

Sullivan, looking exquisite with her dark bay pony put to a natural wood carriage with black trim and harness, accepted the Gaylord E. McKissick Memorial Trophy for the best conditioned horse/pony from McKissick’s wife, Barbara. McKissick was a vet who for more than 20 years officiated at combined training and combined driving events in New Jersey.

“What a lovely animal,” said Mrs. McKissick to Sullivan. “Gay would have been so pleased to see a pony so well prepared to do his job.”

What’s next for the singles? Monroe and Merriam have each won two of the spring trials and appear to be likely choices for a position on the team going to Italy. Also in the hunt would be Graburn, who last fall won at the Laurels (Pa.) and was second at Gladstone (N.J.); Kate Shields, who posted a second at the Laurels and a third at Gladstone; and Gallagher, who was fifth at the Laurels and won Oak Hill (Va.).

The Bromont CAN-AM, May 26�28, is the final trial before the selectors meet. On or before July 31, the team of three horse/driver combinations and the alternates will be named by the USEF Executive Committee based upon the selectors’ evaluation and ranking of applicants and their recommendation to the High Performance Committee and High Perfor-mance Working Group.