Molly Ashe cantered into the ring in Neauville to jump off in the $100,000 Lexus National Horse Show Jumper Championship CSI-W not quite sure what to expect. This was only her second jump-off on the chestnut gelding, and her first time showing him under the lights. The NHS Jumper Championship was held in the evening of Dec. 2, under spotlights on the International Field of the Palm Beach Polo and Equestrian Center in Wellington, Fla.

Ashe was the third to go of five in the jump-off. Chris Kappler had set the pace going first on a new mount of his own, VDL Oranta. The big mare’s big stride and airy jumps had put them clean in 43.31 seconds. “I was so happy with her when I left the ring that it didn’t matter where we ended up,” Kappler said. “The main goal was to see how she was under the lights.”

Next in was David Raposa on Audi’s Fanny de la Tour, and they were going a good clip until a tight rollback to 8AB, where Fanny de la Tour jumped into the one-stride combination off a long stride, and couldn’t make the distance to the oxer out, and stopped. Next in, Ashe rode Neuville to an efficient track, just nipping Kappler’s time by stopping the timers clean in 42.71 seconds.

“I saw Chris go, and knew that he’d had to take time and set up for a few of the fences, so I knew I’d have to catch everything off the gallop,” Ashe said.

Christine Tribble looked ready to challenge on Promised Land, but when the top rail of the first fence toppled, her bid was over. She finished with eight total faults for fourth place. The same combination that caused Raposa problems caught Lisa Silverman and Obelix R, when she sliced the turn into it. Obelix R stretched to get over the back rail of the B element, but caught his toes on it and crashed through. Silverman did a superhuman job of recovering, and carried on to finish with just those four faults to take third.

“I just came in on a bit of an angle and he didn’t get his eyes on the B element early enough,” Silverman said. “He tripped over the back rail, and I ended up around his ears. But, being the kind four-legged friend that he is, he pushed me up and said ‘get back in the tack, mom.’ I ended up back in the saddle and started looking for the next fence.”

Silverman is an experienced grand prix rider—she competed in the World Cup Finals and internationally in the 80’s with Revlon Adam. But then her name was Lisa Tarnapol. After marriage, a career and motherhood intervened, Silverman stopped riding competitively. Her last grand prix was in 1991, and she just started showing back in the amateur ring a year and a half ago. She moved back up to the grand prix level earlier this year, and is enjoying herself immensely.

“I’m honored to be here in company like Chris and Molly,” she said. “I’ve always loved riding, but some other things got in the way. I’m a real amateur—riding’s kind of like my third job. I’m a mother [of 6-year-old twins] first, then a real estate agent in New York City, and then I’m a rider.”

Kappler insisted that Siverman’s return was the real story tonight, but he was also thrilled that after a year out of the spotlight, he’s back in action. “It’s just nice to have a really nice horse again,” he said. After the death of his individual silver-medal Olympic mount, Royal Kaliber, in 2004 just after the Athens Olympics from colic complications, Kappler was left without a superstar mount. But he thinks that VDL Oranta could be the next one.

“I saw her quite a while ago, but it took me a while to get the sale done,” he said of the gray mare he started riding in August. “She’s not an easy ride—she’s big and strong and difficult. But she has so much ability, and she’s very smart and wants to work with you.”

Ashe has also had the reins of Neauville since August. Owner Jane Clark saw him competing with McLain Ward and liked him, so bought him for Ashe to ride. “It’s obviously been a little bit of a transition from McLain’s ride to mine. McLain jokes that I’m about equal to his left thigh. But it seems to be working out well,” she said.

With this win, Ashe vaults to the top of the standings for the FEI World Cup East Coast League. She won the CSI-W classes at Lexington, Ky., and the Capital Challenge (Md.) earlier this fall. She isn’t sure, however, if she’ll aim Neauville for the World Cup Final in Malaysia in April 2006, since she also has to think about trying out for the World Equestrian