Rodrigo Pessoa and Baloubet du Rouet are one of the world’s most elite show jumping combinations, and they demonstrated why by winning both of the big grand prix classes at the inaugural Las Vegas World Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev., Oct. 14-15.

It was a huge undertaking to bring the best show jumpers in the world to Las Vegas. David Shriner, chairman and chief executive officer of Equus Enter-tainment and Sports, invited the top 25 riders on the Gandini/FEI World Rankings and paid for their horses to ship over to create a top-notch jumping event, the first CSI***** in the United States.

Many of the faces were familiar, having traveled to Las Vegas in April for the FEI Budweiser World Cup.

“It was a great start to this event,” said Pessoa. “They did well to bring people who have experience.”

His experience is legendary, as he’s the only rider to win three FEI World Cup titles in a row, after winning the 1998 World Championships, and he’s been declared the individual gold medalist at the Athens Olympics.

His close partnership with the 16-year-old, Selle Francais stallion Baloubet du Rouet was obvious as the pair sprinted around the jump-off courses to win the $75,000 Martin Collins Casino Classic Grand Prix on Friday and the $750,000 Las Vegas World Invitational Grand Prix the next day.

“Everything came really perfectly,” said Pessoa of his victorious jump-off ride on Saturday night. “I knew the horse was in great shape and had a good chance. He covers the ground really well, has the experience, and stays cool when he goes fast.”

Baloubet clearly was in top form, soaring over the jumps with ease and jumping from steep angles. He even found the time to throw in a few bucks to show that the course wasn’t taxing him.

The course designer, Olaf Petersen of Germany, promised to build one of his most challenging courses, and he came through. He used Las Vegas as the theme of his beautiful jumps and included standards in the shape of cards, slot machines and the famous welcome sign on the Las Vegas strip to put the audience in the mood.

Only six riders made the big class’ jump-off, and no Americans were among them. Lauren Hough came the closest, with one rail down with Casadora.

Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, formerly a Californian and now riding for Germany, was the first to go in the jump-off, and she jumped a speedy round on Checkmate 4, a 10-year-old Hanoverian.

“Being the first to go is always a disadvantage,” said the 2005 FEI World Cup title winner. Her time (31.53 seconds) put her in contention, but she knew that it wouldn’t deter the riders to come from taking a shot at her.

Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker couldn’t catch Michaels-Beerbaum with Portofino, but when Baloubet stepped into the ring, it was obvious that Pessoa was there to win.  “When you don’t want to leave anything behind you, it has to be from fence 1,” said Pessoa. Their time–a blistering 29.64 seconds–was impossible to beat.

Nick Skelton of Great Britain came closest with the Oldenburg stallion Arko III (by Argentinus). The stallion showed his exceptional style, with his knees hiked up to his chin, but his speed across the ground didn’t match Baloubet.

Skelton also placed second in the rich CN International at the Spruce Meadows Masters (Alta.) in September. “Second is second, but I’m happy with second,” he said. “I’m delighted with my horse because he jumped really well.”

Michaels-Beerbaum reflected that she might have been able to catch Skelton if she’d left out a stride at the last fence. “But I don’t have enough experience with [Checkmate] to catch Rodrigo,” she said.

And nobody could catch Pessoa and Baloubet, on either night. The course for the $75,000 Casino Classic Grand Prix on Friday night was considerably easier, so 15 riders made the jump-off.  McLain Ward, as the lead-off rider, had a speedy round aboard Oasis, owned by Double H Farm. Anne Kursinski just pulled ahead of him with Scott Hakim’s Roxana 112.

But the Americans couldn’t compete with the Europeans this weekend. Pessoa took an inside turn that no one else had attempted to grab the lead. Every rider following him rode the same line, leaving Kursinski fifth and Ward sixth.

Needed: Indoor Improvement
Even though the American squad just won the Samsung Super League Title, thanks in part to some of the riders competing in Las Vegas, the results were disappointing.  “It’s a big disadvantage for the Americans that they don’t ride so many indoor shows,” said Michaels-Beerbaum. “Our horses have years of experience indoors.”

Jim Wolf, the executive director of Sports Programs for the U.S Equestrian Federation, called the Las Vegas World Invitational a “riding clinic for our guys.

“To get good you’ve got to compete against the best,” he continued.

But Georgina Bloomberg kept the richest weekend in show jumping from being a total washout for the American side. She won the $50,000 knock-out speed class on Friday evening.

Two identical courses were set up next to each other, allowing riders to race against each other. The first one through the timer continued to the next round.  “I was lucky in the first round because Lauren [Hough] had a rail down,” said Bloomberg, of New York City, N.Y. “After I’d done it once, I felt more comfortable.”

The 22-year-old was the youngest competitor, but she stayed poised as she continued through the knock-out class, besting Schuyler Riley, Pessoa and finally Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker.  “Some people you don’t mind losing to, and Rodrigo is one of them,” said Bloomberg.
She fully expected her far more experienced rival to best her. But they raced in a dead heat for a few seconds, before Bloomberg left long to the last jump and edged ahead.

The final heat wasn’t so close as Whitaker had a rail down and Bloomberg heard the crash, so she slowed up to make sure she didn’t have a careless rail.  “You have to try to avoid looking at the other person,” she said.

Bloomberg brought Nadia, the 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood to the Thomas & Mack Arena in April for the FEI Budweiser World Cup, but a refusal on the first night of competition took her out of contention.

Now both of them have more experience indoors, but this time Bloomberg was fighting an injury. “I broke my collarbone four weeks ago in a fall,” she explained.

Although the injury has healed, Bloom-confidence was low when she returned to Las Vegas. “I like to go as prepared as possible, and I couldn’t really do that,” she said. “I had to balance between resting but also staying prepared.”

Bloomberg rode Cim Christo, a 10-year-old Holsteiner, in the big grand prix classes. He’d competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics for South Korea, but was a new ride for her. They put in good rounds, but had one rail down the first night and two on the second.

Bloomberg also plans to move Nadia out of the speed classes and into the bigger grand prix events. “She has more scope than that [speed classes],” said Bloomberg. “She can win them, but it doesn’t justify running her in all of them.”

Something Different
The knock-out was an unusual class, as was the ride-and-drive class on Saturday night. This class started with a short show jumping course, before riders leaped off their horses and got into a Cadillac to drive around a cones course, similar to the cones portion of combined driving events. A lowered rail cost 2 seconds, and they got the same penalty for dislodging a ball from the cones.

Steve Guerdat of Switzerland took home a new Dodge for winning the ride-and-drive with Hermes Rouge. He even knocked a ball down in the driving portion, but he was driving so much faster than the other competitors that it didn’t matter.

The other riders didn’t make the transition from horse to vehicle nearly as smoothly, not surprising since the maneuver probably isn’t a big part of their training routine.

They could learn a lot about dismounting from some Pony Club games competitors, since many of them lost valuable seconds by pulling their horses up completely before getting off.

Markus Fuchs, also of Switzerland, looked like he was going to give Guerdat a run for his money, but he failed to get the car fully in gear after he got in and wasted precious seconds before he realized his mistake.

Money Doesn’t Guarantee A Vegas Hit
The Las Vegas World Invitational had all the trappings of a big Vegas show, complete with live musicians and a half-time show. But it was missing one critical component: audience.

The Thomas & Mack arena has seating for almost 20,000, they only sold 4,000 tickets.

Even though the audience was sparse compared to the sold-out house for the FEI World Cup Final in April, for Shriner it was an improvement from 2003, when the event never got off the ground. “We had difficulty with sanctioning windows,” he explained. “We had to find a date that didn’t conflict with any major shows around the world. The sanctioning and endorsement process was far more difficult than I understood.”

But the low numbers didn’t deter him. “The feedback has been extraordinarily positive,” he said. “We’re very pleased and definitely going to do this again. The World Cup had three stabs at it, and it improved each time.”

The audience for the combined show jumping and dressage World Cup final in April filled the arena to capacity. Shriner has considered adding dressage to the ticket, but he said that his heart was in show jumping.

Riders, both foreign and American, praised the show. “It was a facelift for horse shows,” said Bloomberg. “You felt really special every time you went in the ring.”

And when the riders got out of the ring, they were treated like movie stars. The world’s richest purse also made the riders happy. “We wish that more shows would be like this!” said Michaels-Beerbaum.

Perfect Footing, Perfect Rides
Footing has been the topic of much debate in show jumping, since the new grass footing at the Athens Olympics proved so treacherous. The show managers took no chances at the Las Vegas World Invitational, flying in the synthetic Polytrack surface from England.

Martin Collins, of Martin Collins Enterprises, was the footing expert for the event. His Polytrack surface, a synthetic material, stood up to the horses, providing a firm, springy base for quick turns.

“The footing was perfect,” said Rodrigo Pessoa after winning the Las Vegas World Invitational Grand Prix. “It had perfect grip. The horses could go fast and never slip.”

Between classes the Polytrack surface was steamrolled instead of dragged. This footing is also being used at racetracks in England and the United States.

(For daily reports and more photos from Las Vegas, go to www.chronofhorse.com and click on the archives section.)