Temecula, Calif., April 1

Jeanine Allred hadn’t gone advanced in 11 years before this weekend and her horse, Snap Decision II, hadn’t ever set his hooves on a blue-numbered track. But that didn’t stop Allred and “Fuzzy” from putting in a nearly foot-perfect weekend, adding just 8.0 cross-country time penalties to their dressage score of 41.3 to win the division over James Alliston and Parker II. They survived an iffy moment at one oxer to leave all the rails in the cups in show jumping today.

“He jumped the moon. He was amazing,” said Allred. “When I went, ‘Go!’ at that one fence, and he said, ‘No, we have to wait,’ I was really happy with that. He wasn’t tired at all today; he was out here warming up and bucking.”

Alliston and his 2011 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** partner, Parker, were in first after cross-country, but a rail down in the first element of the triple combination relegated the pair to second with 50.6 penalties. Only seven pairs completed the advanced this weekend, with three horses jumping double-clear in the show jumping. Brittany Lunney had one rail on Cool Dancer, moving up from fourth to third, and three rails down dropped Cindy Marvin on Dee Dee Chaser to fourth.

Though it was her first time at the level in a little while, Allred had faith in her horse over yesterday’s advanced cross-country course, designed by Ian Stark.

“I thought it was big, but I felt confident that he could jump it,” said Allred. “We did intermediate for two years before this. The toughest part was the corner [coming out of the dressage ring]. We didn’t get our proper line, but he’s very honest, so he went even though I messed up.”

While Fuzzy might get a few days off after his win, Jeanine has to be back at her nursing job at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. She’s flying home to Hailey, Idaho, tonight and Laurie Allred, Jeanine’s mom and Fuzzy’s owner, is driving the horse 17 hours back.

“He was supposed to be her horse, but he decided to be more enthusiastic and want to go the higher levels, so I got the ride on him a few years ago,” said Janine. “I’m so thankful to my mom, because I wouldn’t be able to compete without her.”

The pair finished 12th in the CCI** here at Galway last fall. But Fuzzy, a 14-year-old gelding of unknown breeding, didn’t start out intended for the upper levels of eventing.

Watch video of Fuzzy’s CCI** round at the November Galway:

“He came from a cowboy in Idaho,” said Jeanine. “He was jumping out of their 6’ metal paddocks. He came up into the valley area and one of my friends found him for me. I tried him, and my mom bought him. That’s why he’s called Snap Decision, because we saw him and bought him in the same day.”

Look at full results from the Galway Downs weekend and read coverage of yesterday’s CIC divisions.