Aaron Vale captured his ninth win in the $50,000 Grand Prix of Roanoke at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show, June 25 in Salem, Va.

Vale rode three of his six horses to the top three spots and finished fifth, eighth, and 11th with the remaining three. But this time he wasn’t just commuting from Ocala, Fla.–he took time away from his European schedule, where he has been competing with the U.S. show jumping team.

The Salem Civic Center, with its hockey rink-sized arena, is one of the smallest venues for a grand prix competition in the country. Designing and building a course for the space was the biggest challenge faced by Richard Jeffery.

“This is my first time here, so I’m just getting a feel for the arena,” Jeffery said. “And we have a very mixed bag of horses. There are some amateurs going in and some younger horses. You’ve got to accommodate that and still build a legitimate grand prix.”

The 15 jumping efforts set in the 100 by 200-foot arena had an 82-second time limit. “I thought the course was very technical,” said Pato Muente, who finished fourth with Karl Giebmanns’ Hanoverian stallion As di Villagana. “Not humongous but technical because we are not used to jumping in such small arenas, and the jumps come very fast. And with such related distances. If you put your leg on a little extra or a little weaker, then you were in trouble.”

“Richard did a great job of fitting all of the jumps in there,” Vale said. “And he did give us a chance to get the horses lined up to all of the jumps.”

The double and triple combinations caused their fair share of damage. The triple, the final jump on course, followed a big vertical wall and was heading toward the barn. Several horses took down the second element, a vertical, after jumping in too big over the first oxer. This combination was shortened to a vertical to oxer double for the jump-off.

Vale also had concerns about fence 10, a vertical set on the diagonal that required a 270-degree turn off the previous fence. Both jumps also remained in the jump-off. “It was the tallest fence on the course, and in the turn back to it your horse saw a lot of other jumps,” Vale said. “There was a lot of stuff to distract them. With every horse I was on, I slowed down and let them really get their eyes on it.”

Eight horses returned for the jump-off. Vale rode his final mount, Alison Register’s My Fair Lady, to first place with another double- clear round in the jump-off, causing an-nouncer Vic Carmen to quip, “He just doesn’t want to change horses for the presentation.”

Vale said the 10-year-old Holsteiner mare has been inconsistent over the past couple of years, but, “when she puts it together, she is real fast in the jump-off. She’s naturally a quick horse across the ground.”

Somewhat opposite in temperament to his stable mate, Romulus 16, piloted by Vale and owned by Hollow Creek Investments, finished second with a double-clear jump-off round, just 1.37 seconds slower. “He just shows up and does his job, week after week,” Vale said. “If he has a weakness, it’s that he’s not the fastest horse that I have.”

Ironclad, a former catch ride for Vale, is now part of his barn. He finished third for owner Carol Tinney with a double-clear round, just a few seconds behind the winner.

“He’s not the most agreeable horse,” Vale said with a laugh. The horse was clearly annoyed when he entered the arena the first time, as evidenced by his tail wringing and body language. “In the first round we almost jumped a standard on one of the fences because he was so busy arguing.”

The only other clear trip in the jump-off came from Muente and As di Villagana. The pair wowed the crowd as As di Villagana put forth a game, honest and successful effort over the big vertical after arriving at an awkward spot. Muente had not done any warm-up
classes earlier in the week because of his horse’s heavy showing schedule. “He showed here last year, so I knew he was familiar with the ring,” Muente said.

The legendary Joe Fargis and Edgar 12 jumped a clear first round and had one rail down in the jump-off to finish sixth behind Vale, who took fifth on Cinnamon.

Seventh place went to Mary Lisa Leffler on her new horse, Gerona 92. “She’s big with a big stride. She’s come so far in just six months,” Leffler said of the 9-year-old, Hanoverian mare. “It’s really nice to know that I can come into this kind of ring and fit the steps in. When we were in the middle of the combination and had plenty of room, I knew we had been doing our homework.” The pair finished the jump-off with one rail down.

Vale, who only arrived back in this country the week before Roanoke, said his strategy for preparing six horses for the grand prix was to give all of them a good flat work that afternoon. “This evening, all I had to do was to get on and jump a few fences,” Vale said. “I have a lot of horses and a lot of owners.

This was their opportunity to show and try and earn some money. And I always like to win Roanoke so I’d probably show three or four horses anyway.”

After Roanoke, it was back to Europe again for Vale, who will continue to campaign with Artur. “I’ve learned a lot,” Vale said of his European experience.

“And it’s beginning to look like we at least have a chance to be a player in the international scene.”

However, the Roanoke organizers need not worry. “We’ll be back again next year,” he promised.