Professional rider and trainer Halie Robinson had no qualms about going first in the $50,000 Valencia Saddlery 3’3” Pro Eq Challenge class Friday, March 1, at Desert International Horse Park (California), even though it meant setting a standard to top the nearly 50 riders to follow. 

“I thought the first-round course was really simple and easy; there wasn’t anything tricky about it,” Robinson said. She rode Tangled Up In Blue, a 15-year old bay Dutch Warmblood mare by Dirado owned by 3P Equine Partners LLC, she usually saves for hunter derbies, and they finished the first round on a score of 91, which would stand as the best through the first round. “I felt really confident going in on ‘Piper;’ I know her really well and we have a great partnership together,” she said.

The annual Pro Equitation Challenge puts professionals in the somewhat unfamiliar position of being judged on, well, their position, in a three-round format that saw the entire class of 48 jump the first round, the top 12 return for a second, handy hunter-type course, and then the top four return for a work-off in which they swapped horses with another rider. For the first time, the class was held in Desert International Horse Park’s Grand Prix Arena.

A seasoned equitation competitor in her past, Robinson said she enjoys returning to this side of the sport as a professional.

“I think you have to be so precise with everything,” she said after the class. “You have to be so accurate, and you have to be so invisible with everything that you do, which I think really helped me in hunters and doing that for the rest of my life. I think having a good foundational position is really important. I think that is really important for hunters also. I think it makes them jump their best. I am a big believer in equitation, and it’s fun to get to go back to it, and especially with the professionals and your friends makes it just a really fun class.”

Last week, Robinson had no specific plans to compete Piper in the equitation class. In fact, she didn’t decide until Friday morning that Piper would be her mount for the class that night. 

“When I flatted Piper [last Tuesday], she felt amazing,” Robinson said. “All week, I couldn’t decide which horse I wanted to compete on, so she just flatted. She hasn’t even jumped since Week 5’s big derby on the grass. She’s very experienced; we mostly save her for the international hunter derby classes and derby finals.” 

Robinson told Piper’s owner, Emily Uffenheimer, that she thought the mare would be a “fantastic” fit for the class: “She’s so brave, she’s so stridey, she’s so scopey, and she’s just such a wonderful mare, so it worked really well.”

Watch Robinson and Piper’s winning first round, courtesy of ShowGroundsLive.com:

“I have done a couple [of the pro equitation classes] in the past, and they’re always so much fun,” Robinson said. “I think [show management] did a really great job of making it feel special for the professional riders this year. This is the first time they’ve held this class in the grand prix ring, and this was the most money ever offered for this class.”

A second-round score of 88 put Robinson in second place going into the final work-off, where she traded horses onto Tic Tac Toe, ridden by Kendall Bourgeois. Each rider was able to jump two warm-up fences in the schooling ring before being asked to complete a shortened test. 

“The horse I switched onto is one of my favorites, and I’ve been watching him compete for several years in the hunter derbies,” Robinson said. “It was fun to get to ride him.” 

Watch Robinson’s winning work-off on Tic Tac Toe, owned by Amy Bean, courtesy of ShowGroundsLive.com:

The victory in the pro equitation class was just part of a winning Week 8 at Desert Circuit for Robinson. She also won the $10,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby with Hemingway, who is also owned by 3P Equine Partners, with scores of 91 and 90 respectively. 

“I’m so grateful to [my client] Emily Uffenheimer to get to work with all of her wonderful horses,” Robinson said. “We are so fortunate to have a great team, and I’m so appreciative of all of them.”