Coleman and K. du Manoir Jump to the Head of the Pack on Adequan United States Eventing Association Gold Cup Series Intermediate Leaderboard
RELEASE: July 25, 2007
AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: By Amy Daum
The talented and young Will Coleman added yet another win to his belt this season, leading the CIC** at the Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials in Victor, NY, from start to finish. Coleman and Tivoli Farm’s Selle Francais gelding K. du Manoir began their weekend with a lovely dressage test, which earned them a noteworthy score of 42.8. The pair gained two time faults on cross-country, which bumped their score up to 44.9, but completed Sunday’s show jumping with a double-clear round.
"It was a nice show jumping course," said Coleman, who lives just outside of Charlottesville, VA. "The terrain made it a little bit more difficult. Richard Jeffrey does a nice job. We're lucky to have him designing—he has high standards and we need that."
Coleman and the French-born chestnut gelding not only topped the two-star field at Stuart, but took over the top spot on the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series Intermediate leaderboard. The pair earned 130 Gold Cup points at The Fork Horse Trials in April, and with this weekend’s win, doubled their score on the Gold Cup leaderboard, leaving them with 260 total points so far this season. This puts the pair ahead of Stuart Black and Fleeceworks Mystere du Val who have 180 points to their names for second, and Debbie Rosen and The Alchemyst who earned 170 points so far this season to stand in third.
Thanks to the generosity of the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series sponsors, Coleman went home with $500 cash, a seven-dose pack of Adequan, a Cirrus jacket from Mountain Horse, a fly sheet from Back on Track, Nunn Finer American Style brushing boots, a saddle pad from Ogilvy Horse, a grooming tote with a three-month supply of Wellpride Omega-3 fish oil, Nutrena Feed, and a gift certificate for $175 worth of products from World Equestrian Brands.
Coleman’s next event with K. du Manoir is in the advanced division at the Adequan USEA Gold Cup event at Millbrook in New York, August 9-12; then he hopes to compete at Fair Hill this fall. Keep an eye out for this up-and-coming rider who plans to base his training business out of Bouckaert Farms in Georgia.
Also competing in the intermediate division, Holly Payne and Jill Gordon’s little Thoroughbred mare Madeline were in second heading into show jumping, but knocked a single rail that dropped them to fourth place. This made room for Corinne Ashton and Dobbin to climb into the second-place slot after adding no faults to their dressage score of 54.4. Jan Byyny and her newly acquired New Zealand Thoroughbred Syd Kent ended up in fourth, while Laura VanderVliet finished fifth on her 15-year-old Australian Thoroughbred Warrie Hill.
Ashton, who won the advanced division this spring at the Southern Pines Adequan USEA Gold Cup, said that she had planned to take Dobbin to the Rolex Kentucky CCI****, but that he came off the trailer lame after the Virginia Horse Trials.
"I spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out what was wrong with him," she lamented. "The good news is, he's fine—he probably had a pulled groin muscle. The bad news is, we missed Rolex."
Ashton said that Dobbin usually has a better dressage test than he did at Stuart, but she was first to ride at 7 a.m. on Friday and it was in the middle of a rainstorm. She thinks that the conditions psyched her out and that her tension caused Dobbin to be nervous and wired. Lucky for her he jumped around well and they were able to move up from seventh to second place.
Cosequin Stuart doesn't hold an advanced level division, so the Gold Cup Series Advanced leaderboard remains steady after last weekend's Maui Jim Horse Trials, with Will Faudree and his long-time partner Antigua tied for first with Becky Holder and her husband Tom’s Courageous Comet. Holder and the elegant grey gelding made the leap up the scoreboard after her win at Maui Jim. Kristin Bachman and her Thoroughbred gelding Gryffindor are currently in third place with