Postcard: 2006 USEF Talent Search Finals East
Gladstone, N.J., October 8, 2006 -- You know what? The U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East gets more difficult every year, but the 2006 edition promised to be a real lollapalooza because show jumping coach George Morris was one of the judges. And those of us expecting a challenge weren't disappointed.
Before the competition, I was chatting with some trainers and said, "Remember the time George designed the Maclay course at the National and it seemed like it was all liverpools?"
"Yes," one of them told me, "and the next year, they outlawed liverpools in the Maclay."
This is by way of introduction to the fact that George doesn't ever present a simple test. This time, he joined forces with U.S. team regular Alison Firestone, the other judge, to come up with the routes that a record 71 competitors would jump. Or attempt.
I am not going to try spinning this tale in a suspenseful way. Unless you're reading with your eyes closed, you've already seen the photo of Charlie Jayne with the victor's cooler on his horse. He is one of several Jaynes (older sister Maggie and younger sister Haylie) who have attempted capturing this trophy, but the 20-year-old Illinois resident is the first in his family to triumph in what some consider the most difficult of the fall equitation championships. (Though this one is about more than equitation)
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So I'll explain how Charlie got to the top of the heap. And it's not a short story, because the Talent Search is far from short. It began Saturday with a flat phase, which was separate from the gymnastics portion this year. The flat was won by Whitney Goulart on a score of 91, with last year's runner-up, EquiSearch blogger Maria Schaub, earning a 90. Everyone else was in the 80s, 70s or even (gulp) the 60s. But Charlie was close to the top, with 89.
He didn't fare as well in the gymnastics, however, on the hulking gray stallion Cassino Z, who belongs to his girlfriend, Lauren Sturges (she also competed and ended the Search in 15th place). Combined with his flat score, his gymnastics mark of 126 (multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5) gave him a total of 215 after phase II, putting him third.
But many riders came to grief on the clever gymnastics route, especially at the angled liverpool that was the sixth fence, going toward a five-stride bending line that ended at a red and white oxer angled the other way.
Too many riders cut the corner from a white oxer on the other side of the ring at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation's headquarters, so they hit the liverpool wrong and their horses either ran out, refused or freaked.
Actually, it seemed some of the riders freaked going to the first fence, a cross-rail of natural poles that they were supposed to trot. A few cantered, some came with insufficient impulsion and there was even a refusal at this most simple of obstacles, no doubt because they feared what lay beyond it.
There also was trouble at the line diagonally across the middle of the ring starting with a white triple bar, three strides from a one-stride double of green and white rails over little walls. Refusals and knockdowns were rife there; Alison explained that it was important to add strides on the gymnastics to make them work out right, but so many equitation riders are more used to leaving out strides.
Other tests included a triple bounce and a gallop from fence eight to a double figure-eight that tested tight turns, with riders taking an airy white skinny, then going on to an equally airy oxer of white rails, returning to the skinny and back to the oxer before they could finally exit the arena a breathe a sigh of relief. Or perhaps shed some tears.
It too often wasn't a pretty picture, so I asked George what he thought about how so many failed the test.
"The culture is on the soft side," George said, noting how important it is to ride all types of horses, the way Alison did when she came up through the ranks.
"A lot of people today don't get exposed to that kind of thing. They get exposed to a situation like this and it's a big shock," George added.
On the other hand, many of the competitors have a lot of catch-riding experience, including Charlie, of course; Maria (who finished eighth on a borrowed horse she had only shown once); Whitney, who ended up sixth on a horse she first competed with last week at the Capital Challenge, and for that matter, Michael Del Fiandra, Charlie's roommate at Florida Atlantic University, who also had a ride loaned to him for this occasion.
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