January 23, 2012 — It was an epic night for Team Guardian who dominated PRO DerbyCross at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center.
A team event with teams of five made up of three eventing riders, a show jumper and a polo player, jumped a hybrid cross country and show jumping course and the fastest combined score won.
Captain Karen O’Connor’s squad was so impressive that she didn’t have to jump for a score (one eventing score gets dropped) but she led her team to a dominating effort on Team Rebecca’s Veronica – impressing the crowds as the final competitor.
Clark Montgomery and Carl Bouckaert’s Reignman led the way for this team and led for much of the class until his teammate Marilyn Little-Meredith out ran him with Raylyn Farm’s Ammy V. John Gobin then put in a confident effort for the polo side on Graceland (another Raylyn Farm entry) and Little-Meredith’s husband Ben Meredith scored the Salinas Save Award after a disagreement with Stephanie Barns’ Violet as to where to leave the ground in four stride line. He salvaged the effort and galloped home strongly. Listen to the Team Guardian riders talk about their night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWkcr3HsI5Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player
But the individual honors went to three members of the 2011 winning team – Team FarmVet/Cavalor dominated taking top honors in all three categories.
Captain Buck Davidson stormed home on Sharon Will’s Team Gold and Individual Bronze medal-winning Pan American Games mare, Absolute Liberty. They were fastest by six seconds over Sharon White (Team Windsor) on Merloch. Aaron Vale topped the show jumping category on Thinks Like A Horse’s Miphone with an insanely brave round. And Kris Kampsen stormed around in 38 seconds to lead the polo players effort. He rode a serious catch ride of Andrew Kocher’sTennessee Jed – who was a last minute substitution. Listen to these three talk about their rides: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09A2q6fjtnQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The FarmVet / Team chased the Guardian team all the way home, but they came up 16 seconds short. Team Devoucoux was third.
Complete results are posted here: http://www.usefnetwork.com/featured/WEF2012/. Click on the Orders of Go and Results Link at the top of the page.
Thanks to all of the PRO DerbyCross sponsors: Guardian Horse Bedding, FarmVet/Cavalor, Devoucoux, Omega Alpha, SmartPak and Windsor who sponsored teams; Fence Sponsors: Flair Strips and Charles Owen; Prize Sponsors: Nespresso USA, SmartPak, Bob Reyers and Saratoga Saddlery.
