CALEDON, Canada--The U.S. team of Sloan Coles, Elena Haas, Alexandria Worthington and Marilyn Little won the 3* Nations Cup of Caledon over experienced Canadian and Irish teams on Thursday, July 15.

Chef d'equipe Anne Kursinski, a former OlympianAfter round one, Ireland led with zero faults, the U.S.was second with one fault and Canada was third with four faults.

"I thought we'd be second to Ireland, but Ireland fell apart in round two," said chef d'equipe Anne Kursinski.

The U.S. won with one fault, Canada was second with eight faults and Ireland was third on 33 faults.

In round one, Coles on Ninja JW van de Moeerhoeve, first to go fort he U.S. was clean, Elena Haas on Claude had one time fault,  Alexandra Worthington on De L'Oiseliere had eight faults and anchor rider Marilyn Little on La Contessa was clean.

It had been very windy all day, but just before round two expectantly  it began raining.

"We didn't even have any rain gear with us." said Kursinski.

In round two, when, for Ireland, Conor Swail had four faults, Christian Coyle had 12 faults and Simon McCarthy had 17 faults, that team had no possibility of winning, so Jordan Coyle didn't go.

Coles and Haas both went clean again and Worthington had four faults.

Canada's Vanessa Mannix had four faults, and Carly Campbell-Cooper and Nicole Walker were both clean, but when Amy Millar had five faults, the U.S. was already the winner without Little having to go.

But Little chose to go and was clean to have the U.S. finish on just 1 fault.

 

COLES and Little were two of the three double clean in the Nations Cup.

"Marilyn went even when she didn't have to mostly to teach her nice young horse that you have to go two rounds in a Nations Cup and also too get ranking points," said Kursinski.

"I was so proud of the whole team," said Kursinski. "They really fought for it in round two. Sloane was really cool. going first for the team. It was Ali Worthington's first time on a Nations Cup team, and she made a great recovery in round two. The Irish and Canadian teams all had experience riders with a couple of Olympic veterans."

Kursinksi will be leading a different 3* team next week at a new Nations Cup venue, Traverse City.

"We wanted to get more 3* Nations Cups in North America, like they have in Europe." she said. "We want to give our young riders more experience of riding on a team."