FALSTERBO, Sweden--A young U.S. team, either of rider or horse, finished a great third against teams that included most of the top ranked riders in the world in the CSIO5* Nations Cup in Falsterbo on Friday, July 10. 

Charlotte Jacobs on Playboy Jt Z (Photo by Morgan Fromont)The team of Kent Farrington on the young, 9-year-old Descartes SR, Natalie Dean on Fornett d'Emeraude, Mimi Gochman on Iron Maiden and Charlotte Jacobs on Playboy Jt Z finished with eight faults to finish third behind Switzerland and Belgium who finished with zero faults and jumped off to determine first and second place.

Martin Fuchs of Switzerland on Lorde won the jump-off with three time faults after Pieter Devos 0f Belgium of Primo DV had a stop and time faults to finish with 13 faults.

It was a different and interesting Nations Cup.

In the first round, with so many of the top riders competing, there were 18 clean rounds, with Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland finishing on zero faults, the U.S., Ireland and France wit four faults, Great Britain with eight and Denmark with 10 to make round two.

Germany, with the very strong team of Andre Thieme, Sophie Hinners, Phillip Weishaupt and Richie Vogel, amazingly had 17 faults to suffer elimination along with Mexico with 20 faults,

 

WITH SO MANY clean in round one, course designer Frank Rothenberger raised and widened some fences, and round two was significantly different.

Two riders were eliminated at the triple combination, including Dean.

Denmark was eliminated to finish eighth, defending champion Sweden went from zero faults to 16 to drop to seventh, Great Britain added eight to finish sixth on 16 faults, France and Ireland added eight faults each to finish fourth and fifth with 12 faults, while the U,S, added only four faults to finish third.

Each of the U.S. riders delivered a clean round, with Farrington and Dean clean in round one and Gochman and Jacobs coming through under pressure to go clean in round two over the much harder course.

"This was one of our better Nations Cup teams," said chef d'equipe Robert Ridland. "It's not often you get all four riders go clean, two in the first round and two in the second. Both Mimi and Charlotte corrected the mistake they had made in round one."

“This is one of our youngest teams across the board we’ve fielded at this level. We had several of our younger riders and horses really step up to the plate today,” said Ridland. “The course was substantially harder the second round for a lot of combinations, which made it a very interesting competition. Our guys really took on the challenge and it’s impressive to have all four riders jump a clear at some point across the two rounds. It felt like a real team effort against some very strong teams. Falsterbo always has a significant Nations Cup, so a great place for us to enjoy a podium finish.”

"We're on a roll," said Ridland. "Two podium finishes in a row now after Rotterdam and Falsterbo."

There's only one more Nations Cup, Dublin, before the World Championships in Aachen in August.