WELLINGTON, Fla.--The U.S. Jumping Team finished fifth in the first team event of the season in the $150,000 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Wellington CSIO4* 0n March 4.
The Nations Cup was won by Canada with Brazil second and Ireland fourth.
The team of Natalie Dean on Acota M, Mimi Gochman on Celina BH, Mavis Spencer on Carissimo 25, and Adrienne Sternlicht on Faquitol-S, completed the competition on a final team total of 32 faults after two rounds of competition, which featured 11 different nations competing in the first round in the afternoon and the top eight teams in second round under the lights at Wellington International.
The team was led by Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland.
“Our plan has been set for months that we were going to use this home Nations Cup, this four-star Nations Cup, for basically our next generation of riders,” Ridland said. “We’ve got a major priority this year in qualifying for [the Paris 2024 Olympics], so the five-stars will have more of the veteran riders. Here it was intentional to have the riders of the future and to give them the experience in the electric environment that exists [at Wellington International]. There’s no question we had the youngest team out there. Those riders all learned something under immense pressure, and I’m very proud of them.”
DEAN of Palo Alto, Fla., led the team in the order and jumped clean in the first round.
“I knew she could take the pressure,” Ridland said of Dean. “I thought that would be the best horse-rider combination for the time allowed, and it worked out exactly for that reason.”
Gochman of New York, N.Y., had just four faults at the water, with Spencer and Sternlicht to follow.
Spencer of Somis, Calif. finished the round on 16 faults, and Sternlicht of Greenwich,Conn., In her 10th appearance for the team but on a young horse, completed her first round on 17 faults.
“Adrienne was our only rider with championship experience, but she was on a young horse, and it was a great testing ground for her,” Ridland said of Sternlicht and Faquitol-S, a new pairing just in their fourth month together. “The first round didn’t work out the way she wanted, and she made a couple adjustments and the horse jumped great in the second round.”
The pair of strong rounds from Dean and Gochman—the youngest athletes in the competition—helped the U.S. hold onto the eighth spot on 20 faults in the first round, qualifying the U.S. for the second round with seven other nations.
The U.S. performed strongly in round two, finishing on just 12 team faults, with Dean and Acota M, Gochman and Celina BH, and Sternlicht and Faquitol-S finishing with four faults apiece.
“Nations Cups are all about the second round,” Ridland said. “The second round never rides quite the same as the first round. It’s a totally different type of pressure that’s required for the riders. They really dug down deep in that second round, and to be honest, the three four-fault rounds were very close to being clean. We were just a whisker away from three clean rounds.”
The Canadian Show Jumping Team gave a dominating performance in the Nations Cup.
Team members Erynn Ballard, Mario Deslauriers, Tiffany Foster and Beth Underhill were led by 10-time Canadian Olympian Ian Millar in his debut as chef d’équipe.
In the 22-year history of the Nations Cup at WEF, Canada has now won seven times, and the U.S. has won nine times.
Eleven teams, including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Great Britain, Ireland, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela competed in the opening round with the top eighti n round two during ‘Saturday Night Lights.’
At the start of the second round,Belgium led on our faults and Brazil, Canada and Ireland were tied on eight faults apiece over a course designed by Anthony D’Ambrosio.
Canada had three clears from Ballard, Deslauriers and Foster, giving Underhill the opportunity to sit out the round.
Deslauriers finished the night one of only two double clean on Emerson.
“My plan was to try and jump another clear and lock it up,” said Deslauriers. “He’s jumped some bigger tracks at Spruce [Meadows] on the field so he was very capable. I had high expectations so it’s a huge relief. I must thank my teammates and our chef d’équipe for a great night. Everybody rode well and it was a great win for us.”
Brazil’s Luiz Francisco de Azevedo, Fabio Leivas de Costa, Luciano Lossio and Eduardo Menezes placed second, while Ireland's team of David Blake, Cian O’Connor, Shane Sweetnam and Max Wachman was third.
Both teams finished on an eight faults with Brazil having the faster aggregate time.