Fellers, Engle, Kessler Triple Play

By Joanie Morris March 22, 2012

Day two of the USEF selection trials for the U.S. Show Jumping Team for the 2012 Olympic Games concluded with a three-way tie at the top of the standings: Margie Engle, Rich Fellers and Reed Kessler share the No. 1 spot, each carrying eight points heading into Saturday’s fourth and final round.

Insofar as today’s two-round performance, it was Mario Deslauriers and Brianne Goutal who turned in the best performance, finishing round 3 with one time fault each in a contest that saw no clears (which puts Deslauriers just behind the leaders with nine points. (Goutal’s running total of 25 faults place her 15th. Saer Coulter and Springtime ended the day as the top-placed California duo at seventh.

Starting at 1 p.m. ET and coming back for another round at 8 p.m. ET, competitors had a long day at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Florida. The trials are taking place as part of the USEF National Show Jumping Championships, with $200,000 in prize money at stake for those topping the leaderboard after Saturday’s fourth and final round.

Only the 30 horses returning for the penultimate round today – Trial 3 – had London 2012 on the line.
Clear rounds were hard to come by in both rounds. In Trial 3 fellow New Yorkers Deslauriers (on Jane Clark’s Urico) and Goutal (Remarkable Farms’ Nice de Prissey) managed to leave all the rails up and finished on just the single time fault.

The performance put Deslauriers into the fourth-place spot in the trial rankings (on nine faults) with a three-way tie for the lead on eight.

Alan Wade’s course was a serious one this evening, and it was compared to some of the biggest championship tracks in the world. Swift times of 80 seconds for the Trial 2 and 78 seconds for Trial 3 kept things moving at a lively clip.

Deslauriers, a Wellington regular, described it as “one of the biggest tracks we’ve jumped in Palm Beach,” adding, “I thought it was very hard…You had to dig deep tonight to get around. It was a very hard test… I’m proud of (Urico) tonight.”

Reed Kessler (Armonk, NY) continues to maintain her first-place standing, only now she has company. Two rails down on Cylana in Trial 3 left her tied with Rich Fellers (Wilsonville, OR) on Flexible and Margie Engle (Wellington, FL) on Indigo. Kessler led the way after the afternoon’s second round – an impressive feat for a rider who at 17 is the youngest in the field. She jumped two immaculate clears on both her mounts, with Cylana on a score of zero after two rounds.

Kessler, who in July turns 18―the minimum required age to compete as an equestrian at the Olympics― handled the pressure of her first Olympic Trials admirably.

“Both horses were great,” Kessler said of Cylana and stablemate Mika, who sits sixth in the Olympic Trials standings with 13 faults. “I think I got a little bit excited. Cylana was a little fresh,” Kessler noted, attributing the two Trial 3 rails to high spirits. “She is so fit but she’s still green. She’s only done one other night class.”

Indigo’s owners (Greise, Garber; Hidden Creek; Gladewinds and rider Engle) have been battling an abscess in the horse’s right front foot. But Engle feels that the 12-year-old Dutch gelding felt fine, if a bit muscle weary from missing some work.

“He’s never tired in his mind,” Engle said. “His foot feels good, he’s just not that jumping fit. He has a lot of heart and he tried hard for feeling a little empty.”

Engle, who most recently represented the U.S. on a championship team at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games, recognizes that between March and July, when the Olympic Games take place in London – so much can change. Immediately following the Wellington trials, the horse and rider teams will be ranked, and for further consideration all long-listed horses will be required to participate in two out of four USEF Observation Events. The choices are Kentucky, Devon, Del Mar and Spruce Meadows.

“There’s a long ways to go,” said Engle.

Engle also won the most recent USEF National Show Jumping Championship which was held in 2008.

Fellers backed up a clear round in Trial 2 with a four-fault effort in Trial 3 with Mollie and Harry Chapman’s Irish Sport Horse stallion Flexible. He continues to be very much in the mix as the riders head into Trial 4, making the long trip from the West Coast worth the miles.

“This is a lot of jumping. I agree, it could have easily been the final round (in a championship),“ said Fellers. “(Flexible) feels good… he felt good tonight.“

Fellers said Flexible had a fairly light preparatory campaign out West – but the seasoned veteran, who was second at the 2008 Rolex/FEI World Cup Final, seems to be agreeing with the strategy so far.

Friday is a day off for the National Championship and the Selection Trials, but the competition continues on Saturday March 24 at 8 PM ET/ 5 PM PT at the FTI Consulting Winter Equestrian Festival.

For today’s results, click the following links:

USEF Olympic Selection Trials – Round 2

USEF Olympic Selection Trials – Round 3

USEF Olympic Selection Trials – Cumulative Standings

For those that missed the live stream of the previous rounds, they are available on-demand at the USEFNetwork.com, presented by SmartPak (though after the initial stream, replays may take a few hours to post). The fourth and final trial will also be available live. Visit www.usefnetwork.com for live streaming, video, photos and more.

Follow the 2012 U.S. Jumping Team at www.usefnetwork.com/featured/2012jumping

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