Quotes reprinted from the Eventing Nation story by Sally Spickard and the Aiken Post and Courier
AIKEN, S.C.--Will Coleman of Gordonsville, Va., won Grand Prix Eventing on Chin Tonic HS and also placed second on Off the Record at Bruce's Field in Aiken on March 2.
Will Coleman on Chin Tonic HS (Photo by Beth Harpham)Chin Tonic led after his dressage score of 26.5 and a clean show jumping round in the rain on March 1, then was clean cross country, finishing 10 seconds over the optimum time to finish on 30.5, while Off the Record was fifth going into cross country but was only one second over the time to finish on 33.2.
Martin on Federman B placed third on 35.3, and on Commando 3, who had a frangible pin down, placed 17th, but Tsetserleg had a problem at the bank, fence 21, and Martin opted to retire on him.
Both Coleman and Martin used Aiken as part of their efforts to make the Eventing team for the Paris Olympics.
Capt. Mark Phillips made this year's course more difficult to complement the increased prize money of $100,000.
“I’m tickled to be back here. It’s such a wonderful place,” Coleman said. “There is so much equestrian history. I drove by the [Aiken] Training Track this morning. What a great place. Don’t ever change anything.”
“IT WAS A pretty good week at the office,” said Coleman. “A little different for us. We aren’t used to doing that type of course, but it’s great. It’s good for the sport, I think, for other events to see that as possible. And what they’ve been able to create here is pretty, pretty cool. So it’s an awesome legacy for Bruce Duchossois.”
Will Coleman on Off the Record (Photo by Beth Harpham)“I think for everyone it’s probably a little outside their comfort zone,” he said. “It’s 28 fences, packed into four minutes. You feel like you’re in a tumble dryer. You have to think fast, and the horses have to react."
“With Chin, it’s kind of like riding a snake,” Coleman said. “He’s so slithery and kind of elastic in his body. That’s a wonderful quality, but for cross-country, it can be a little bit awkward at times.”
“He did everything more or less how I would have wanted,” Coleman said. “I can’t fault him anywhere really. His instincts are improving and he’s continuing to get better. That’s all I can ask for.”
“Off the Record's just an amazing horse,” said Coleman. “He was really thinking with me the whole way. And I felt like he was on autopilot. Honestly, it was a really cool experience just how he was just almost reading the questions before I did. And you don’t often have those opportunities, but I think as horses get older, and they’ve been with you for a long time, you do start to feel like it’s kind of one mind out there. And it’s sort of what we had today. It was very, very cool.”
“It was for sure a much more challenging, demanding course this year and it took a fair bit of riding actually,” said Martin, who is based in Aiken during the winter.
“I was on three top horses and my green one sort of misread the corner, but then jumped the rest of the track well, and then Thomas had a bit of a mishap at the bank. I dusted myself off and Bruno had a fantastic round. He’s such an honest horse. He’s light in the mouth, and he’s quick and he’s agile. I sort of went about the speed that I felt comfortable at without sort of taking too many risks.”
Boyd Martin on Federman B (Photo by Beth Harham)Liz Halliday, who had won in Aiken for the past two years, placed fourth on Cooley Nutcracker, who finished the cross country with 7.2 time penalties for a final score of 38.8.
“I was absolutely thrilled, he’s still young and he’s never done anything like this before,”said Halliday. “It’s his first run of the year, and I sort of of said to his owners that I was just going to listen to him and give him a good run today rather than chase the time like a madwoman, and he was just absolutely brilliant. I think it was a great experience for him to have to do the twists and the turns with the crowds. I was really over the moon with how he jumped that drop. He’s a very careful, good jumper and in the past he would have really over-jumped everything, and so I was just thrilled.”
“I ranted and raved about hating the bank but then all my horses jumped it great!” said Halliday. “We all learned something this week. What we all learned is that the longer distance gave them enough room and they all jumped it really well.”
Elisabeth Halliday on Cooley Nutcracker (Photo by Beth Harpham)In the cross country, 19 of the 30 starters had clear rounds, but the 4:18 optimum time proved, as always, difficult, with only Canadian rider Waylon Roberts on OKE Ruby R making the time, finishing right on it.
Two riders, Phillip Dutton on Possante and Sara Kozumplik with Rubens d’Ysieux, fell off at the Broken Bridge bank.
A number of horses had a run-out at the corners at fence 8, which is also where Martin had the frangible pin down on Commando 3.
“It’s fantastic that Aiken’s got this sort of premiere event,” Martin said. “I think it’s sort of the first proper, big time competition for the season for all the event horses that have been building their fitness up in December, January and February and I think because it’s a short course it doesn’t put any too much too much strain on the horse’s legs.”
