OCALA, Fla.--Canadian Olympian Erynn Ballard on Game Ball BG won the $32,000 1.45m Speed CSI5*-W on Feb. 11 at the World Equestrian Center.
Erynn Ballard on Game Ball BG (Photo by Andrew Ryback)The five-star competition's highlight on Saturday evening, Feb. 14 is the $300,000 1.60m World Cup Ocala, the final qualifier for the World Cup in Fort Worth, Texas, April 8-12,
Ballard went 32nd of the 38 entries over a course designed by Bernardo Costa Cobral of Portugal, and finished clean in 62.69 seconds for the win.
Hunter Holloway on Pepita Con Spita finished second in 63.63 seconds, and last year’s winners, Nina Mallevaey of France on My Clementine, placed third in 65.58 seconds.
Ballard has ridden Game Ball since July of 2025 and has now recorded their sixth FEI victory.
“She's an incredible partner,” said Ballard. “It's pretty special to have an ownership group stand behind me like that and give me an opportunity to have a horse like Game Ball.”
Ballard has been riding for Ilan Ferder Stables for nine years.
WITH MOST horses coming through their program for sale, turnover is high, and Ballard doesn’t always get the chance to have a long-term partnership.
“It's proving to be a strong year so far,” said Ballard. “My core group of horses have stuck around, and you can see in the results that the consistency is really paying off.”
“It's an exceptional partnership that I have with Ilan,” she said. “Last year, I rode 66 different horses at least one time in the ring. That's insane. Some people don't ride 66 horses in a lifetime. This year, I'm already close to 30 horses, so that just shows you the number of horses that we have and the opportunity that I have had."
“For a while, I thought I was only good for 1.40m because I could win all the 1.40m classes, but I think I'm getting faster,” she said. “Now, I’m more competitive at the highest level. It's a strange sport. You do get better with age; you get stronger, more secure, more confident. Our horses in nine years have gotten better too. If you look at what we were jumping in these classes nine years ago to what we're jumping now, it's a completely different league of horses, and that also makes jumping bigger a little bit easier.”
Ballard and Ferder made the decision to go for speed in Wednesday’s class in order to give Game Ball confidence heading into Thursday’s grand prix qualifier, which will be their first 1.55m class together.
