TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.--An inexperienced U.S. team took on strong, experienced teams with Olympic veterans and finished a great second in the $75,000, CSIO3* Nations Cup in Traverse City on Thursday, July 23,
Lacey Gilbertson on Belle Amie vd Dassenheide ZThe team of Hunter Holloway on Henry Jota Ariel, Lacey Gilbertson on Belle Amie VD Dassenheide Z, Savannah Jenkins on Hector du Ter and Callie Schott on Diamond Touch finished with16 faults to place second behind Israel with four faults, while Ireland finished third on 24 faults.
Canada was fourth with 28 faults, Mexico was fifth with 27 faults and Brazil was sixth with 44 faults.
The U.S. finished round one with 16 faults. four each for Gilbertson and Schott and eight each for Holloway and Jenkins, and then Holloway, Gilbertson and Jenkins all went clean in round two, meaning Schott didn't even have to go.
Only five clear rounds were produced in round one across the competing teams, a testament to the challenging and technical design of the course set by Peter Grand of Canada, and only three, Ilan Ferder and Daniel Bluman for Israel and Shane Sweetnam for Ireland, were double clean..
“I AM SO proud of our team and their phenomenal horses today,” said Chef d’Equipe Anne Kursinski. “In the first round they each had a slight error, which we discussed in between rounds, and before round two, I told all of them to go fight for it. It was so exciting to watch them make an impressive comeback, really demonstrating a “fight for it” mentality and jumping three clear rounds to finish second.”
"I was really excited for them," said Kursinski. "None of them had been on one of my teams before. I had never worked with any of them before."
"Savannah was the least experienced, and she was just amazing," said Kursinski. "She was just over the moon, having never been on a team before.She said just the experience of being on a team was great."
"The all corrected the mistakes they'd made in the first round and really nailed it in round two," she said. "They all pulled topgether, It was a real team effort. It was a fabulous experience for all of them."
Robert Ridland (chef d'equipe for 5* and international championships) flew in to be here for the team dinner the night before and to watch the Nations Cup," said Kursinski. "That meant so much to all of them."
Competition in Traverse City will conclude with the $116,500 Grand Prix CSIO3* set to begin at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 25.
