It Was Worth Waiting For

Kylie Lyman is on fire at her first ever CCI3*, not once, but twice. With a big gallopy di Grazia track, cool temperatures and misting rain she ate up the course on Joanie and Geoff Nichols’ horse Lup the Loop and Cristin O’Hara’s Sacramento to claim first and third spots respectively after the cross-country yesterday at the Jaguar Land Rover Bromont Horse Trials in Bromont, Quebec.

All smiles and seemingly chill, Kylie Lyman and Sacramento in the warm-up ring prior to XC

Kylie reflects on her rounds:

“They both have completely different attitudes, but both are big, galloping horses and I can get in trouble with their strides getting too open and too long. I have to make sure I get them back in the combinations and not get overzealous. ‘Loopy’ is lazy and hard to get motivated whereas ‘Jackson’ shows up to work every single day and he’s an overachiever. They tend to both go about their business as soon as they leave the start box. They’re pretty dependable that way and I couldn’t ask for two better horses to do my first CCI3* on. It’s taken a while to get here but I’m happy with what I had today. It was worth waiting for.”

Watching from the sidelines was Kylie’s adorable, too-cute-for-words daughter Emily. Look at that hair.

We also caught up with Lauren Kieffer yesterday who had just come off the cross-country with Vermiculus, a horse that holds a very special place in her heart. He is the full brother to her very first event horse Snooze Alarm, who took her all the way to Rolex. Like Snooze Alarm, Vermiculus stands only 15.2H and is super athletic as evidenced by his clear round in the CCI3*. When asked about her plans for the next three months, she said she did not want to talk about it. We predict Lauren will be named to the US Olympic Team for Rio 2016.

Once again the red hot course designer Derek di Grazia created masterful courses that asked lots of questions. What’s special about Derek’s designs are that these courses educate and develop the confidence of the horse and rider; many of the same questions asked at the highest level are presented in an appropriate way at the lower levels. Boyd Martin said the footing was ‘super’ and the best he had ever ridden at Bromont.