Bobby Costello of Southern Pines rode Leila Clay’s Dalliance on the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Pan Am squad which won the gold, and the pair placed seventh individually in the Pan Am division of the international three-star event.
“He’s just an incredible cross country horse,” Costello said. “I was thrilled with him, it was a tough course.”
Costello’s dressage was ranked in the middle of the 25-horse field, but the pair clocked a brilliant round on the speed and endurance phase. One rail down on stadium day left them with in seventh place to help the U.S. team claim gold.
“The rail was my fault,” Costello said. “The time was tight, and I was trying to beat the clock coming down the last line, I should have taken a breather.”
Costello hopes to make the U.S. team for the Athens Olympics with the 12-year-old imported English Thoroughbred.
“Dressage is not easy for him,” Costello explained. “We need to improve it by 10 points. We have to get used to going in the ring and taking some risks, we’ll be working on that over the winter.”
Meika Decher and her Blueprint turned in their best career finish (15th of 70 starters) in the pair’s third start at the three-star level.
“I’ve never been so thrilled coming off a course, because it was such a challenge. I never thought he had enough scope,” Decher said of her 15.3 hand 13 year old Thoroughbred. “But he just keeps getting better. Quirkier, but better. This was the biggest course we’ve seen, and he was spooking at the crowds. … We were 25 seconds fast on steeplechase, and we just coasted the last part. He’s never offered me that before.”
Decher shipped to Maryland a week early to train with dressage guru Linda Zang, and commented that it was a great prep.
Local winter resident Shannon Ewing and her Adrenaline Rush joined a very small, elite group of riders who added no penalties to their dressage score. Ewing finished 11th.
In the advanced driving event, local star Bill Long drove Patsy Wooten’s team of European Warmbloods to a strong early lead and never looked back. Long won every phase, widening his lead from 15 points in dressage to a 35-point margin at the finish over Jim Richards and Gary Stover.
Boots Wright and her team of Ashland ponies won their division unopposed, but with solid scores.
Eleanor Gallagher finished fourth in the advanced pairs with her Gelderlanders, and Marcie Quist was seventh out of 14 starters in the single horse class with her Thoroughbred stallion.
Not one driver posted a clear cones trip, and the marathon was long and hilly with challenging obstacles. Long showed his depth of experience by posting the day’s best cones score (7.0) of all 25 turnouts.
