October 16, 2011 -- "On any given day, there are so many amazing horses and riders at the top and everybody's got a story. It's good old friend luck that kind of shakes everything up."
That was Becky Holder's accurate assessment following this afternoon's Dansko Fair Hill International 3-star show jumping, where the top three each did indeed have quite a story, and some had more luck than others.
- Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo won the 3-star at the Dansko Fair Hill International
- © 2011 by Nancy Jaffer
The winner, Boyd Martin, actually has many stories, but for the moment I'll just talk about his clear round, peppered with rails that bounced but didn't come down. The leader in dressage with Ying Yang Yo, who was second after cross-country by 0.2 penalties, returned to the head of the line with equal measures of good riding and good fortune.
Boyd, you'll remember, sadly lost six horses in a barn fire last spring at Phillip Dutton's farm in Pennsylvania and the event world rallied round him to help out.
Everything works two ways. If there had not been a fire, he likely wouldn't have been riding his old pal Ying Yang Yo this fall, and thinking of perhaps pointing him toward the 2012 Olympics.
Jan Byyny, the leader following the cross-country who was making a return here to the 3-star level after an awful accident at a Georgia event in the winter of 2010, said yesterday she wanted to savor the moment and not think about today's challenges.
- Jan Byyny, returning to the top of the sport after a 2010 accident, led the 3-star after cross-country with Inmidair.
- © 2011 by Nancy Jaffer
She moved up the line from fifth place in dressage with Inmidair, artfully tackling Fair Hill's terrain and tough course. Her incredible achievement was universally saluted; she suffered a stroke after her carotid artery was dissected, and she had to learn to talk all over again.
Everyone, from the other riders to the crowd at the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area, was rooting for Jan to win the coveted Fair Hill bronze trophy on a sunny day that showed off the autumn colors surrounding the huge ring.
But her slim lead disappeared when Inmidair dove through the second fence. Jan thought she perhaps did not use enough leg. Whatever the cause, it's a testimony to Jan's ability that she stayed on.
"I'm really lucky I didn't fall off," she said. "It could have been worse. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."
The near-disaster obviously did not make things easy for the rest of her ride, and a rail also came down at the fourth fence from the end of Sally Ike's influential route. Disappointingly, Jan dropped from first to third, but made an extra, victory gallop-style circuit of the ring after her round at the invitation of announcer Brian O'Connor. It was a celebration about the miraculous achievement of coming back to the 3-star level.
- Becky Holder was the runner-up in the 3-star with the impressive Can’t Fire Me
- © 2011 by Nancy Jaffer
Becky has been missing the ride on her longtime partner, Courageous Comet, following an injury that resulted in a long rehabilitation. But Can't Fire Me, another gray who looks a lot like Comet, has come in to fill the gap -- although he started out as "a bit of a rogue and an unknown factor."
Said Becky, "He really justified my faith and belief in him." Third after cross-country, dropping one place from his dressage ranking, he had a single rail down today to finish second on 56.2 penalties, 4.2 behind Boyd and 3 ahead of Jan. (Although Jan's score of 59.2 was the same as Will Coleman's on Twizzel, she finished ahead of him because cross-country time breaks the tie and she was faster.)
