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- Bonnie Mosser, right, toasts Jan Byyny's (left) success at Jersey Fresh.
- © 2006 by Nancy Jaffer
Allentown, N.J., June 5, 2006 -- "Champagne?" the press officer at the Jersey Fresh Three-Day Event offered, her bottle of Korbel poised to pour.
"Absolutely!" grinned Jan Byyny, who really had something to celebrate. In fact, she enjoyed two glasses of bubbly: the first to toast her victory in the 3-star-rated event with Task Force; another for her second-place finish on Waterfront.
That one-two punch showed Jan at her best, with solid dressage, impressive cross-country trips and only one rail down between the two horses in show jumping.
You may know this rider better as Jan Thompson, formerly married to fellow eventer Craig Thompson. The 2003 individual Pan American Championships bronze medalist and team gold medalist, Jan trains with Australian Olympic team gold medalist Phillip Dutton, who certainly has taught her well.
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- Jersey Fresh 3-star winner Jan Byyny and Task Force
- © 2006 by Nancy Jaffer
Waterfront had the fastest 3-star time of the day on cross-country, coming in with 12.8 time penalties over soggy footing at the Horse Park of New Jersey, where making the 10-minute, 6-second optimum time was an impossibility.
Rain the night before left the ground drenched, but as Olympic individual gold medalist Leslie Law put it, a noontime downpour was "the icing on the cake" that compounded the difficulty of getting around the hilly track.
"The jump crew dealt with it very well," said course designer John Williams, whose clever route drew bravos. He knew that under the best conditions, the time would be difficult to make, so the rain complicated that scenario.
Seven horses retired on cross-country and three were eliminated. At the end of the event, there were 25 finishers from a field of 41.
You got a real sense of what was happening on course at the lake complex, where several horses refused at a duck blind going up the hill toward the water. From there, they galloped into the drink, leaped a table and headed up another hill. Coming back near the end of the course, they jumped a narrow lighthouse obstacle at the top of a hill, then descended into the water ("The Plunge") over a solid timber jump. From there, they had to handle the narrow "Corner Dock" and then hopped out of the water to clear a wooden "Wiley Coyote" before heading toward the end of the course, where obstacles included a bank (the Hobbit Habitat); the New Jersey Turnpike (not the real one) and a produce stand.
Jan was in contention from the start, finishing third in dressage with Task Force, while Waterfront was 14th. Dressage was a bit of a replay of Rolex Kentucky, with Darren Chiacchia coming in first on Windfall II, as he did at the 4-star, and Mara Dean second on Nicki Henley (she had been third in dressage at Rolex.)
Darren and Mara were trying to make up for not finishing Rolex, as the World Equestrian Games (WEG) selectors narrowed the field for the U.S. team, while Jan also had something to prove. Task Force's wrenched shoulder pre-Rolex meant he couldn't compete in the prime WEG selection trial.
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- Windfall II runs out with Darren Chiacchia.
- © Photo by Nancy Jaffer
Mara wound up with a refusal here to come in 13th overall. Darren had bigger trouble. He had withdrawn Windfall after three refusals at Rolex. At Jersey Fresh, he was close to making it to the end of the course without mishap. But on his return trip through the water, Windfall ran past the Corner Dock. Darren re-presented, and the same thing happened again. Obviously shaken, Darren was able to get the stallion to jump an alternate fence, but he fell off at the next. Though he remounted to finish the course, the game was lost and his quest for a WEG slot ended at the Horse Park's lake.
"I wasn't on the best line into the corner, and (if) my good old reliable partner would have done his part...whether he just felt a little overchallenged, I don't know. It was a big surprise," said Darren recounting the mishap.
While some have suggested the 14-year-old Trakehner should stop eventing and specialize in dressage, Darren isn't seeing it that way.
"At some point, that will be his thing. But he's never moved better or gone better. I think we just need to reassess our plan. It's far from over," he said. "We can do something fun this year and get qualified for the Pan American Games next year. Maybe he can step up and do a double gold at the Pan Ams."
