September 16, 2008 — The U.S. reiners had plenty to celebrate at the first Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Reining Championship convincingly bringing home three medals. Jordan Larson 27 will return to his Whitesboro Texas home with two medals adding individual gold to his team silver. Riding Lena Gallo, Larson loped into the arena on September 14 and had a nearly perfect trip.
Larson’s ride was clearly the crowd favorite nearly bringing the house down. His large circles were fast and accurate and his small slow circles were fluid and relaxed. His lead changes were dead on and each one of his slides were straight, deep and long.
Larson is also the current Adequan/U.S. Equestrian Federation National Open Reining Reserve Champion presented by Equine Motorcoach riding the 8-year-old Quarter Horse stallion owned by Lapke Quarter Horses. This was their first time riding in international competition.
“It was an honor to represent the USA at the FEI World Reining Championship,” said Larson. “Since this was my first time on a team it was unexpected to win but a huge thrill.”
Italian Dario Carmignani and ARC Magic Enterprise took individual silver with a score of 227 one point behind Larson.
Craig Schmersal from Overlook, Okla., rounded out the U.S. medal count with Mr Dual Rey when he tied for bronze with Italy’s Gennaro Lendi on a score of 225. Americans Pete Kyle and Tom McCutcheon finished sixth and eighth respectively.
In the team competition Italy won the gold medal with 667.5 points. The U.S. took silver with 663.5 points closely followed by Germany which finished only a point behind the United States. Sixteen countries were represented in the championship.
