Lexington, KY – On Saturday afternoon at the L.A. International Jumping Festival (Sep 21-25), a crowd gathered on LAEC’s grass Cricket Field to watch the Show Jumping phase of the demanding and prestigious Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals West. When all was said and done, Demi Stiegler (Robin Stiegler and Archie Cox, trainers) led the victory gallop as champion of the 41-entry field.

“It was amazing!” Stiegler said of her win. “I was sixth coming into Phase III, and I knew from the Flat and Gymnastics Phases I just had to stay consistent. I tried to just concentrate on what would work best for my horse and myself and not worry about the pressure, and it paid off.” This was Stiegler’s second Talent Search Final, having competed in it in 2009.

The course for Phase III was fairly straightforward, with long distances between jumps to give riders a chance to think through each element – although they had to be careful not to let their horses get too fast or strung out with all that space. The two trickiest spots were the eighth jump, a skinny vertical after a sharp bending line, and the last line that started with a water jump followed by a bending line to a short one-stride combination. Stiegler sailed gracefully through the course, earning a score of 89. Scores in the multiplier for this phase was “2”, and added to the two earlier phases, and Stiegler’s overall score of 389.5 moved her from sixth into third place going into the final phase.

Sage Flynn (Hap Hansen, trainer) executed the Phase III course beautifully and earned the top score for the round of 92, which kept her in second place with 401 overall. Zoie Nagelhout (Archie Cox, trainer) went into Phase III in the lead, and her smooth and capable trip earned her a score of 88.5 and just kept her in the lead with 402. Taylor Harris (Elvenstar, trainer) joined them in the work off with a combined score of 380.5.

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