Lamprechtshausen, Austria – In an incredible finish, the U.S. Young Rider Show Jumping Team scored their first Nations Cup victory of their summer tour, triumphing over the Swiss with a total of five faults.
The U.S. and Switzerland were tied after the first round, each country carrying only one time fault forward to the second round. Catherine Pasmore led things off for the U.S. – she had one rail in the first round on My Boy, but bounced back to jump clear in the second round. Ricky Neal picked up one time fault in round one, but had 15 faults in the second round – eventually the drop score from that round – on Transmission. Reed Kessler jumped two flawless rounds on Onisha. Jessica Springsteen rode Vornado van den Hoendrik to a four-fault effort in round two (after a first-round clear) to bring the total to five.
The Swiss weren’t going to let Chef d’Equipe Michele Grubb’s American squad get away easily with the win. They kept the pressure on until their very last rider went in the ring. Nicole Muller picked up nine faults on Chansing Wind to bring the Swiss total to 10 and give the U.S. team the win.
After two runner-up efforts at CSIOY Bonheiden and CSIOY Reims, the Young Riders got their win.
The European Young Rider Tour heads to CSIOY Hagen, in Germany, for the next week of competition June 15-18.
Full results are available here: http://eventcontent.hippoonline.de/582/582zeitplanDEU.htm.
Read Catherine Pasmore’s blog here: http://www.catherineusa2011.blogspot.com.
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