Erynn Ballard and Canora Z. ©Anne Gittins Photography.

Wellington, FL – December 1, 2019 – The 2019 ESP Holiday & Horses show wrapped up with more exciting hunter and jumper competition. The highlight class of the day was the $25,000 Omega Alpha National Grand Prix, which was ultimately championed by Erynn Ballard of Canada and Emma Waldgoel’s Canora Z. Twenty-seven horse-and-rider combinations turned out for the first round, designed by Anthony D’Ambrosio, and five returned for the jump-off. Ballard flew through the timers at 39.311 seconds to claim first, while Kent Farrington of Wellington, FL piloted Kaprice, owned by Kent Farrington & Haity McNerney, to second place in 39.548 seconds. Marie Demonte of France stopped the timers at 36.886 seconds, but had four faults added to her score to consequentially take home the yellow ribbon aboard Guy Beloossoff’s Stella Levista.

Ballard commended her horse’s performance, stating, “Canora came over in the spring, and this is only about my fourth show with her, but she’s been doing really well. She’s just an 8-year-old and we sort of had this class in mind for her this week. She did two 1.40m classes earlier this week to gear up for this and I think that our plan worked and she jumped beautifully today.”

This week featured the first FEI competition to take place in the International Arena on the brand-new surface. Ballard commented, “I think the horses really like it. They jump very consistently from beginning to end. You can go very fast on it and you don’t feel them slipping out through the turns. It just feels like it’s ‘with you’ all the time so I think it’s great.” Ballard plans to focus on her young horses during the rest of the ESP Holiday Series to get them “up and running for circuit.”

To learn more about the ESP Holiday Series and PBIEC, please visit www.pbiec.com.