Lindsay Gersoff Has Children’s Hunter Classic Hat Trick
Parker, CO — Bjorn Ikast and Brave Heart, frequent Grand Prix winners, led the victory gallop during the first week of the expanded Colorado Summer Circuit in the $25,000 Holiday Inn Grand Prix. This win brought Brave Heart’s career victories to 24. Riders universally praised Hector Loyola’s technical course, saying that he asked all the right questions at the right times.
“I thought this was a fantastic Grand Prix course,” Ikast said. “It has a lovely international flavor; you really had to ride this course.” Ikast was pleased with his elastic, seasoned horse over Loyola’s track that included two combinations away from the in-gate and two back-to-back liverpools. Ikast credited the course and the footing for providing spectators with quality riding throughout the class. He explained, “We saw only good show jumping. This is the best we’ve ever felt this footing. With the rain we got a good spring [from the ground].”
To keep Brave Heart fresh, this was his first and only class during the show. The strategy clearly worked; the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding bucked and played around the course. Ikast said it may have been one of Brave Heart’s best Grand Prix. “He didn’t even touch one rail; he felt really good,” he said.
Another veteran, the 17-year-old La Roche, also was in fine form, finishing in second place in the $25,000 Holiday Inn Grand Prix. Rider Armando Hassey has spent the last four months just doing flatwork with the stallion. “He knows how to jump. We just work to get him fit and keep him in shape,” Hassey said.
Throughout the first week of the Colorado Summer Circuit, La Roche and Hassey kept it all in the family. Hassey rode the stallion’s five-year-old daughter, Sandra, in the .85 and 1.0 meter classes, earning two ribbons in the mare’s very first show. “She’s very similar [to her sire] in the way she acts and jumps,” Hassey explained. “She’s a great young horse.”
Finishing in third place in the Grand Prix were Colorado favorites Paul Rohrbach and Simple Kaliber, owned by Phoenix Equine. In their first season of Grand Prix, the duo competed in the futures classes in Thermal before moving up to the 1.5 meter division. “He’s a bit of an overachiever,” Rohrbach said of his partner. “He’s still learning to gauge his scope and power. I’ve been very pleased with him here.”
Rohrbach felt that that Loyola’s track was an ideal test. “I’ve enjoyed his courses this week. He has been great with his use of the natural obstacles, water and liverpools.” Rohrbach also praised the new jumps in use throughout the facility. He continued, “So many people have gone to so much trouble to make such beautiful courses.”
Linsday Gersoff Wins a Children’s Hunter Classic Hat Trick
The jumpers weren’t the only ones with big classes. Good prize money in every hunter classic offered riders in all divisions a chance to earn a nice paycheck and show off their horses’ jumps. Lindsay Gersoff had a show to remember when she won the blue ribbon in all three Children’s Hunter Classics-NAL, WIHS and Marshall & Sterling.
The Colorado Horse Park relies on the generosity of its sponsors, including Parker Adventist Hospital and Foundation, Littleton Equine Medical Center, Platinum Performance, Holiday Inn of Parker, Hampton Inn of Parker, Super 8 of Parker, Griffis Group, Norstar, The Olson Family, Horse Connection, Comfort Suites of Castle Rock, Days Inn of Castle Rock, Nutrena, The Chronicle of the Horse, A Bit of Tack, Horseware Ireland, Grand Meadows and many more.
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Equestrian Sports Promotions
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