Long Valley rider returns to one of the country's best shows with a young horse who has potential and makes his mark in a grand prix that stumped some big-time combinations.
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Devin Ryan and Cooper on their way to third place in the $100,000 Sapphire Grand Prix of Devon. Two years ago, Devin Ryan of Long Valley had a breakthrough with No Worries to finish third in the Grand Prix of Devon, the same spot he found himself in last week after the 2015 edition of the class wrapped up at the Devon, Pa., Horse Show.
In between his identical placings in the $100,000 competition, he suffered both heartbreak and setback. Shortly after his impressive 2013 performance at Devon, one of the country's most prestigious shows, No Worries -- a horse Ryan had trained for nine years -- had to be put down because he suffered a fracture in the pasture.
Ryan started all over again with Cooper, a Dutchbred gelding he brought along carefully after buying him as a 5-year-old. The horse came up through the Young Jumper ranks and Ryan knew he was ready for his biggest test after winning 7-year-old classes last year at the Devon show, and finishing third (three apparently is his lucky number) in the $25,000 Devon Fall Classic that is held on the grounds in September.
Thursday night's grand prix in the Dixon Oval played out before a crowd of thousands, jammed into every corner of the venerable showgrounds on Philadelphia's Main Line.
That prompted course designer Michel Vaillancourt to comment, "This is the one horse show, in my opinion, that produces this kind of atmosphere. This is, to me, one of the greatest horse shows in the U.S."
Despie the buzz, Ryan said of the affable Cooper, "The atmosphere in the ring and the crowd has never bothered him. He's always been really brave and game and wanting to go. He just started moving up the levels this year in the grands prix. I know his mentality for the sport and the crowd, it doesn't faze him,"
Ryan added that although Cooper was the youngest horse in the class, "I didn't feel I was overfacing him."
The grand prix turned out to be a quirky one. The smart money was on Olympic team double gold medalist McLain Ward to earn his ninth victory in the fixture, especially since it had been renamed in memory of his late mare, Sapphire, who won it twice and was retired at Devon before she died last year.
He also had the advantage of being aboard 2013 winner Rothchild, and was riding a second mount, HH Ashley. But both had trouble at the combinations on course and wound up far out of the ribbons in the 28-horse contest.
Another top contender, Swiss Olympic team silver medalist Beat Mandli (aboard Antares F, the horse on which Ward won the class in 2012) had two rails down to put him out of the running.
The seven-horse jump-off turned out to be the domain of 17-year-old Kelli Cruciotti, who became the youngest rider ever to win the 37-year-old class with a lightning round in 38.678 seconds on the fleet Swedish mare Chamonix H. Her 18-year-old friend, Michael Hughes of Allendale, wound up second when he went a bit wide with MacArthur and turned in a time of 39.498.
Chamonix tied for the Open Jumper Championship with Kaitlin Campbell's Rocky W, and Ward was leading jumper rider.
Cruciotti, whose grand prix win was worth $30,000, had help from Olympic team gold medalist Peter Wylde, while Hughes got tips from Ward. Ryan, 33, was on his own, but he knew what to do. He chose caution.
"All year long, I've been having either the first fence or the last fence down in the jump-off when I go for it. So I'm going to go in there, go smooth...and just want to produce a double clean round," he explained, detailing what he was thinking before the tie-breaker.
"That's what I did two years ago here, and I got the exact same result." He was clocked in 40.058 seconds.
Added Ryan, "I really believe in the horse, I think he's going to go all the way. I think he has all the jump, the scope, the mentality, the brain; he has the blood." His plan, he said, is "not to push him too fast. That's all I've got."
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The Devon crowd meets Devin Ryan and Cooper after their successful jump-off round.
Ryan was one of several Jerseyans who made a mark at Devon.
Amanda Steege, no stranger to trophy presentations at the show, took the First Year Green Hunter Championship with Ellen Toon's Mirror Image.
Based in Califon in the warm months and Ocala, Fla., in the winter, Steege had help when the mare showed in Wellington, Fla., at the Winter Equestrian Festival because she couldn't always get there. So Liza Towell Boyd and Havens Schatt pitched in to help.
"It was an amazing experience.The three of us just have a great relationship. It is abnormal, I think, to be able to get along with two other competitors as well as we all did," she said.
"All three of us got at least one tricolor on her in the first-year greens."
Scott Stewart of Flemington won the Leading Hunter Rider title for the fourth time in six years, while Mary Mott of Baptistown was first in the exhibition carriage racing.
Adrienne Iverson, riding out of Redfields Farm in Tewksbury, finished 12th in the competitive hunter derby that drew 43 starters. She made quite an impression with the handsome gray, Chapman ET, owned by Doreen Toben of Whitehouse Station.
The show ends today with hunter breeding classes.
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
Today: Mason Dixon Paso Fino Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township; Lord Stirling Stable Hunter Pace, 256 S. Maple Ave., Basking Ridge (9 a.m.-1 p.m., enter upon arrival); Changewater Stables English and Western Benefit Show, 483 Route 519, Stewartsville; CJL Show, West Milford Equestrian Center, 367 Union Valley Road, Newfoundland; Good Times Farm Dressage Show, 278 Jackson Mills Road, Freehold.
Friday: Jersey Classic Show, Horse Park of N.J., Route 524, Allentown (through June 7).
Saturday: Windy Hollow Hunt Dressage Show, Sussex Country Fairgrounds, Plains Road, Augusta (through June 7); Smoke Rise Riding Club Show, Smoke Rise Farms, 1 Talbot Dr., Kinnelon; Monmouth County Show, East Freehold Showgrounds, Kozloski Road, Freehold; Blue Moon Dressage Show, 370 Barretts Run Road, Bridgeton; Saddlebrook Ridge Dressage Show, 10 Saddlebrook Court, Shamong; Somewhere Farm Dressage Show, 640 Powell Road, Mt. Holly.
June 7: Amwell Valley Hounds Hunter Pace, Sourland Farm, 33 Lindbergh Road, East Amwell (register on premises; for info call 908-963-5587); Briarwood Farm Show, Duncraven, 1300 Trenton Harbourton Road, Titusville; Delaware Valley Horsemen's Association Driving Show, DVHA Showgrounds, 299 Ringoes-Rosemont Road, Sergeantsville.
Nancy Jaffer: nancyjaffer@comcast.net.