Gina Miles and McKinlaigh rose to the occasion on the opening day of competition at the Galway Downs CIC***, March 28-30, 2008 at the Southern California Equestrian Center in Temecula, leading the field of 17 entries on a score 47.8.

The big chestnut gelding was powerful and animated as he performed the test, showing what a true competitor he is. Miles, of Creston, CA has competed McKinlaigh at the advanced level since 2001 and the pair represented the United States as individuals at the 2002 World Championships and claimed the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) in October 2006. They were also the individual bronze and team gold medalists at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Brazil.

“I’ve been working really hard with Robert Dover and Laurie Doyle over the winter, and I switched to a snaffle instead of a double bridle and he feels more rideable,” said the petite mother of two. “I’m happy with his progress and where we’ll be in a couple of weeks in Kentucky.”

Nicolas Cwick of Saratoga, CA is second on his own Asterix (49.8) , an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding who who performed a steady and accurate test, followed by Jolie Sexson of Martinez, CA on Tracy Bowman’s athletic gelding Killian O’Connor.

Riders and horses from five nations are competing against each other this weekend and Canada’s Hawley Bennett has three horses entered in the three-star. She and her 2004 Olympic partner Livingstone are fourth after dressage (55.2) and she is also placed 8th on Splendorofthesun (60.4) and 12th on Gin N’ Juice (64.3). Though the British Columbia native represents Canada in competition she bases her riding and training business across the street from the Southern California Equestrian Center where Galway Downs is run.

The CIC*** and CIC** divisions are part of the U.S. Eventing Association's year-long Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series in which horse-and-rider pairs earn points, prize money and prizes at each of the 13 designated events in the three leagues across the country. Galway Downs is the first of the four Pacific League events this year.

Gina Miles’ student, Max McManamy, 16, of Templeton, CA is following her coach’s good example and leads the CIC** riding her own Beacon Hill. It is the pair’s first two-star competition but McManamy said that she has every confidence in her horse heading into the cross-country phase tomorrow. Beacon Hill, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, formerly competed up to the intermediate with Young Rider Kate Luce, but McManamy had to wait until her 16th birthday in January to ride at that level. She and Beacon Hill have completed three intermediate events this season, winning their first one at Galway in February.

“He was amazing today,” she said. “It all really came together. I love Galway, it’s one of my favorite shows and we couldn’t have had a better day for dressage than today. Cross-country looks challenging but I think it’ll ride well. He’s a cross-country machine, so it’s a matter of building my confidence.”

Scotland’s Ian Stark designed the cross-country courses at Galway and he and Michael Tucker led a course walk around the three-star course this evening. Nestled in a valley surrounded by large rocky hills, the cross-country course has good footing and consists of inviting big, wide fences interspersed with technical combinations including a sunken road and two water complexes.  In light of the recent focus on safety in the sport, both men emphasized the need for rider responsibility and for communication between riders and officials.

“I think this is a stiff test but perfectly fair,” commented Tucker.

Hawley Bennett said, “I think it’s a challenging course but fair. To be able to walk the course with Ian and Mike Tucker is very lucky – my ears were always open. There are 26 new jumps here this year and it’s definitely not the same as last year. Ian said the second water is a four-star question if you go directly. It’s not a walk in the park.”

Following the FEI Riders’ Meeting this evening, at the request of the riders, an option was added to the “ab” section of the abcd combination at fence 17, a bounce up a bank with two strides down a ramp to a skinny. The idea was that with the fence so late in the course, if a horse stopped at the log on top of the bank a second attempt was likely to cause bigger problems.

The competition continues on Saturday with the cross-country phase. For complete results and more information visit www.galwaydowns.com.

Courtesy:  Amber Heintzberger , www.useventing.com