Charlotte Jacobs Back to Winning Ways in Traverse City
Charlotte Jacobs (USA) was crowned leading rider of the 2024 Traverse City Horse Shows and is back to familiar winning ways with a victory in the $32,000 CSI3* Welcome Stake riding North Star’s Instrumental on Friday of opening week at the Traverse City Spring Series, presented by Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel.
The Spring Series continues through June 29 and features three weeks of FEI jumper competition, weekly hunter derbies, including the International Hunter Derby Regional Championships, in addition to the USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championships and the Markel/USHJA Platinum & Zone Jumper Team Championships.
Nine horses advanced to the tie-breaking jump-off over courses designed by Guilherme Jorge (BRA). The home nation swept all three podium placings, with fifteen-time FEI World Cup™ Finals contender Richard Spooner taking second aboard Lyjanair, owned by Jumping Syndications Int’l. He and the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding—the former ride of Sweden’s Rolf-Göran Bengtsson—stopped the clock at 43.68 seconds, just three tenths behind Jacobs’ 43.31-second time to beat.
Hunter Holloway rounded out the top three riding 10-year-old Argentinian-bred mare Henry Jota Ariel by stopping the clock at 45.17 seconds for owner Hays Investment Corp.
Coming off a quiet winter—according to Jacobs—Instrumental is back in top form for the summer season in Northern Michigan.
“We took our time with her. She has so much ability, jump and scope and we’ve been trying to harness that and control it. Now’s the time for her to be quick and competitive—I’m very proud of her today,” said Jacobs of the 10-year-old (Qualdandro x Indoctro) previously developed by Ireland’s Shane Breen and Peder Fredricson of Sweden.
After pipping Spooner as the last to go in the jump-off, Jacobs noted, “I think I was very good back to the second-to-last, and I was able to do one less than most to the double. I have a huge stride, so I took advantage of that to the last.”
Jacobs is starting the season in top form and plans to step Instrumental into some of the CSI5* offerings later in Traverse City.
Alongside Instrumental, she will pilot a deep string of FEI-caliber horses, including Korbach van de Renger, Playboy JT Z, and Thomascourt Ballypatrick, as well as a promising roster of up-and-coming talent. Jacobs starts the season with hopes of chasing down consecutive leading rider titles. She’ll also bring a group of future stars to the USHJA Young Jumper Championships, an event proudly supported by her family’s North Star, as the presenting sponsor.
“Each year, I can’t wait to get back to Traverse City,” she concluded. “It’s a lovely place to be and the horses love it here; they always jump great.”
International competition comes to a peak at Flintfields Horse Park on Sunday with the $117,000 Four G Surfaces CSI3* Grand Prix. To see full results from the $32,000 CSI3* Welcome Stake, click here.
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Charlotte Jacobs Back to Winning Ways in Traverse City – Traverse City Horse Shows
