Kristen Vanderveen and Bull Run’s Jireh Jump to Pinnacle Position in $116,050 Purina Animal Nutrition CSI3* Grand Prix
Fast-paced show jumping action came to a head on Saturday, August 3, 2024, at HITS Hudson Valley in Saugerties, New York, as top-tier competitors put on the finishing touches and prepared to tackle the first-round track of the $116,050 Purina Animal Nutrition CSI3* Grand Prix. The featured event was part of a packed horse show during the final week of the Hudson Valley Jumping Tour®. On a hot streak of recent wins, the USA’s Kristen Vanderveen bested the field of international athletes to collect yet another check aboard Bull Run’s Jireh.
Esteemed FEI Level 4 Course Designer Marina Azevedo (BRA) set a steep challenge for the 31 contenders on the startlist, from which only seven combinations produced a fault-free effort in the opening phase. The battle for the lion’s share of the prize money came down to American and Irish riders, with top athletes such as Conor Swail (IRL), Megan McDermott (USA), and Brian Moggre (USA) some of the impressive names that joined Vanderveen across the short course. Turning on the afterburners, as she is well known for, Vanderveen guided the Bull Run Jumpers, Inc’s gelding to another successful finish and their time of 43.56 seconds ultimately held for the win.
“Our jump off didn’t start quite the way I wanted it to, which I think lit a fire under me a little bit at the end,” explained Vanderveen. “I didn’t quite get the first three jumps the way I hoped for, so then I really asked a lot of him at the end. He is a machine at the combinations, so I think I was able to come into that faster than most horses can. Then we made a really tight turn to the last line, and he definitely helped me out there.”
The win came as no surprise as the 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Uriko x Colman) has been steadily rising in the ranks of superstar athletes under Vanderveen’s guidance and has become accustomed to the electricity of the crowd.
“The crowd always makes it more fun,” remarked Vanderveen. “It’s great to have people here cheering. They played the Olympics on TV here yesterday, so there was a good group here to watch that too. The crowd always adds to the atmosphere, and I think the horses feel it too.”
Mere milliseconds from Vanderveen’s lead, Moggre piloted his longtime partner MTM Vivre Le Reve, a 15-year-old Westphalian gelding (Ustinov x Chello II) owned by Major Wager LLC, to the runner-up position with a time of 43.71 seconds. Nicky Galligan (IRL) nabbed a podium position for Ireland with the Santa Rosa Group’s 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare (Zavall VDL x Argentinus), VDL Nikita van de Leeuwerk, after just breaking the 44-second mark in 44.11 seconds to take third.
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