Lauren Balcomb & Verdini D’houtveld Z Reach a New Altitude in the $120,000 Ascentѐ Aviation Grand Prix CSI3*
It was standing room only at World Equestrian Center – Ocala (WEC) for the $120,000 Ascentѐ Aviation Grand Prix CSI3*. A special Ascentѐ Aviation helicopter flyover kicked off the evening before 27 top horse-and-rider combinations took center stage. In the end, it was the pathfinding duo of Lauren Balcomb (AUS) and her very own Verdini D’houtveld Z (Verdi Tn x Caretino 2) who proved uncatchable once again, galloping away with the lion’s share of the prize money and a round-trip helicopter experience.
FEI Level IV course designer Olaf Petersen (GER) set the track for Saturday night’s competition, which proved to be a true test with several questions asked throughout the course. Only four combinations managed to deliver a clear first round to advance to the jump-off.
The first duo down the ramp was Australia’s Lauren Balcomb aboard her longtime partner Verdini D’houtveld Z. While leading off the jump-off is not always ideal, Balcomb stuck to her plan. “Most of the course was off your eye. So I just wanted to be as quick as I could everywhere, but not risk it and not take too much out of him. So, it was quite a nice little jump-off where I could keep ticking along, but I didn’t have to do anything too crazy.”
“I jumped against one quite straight, a few people angled it, but I thought it would be better just to jump it straight and roll back as quick as I could. Then I planned 10 to the vertical. Then nine back to the orange vertical, and then I just went off my eye to the combination. I knew six was going to be really steady, and then I had to rollback as tight as I could. Then I had to do my best gallop to the last, and he was great.”
The pair stopped the clock in an unbeatable 44.91 seconds to secure the top spot on the podium.
The 15-year-old Zangersheide gelding is a family member to Balcomb, and according to her, “everything” is her favorite part about him. “He’s so cute. He’s like my pet and just the sweetest animal. He has so much heart. It’s like, where do you stop with a horse like that? He is a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
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