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Australian Event Rider Phillip Dutton Dominates at Pine Top II in Georgia

Thompson, Georgia - February 21, 2006 - Threats of heavy rain and plummeting temperatures held off, allowing Pine Top Farm to hold their annual warm up competition for riders at the preliminary and intermediate levels. Janet and Glenn Wilson, owners of Pine Top Farm, made a few changes for this year's show. Due to an increased volume of entries, the schedule of the event was expanded from Pine Top's traditional one-day format to a two-day format. With dressage and show-jumping taking place on Saturday, overly enthusiastic horses were given the opportunity to settle before tackling Sunday's cross-country test.

In addition to the schedule modification, John Williams, a team bronze medalist from the 2004 Olympic Games and team gold medalist from the 2002 World Equestrian Games, was selected as the new course designer. Williams, who designs courses at the Carolina and New Jersey Horse Parks, created new tracks for both the show jumping and cross country.

Williams' courses provided good early season tests for both riders and horses. The show jumping courses were relatively small and placed on fair distances. However, several combinations were caught out by two verticals early in the course, which were placed on a snug four strides. Overall, the show jumping played a limited role in the final standings.

The cross country courses utilized many of Pine Top's traditional fences, but Williams managed to put his own distinctive style onto the tracks. After a few straightforward galloping fences, intermediate riders faced a difficult test at fences 4ab and 5. Fence 4a was a tall vertical that landed riders in a small cluster of trees. Riders then had to choose between making a tight turn inside of a pair of round bales to a matching vertical in order to exit the woods, or wasting time to make a safer, longer turn to the outside of the round bales. After jumping fence 4b, riders had to choose between a direct four stride or a bending five stride line to hop over a small left point corner.

Williams then gave riders several straightforward combinations before presenting a final test at the last water. Intermediate riders approached the water over a downhill roll top before dropping into the water. Riders then jumped a narrow vertical in the water before jumping up a bank and bending to a right hand corner.

Preliminary riders faced challenges around the entire course including: a bounce bank to a narrow log pile, a big log in the first water jump, and a vertical at the top of Pine Top's massive dirt mound.

Most riders handled the challenges well, prompting Glenn Wilson to praise the high quality of horses and riding over the weekend.

Not surprisingly, Australian transplant, Phillip Dutton, collected the majority of first place finishes. Dutton won two divisions of intermediate aboard the experienced The Foreman and new acquisition, Lucky Stripe. Dutton also captured a preliminary division aboard Loose N' Cool. However, the most impressive of Dutton's rides was his on again, off again veteran, House Doctor, the horse that carried him to a team gold medal in Sydney.

Other intermediate winners were: Becky Holder on her impressive grey, Courageous Comet, Mara Dean on Good Stuff, Robert Costello and his athletic mount, Wild Delight, while Ashley Brown captured the Young Riders division aboard the experienced Patmos Bentley. Preliminary winners included: Emily Beshear on Baileywick, Kate Ditchey on Belmont, and Katherine Coleman on Trader Vic. Nate Chambers and Lucia Strini produced exceptional performances in the Young Rider divisions to secure wins aboard Rolling Stone II and Liste De Folie respectively.

Several competitors looked impressive, but finished farther down the order, mainly due to conservative cross country rounds. Canadian Kelli Temple aboard Paris looked impressive in all three phases, especially in the dressage test. Tiffani Loudon-Meetze, who is one of the most underrated riders in the country, looked fantastic on the cross country and in show jumping.

Stuart Black produced a smooth, quick cross country round to help overcome an unusual mistake in the show jumping aboard his mammoth horse, Fleecework's Pacific Storm. Heidi White's veteran, Northern Spy, looked as good as ever and must be getting close to representing the United States at the upcoming World Games.

In the preliminary divisions several young horses stood out. Jan Thompson's new ride, Lenamore's Dreamer, looks like a worthy backup to her string of advanced horses, while Thompson's student, Lillian Heard, produced a professional result aboard Anything But Ordinary.

Glenn Wilson promises several changes for the Advanced Pine Top in two weeks, and hinted that the course may reverse directions for the first time in many years.

PhelpsSports.com is coming in August!!

Hans Gerling anchors the coverage of the eventing scene in the East for PhelpsSports.com. Hans grew up in the horse-saturated community located in northern Baltimore County. Hans competed in his first three-day event at age 15. Hans started training with eventing guru Jimmy Wofford, and won medals at the 1999 and 2002 North American Young Rider Championships. While attending the University of Virginia, Hans trained with Phillip Dutton, Bonnie Mosser and Stuart Black. He brought two horses up through the ranks to the Advanced level, and operated a successful sale horse business. After graduating from UVa in 2005, Hans and his beloved yellow lab, Gus, moved to Middleburg to train with Stuart and campaign his advanced horse.

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