Guelph Mercury
ERIN – Turns out the early indications show jumper Shea gave were correct.That’s pronounced ‘she a’ as in ‘she a jumper.’
That’s what Karen Cudmore’s husband Blair said when he first saw Shea jump in the indoor ring at their Heartland Farms near Omaha, Neb.
“We were free jumping all our young horses and my husband went ‘Wow. She a jumper’ and the name stuck,” Cudmore said Saturday night at the Rockwood-area Angelstone Farms after claiming the winner’s share of the first $100,000 Champions Grand Prix Presented by Eric Lamaze. “We breed a lot of horses so we run out of names and it stuck. I don’t know if I dreamed she’d make it to this level at that point so we didn’t worry about the name and then how can you change it.”
Cudmore, Canadian by birth, turned in two clear rounds aboard Shea and was fastest in the jump-off to become the first champion of The Champions.
“I was up here in May so I have a good feel for this place,” she said. “It’s a great atmosphere and it’s fun to jump in front of a crowd that’s on the edge of their seats. It’s a great facility and it’s worth the 18-hour drive for me to come here.”
It was certainly worth the trip up for Saturday evening’s event alone as she also guided Ceonto to two clear rounds and a third-place finish.
“I was fortunate enough to have two horses in the jump-off,” she said. “I’m a big fan of (course designer) Michel Vaillancourt’s courses so I loved the course for both horses.”
Cudmore also got a bit of good advice from her daughter Britt and trainer Bill McConnell. Both told her to be a little conservative with Ceonto and then to go for it with Shea. Six horse-rider combinations turned in clear rounds of the 31 who participated in the main event. Those six came back for a jump-off and it was thought that with a purse of $100,000, there wouldn’t be too many clean rounds in the jump-off as all would go after it. Plus Shea was a little quicker than Ceonto anyway.
“It was good coaching and it was the end to a perfect evening for me,” Cudmore said.
Having two horses in the jump-off did make things a little rushed for Cudmore as the two were to go one after the other, Ceonta going first. That meant a hurried warm-up for Shea.
“It was just a matter of three jumps in the warm-up ring,” Cudmore said. “For her, she just walks in ready. I really just jumped two jumps and went in the ring.”
Liubov Kochetova of Russia finished second aboard Aslan while U.S. Olympic gold medalist Leslie Howard was fourth aboard Tic Tac. Mac Cone and Amor van de Rostal was fifth and Angela Covert on Utan was sixth. Ian Millar and Dixson were seventh and best of those who didn’t make the jump-off.
The Champions was the first of two $100,000 events at Angelstone Farms. The other one is the World Cup event set for Sept. 28.