Beaming with pride this evening, Canada’s Tiffany Foster piloted Caipiranja (Taran de La Pomme x Darco) to prime-time status in the Santiago Varela (ESP) designed Pepsi Challenge.

Foster has been working with this 9 year-old Belgium Warmblood mare since she was a youngster and slowly brought her along to the international stage where tonight, the mare rose to the occasion to earn Tiffany her first 1.50m division victory of the 2017 Spruce Meadows Summer Series of Tournaments. Foster commented, “I’m so proud of this horse because I’ve had her since she was six and we’ve brought her along very slowly. This was definitely the first time I tried to go fast – this is the first win I’ve had on her and it’s been a work in progress but she has come along better than we could have ever expected.” She continued, “every time I ask something of her that she’s never done before – she rises to the challenge so I’m really excited about her bright future.”

The competition saw 28 entries walk under the Clock Tower for the challenge, that presented big jumping efforts throughout the entire International Ring turf and a tight time allowed. Of the notable roster of starters, only four entries would qualify on to the jump off round. It was a close race, but in the end Foster rode the most efficient round showing off the talent of her exciting partner.

Following behind for second place was fellow Canadian, the 24 year-old Nicole Walker, on her first ever summer season at Spruce Meadows. Walker and her fairly new partner Falco Van Spieveld (Toulon x Lys de Darmen), a 12 year-old Belgian Warmblood, displayed two great rounds to finish her series on an incredibly high note. Walker mentioned, “this horse has a lot of experience at this level which has really helped me in my first CSI5* Tournament so he’s been a real teacher.” She continued, “this is my first ever trip to Spruce Meadows and I was hoping that the big grass fields would suit my horses and luckily they really did.” It was clear that the open field suited Walkers mount Falco as he opened up in the gallop through the sprawling track to encouraged great effort over each fence to land her in the second place position – with a double clear and a time just 0.21 seconds behind Foster.

Finishing in the final podium position was American veteran Margie Engle aboard Dicas (Diarado x Cassini I), an 8 year-old Rheinlander gelding. The impressive 18 hand bay finished with the only other double clear score card with a time of 39.39 seconds – again just a fraction of a second behind the two Canadians. Engle commented on her grand partner, “despite his huge stature, this horse rides beautifully – he’s only just started into the international level this year and I’ve been so impressed that he’s gone out into a venue like the International Ring as if he’s done it his whole life. He’s really brave and scopey and I’m very excited about this one.”