Thirty-nine horse and rider combinations were put to the test by world-renowned course designer Guilherme Jorge in Thursday’s qualifier for Saturday’s $100,000 Longines FEI World Cup Jumping Guadalajara. Five riders were fault-free over the stout track with a variety of related lines, a triple combination early on, and ending with a triple bar to a double combination. The first three fences as well as the triple bar proved to be the most difficult aspects of the track, coming down multiple times.  The time allowed also proved to be a challenge, with a third of the class adding time faults to their final score.

Moving up from last year’s second place finish in this class, the first to jump off and first to finish double-clear, Brazilian Rodrigo Lambre and Mario Onate’s Coleman (Kitile Horta x Indorado), posted what turned out to be an unbeatable time of 44.72s.

”I love coming to this show and jumping courses designed by Guilherme, and I am very happy with the new footing here,”  Lambre noted. “I also look forward to competing with Coleman in Ocala, Florida for the Nations Cup class this season.”

The only other double-clear ride came from American Jamie Barge and her long time partner Luebbo (Lord Pezi x Stakkato), who took a conservative track in 51.31s.

Source: Press release from EqSol for EqMkt // Picture © Anwar Esquivel