Age is just a number for 17-year-old Brian Moggre who won the $35,700 CSI3* Longines World Ranking Competition against a field of nearly fifty talented riders Friday at Live Oak International.
Riding for Major Wager LLC, Moggre blazed across the grass arena with MTM Vivre le Reve in a red hot time of 61.56 seconds thanks to advice from his trainer, Mike McCormick.
"Today I thought, well, Mike always says, 'You can't win them all if you don't win the first one,' so I knew I wanted to go in and give it a shot. It worked out for me, and my horse really stepped up to the plate," Moggre said.
Jennifer Gates and Evergate Stables LLC's Capital Colnardo landed in second place with a time of 64.97 seconds.
"For me with my horse, I knew I could leave out strides in a few places. He has a really long step, so that's where I am able to be a tiny bit faster. I was just trying to go for a nice, efficient, clean round, and I'm happy with how my horse performed," Gates said.
A time of 65.68 seconds had pathfinder Lauren Hough in the lead for more than half the class before being unseated by Gates. She still finished third with Laura Mateo and Meredith Mateo's Waterford.
"I thought my horse jumped a very good round. Going first, you never really know. If I had gone later there were a couple places I could've gone a bit quicker, but I'm thrilled. It was a good warmup for hopefully a good result again on Sunday."
