Equestrian Sport Productions LLC (ESP) hosted its third week of spring competition at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) in Wellington, FL, last week with a full schedule of hunter, jumper and equitation events. In the highlight $25,000 Nutrena ESP Spring 3 Grand Prix on Sunday, Ireland's Paul O'Shea and Primo de Revel were the winners. O'Shea also won the $10,000 ESP Spring Rider Challenge.

The week's jumper courses in the International Arena were designed by Great Britain's Richard Jeffery. In Sunday's grand prix, 45 entries jumped the first round track with eleven advancing to the jump-off, and six double clear rounds. Paul O'Shea and Michael Hayden's Primo de Revel had the winning jump-off time of 42.29 seconds for the win to repeat their victory of the same class last year. Christoph Schroeder and Cantungee finished second in 42.88 seconds. Emanuel Andrade and Hollow Creek Farm's Fananka A placed third in 43.01 seconds, and Hayley Barnhill and Cara Cheska's Zephire placed fourth in 43.25 seconds.

Primo de Revel had a nice long break over the winter and came out fresh for the spring series ready to jump. "He had three easy months, and he feels great," O'Shea noted. "He picked up right where he left off."

"We gave him two weeks off in the field with no riding and then just slowly brought him back and got him fit again," the rider detailed. "He goes out in the field every day as well. I actually only jumped him once at home. He is so easy to ride that he doesn't need much schooling. I jumped him in the 1.40m the other day and last week I jumped a 1.30m, and before that I jumped once at home and that was it. That is all he has done in the last three months, and he won't jump until the next show now. He just knows what he's doing. There's nothing to teach him, so I want to be good to him. There is no point in wearing him out. It seems to work. I don't think it would work with every horse, but he has such a good mind and he is very balanced to ride."

Commenting on his jump-off round, O'Shea noted, "I thought I had a good turn to the second to last jump. I could have probably even been faster to the combination. I did nine strides and there was probably eight there, but as it turned out I had done enough."

For the second year, a special $10,000 rider bonus was offered for the first three weeks of ESP spring competition. The ESP Spring Rider Challenge was awarded to the rider who earned the most points accumulated from the $10,000 Open Stakes classes and each $25,000 USEF Ranked Grand Prix offered at the Spring 1, 2, & 3 shows.O'Shea won the award for the second year in a row, this time with Gotham Enterprizes' River Dance Semilly, a horse that O'Shea has ridden for Georgina Bloomberg throughout the winter. The horse and rider had a great spring series to take home the $5,000 first place bonus. Federico Sztyrle received $3,000 in second place, and Chris Ewanouski took the third place bonus of $2,000.

"It is fantastic to have this bonus for the spring series," O'Shea remarked. "It really makes it interesting coming up to it, watching the points and seeing what's going on. It definitely makes it very interesting."

"River Dance Semilly is a really promising horse," he stated. "Last week he was second in the grand prix and he was fourth in the 1.40m here, seventh in the grand prix the week before. He is very careful and very consistent. I think he is a very promising horse. I will get to ride him for the next few shows. I actually didn't have to jump today; I was far enough ahead. Last year with Primo de Revel it was close."

"I am grateful to the owners," O'Shea added. "Michael Hayden for keeping the horse for us for so long and Georgina for letting me ride River Dance Semilly." O'Shea now heads to the Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Shows in May and hopes to continue a great season.

Final Results: $25,000 Nutrena Spring 3 Grand Prix

1. PRIMO DE REVEL PAUL O'SHEA MICHAEL HAYDEN: 0/0/42.296

2. CATUNGEE CHRISTOPH SCHROEDER CHRISTOPH SCHROEDER: 0/0/42.886

3. FANANKA A EMANUEL ANDRADE HOLLOW CREEK FARM: 0/0/43.011

4. ZEPHIRE HAYLEY BARNHILL CARA CHESKA: 0/0/43.253

5. CHAQUI Z SHANE SWEETNAM SPY COAST FARM LLC: 0/0/44.205

6. BALDINO DU'ROUET AMY MOMROW MONTY KELLY: 0/0/44.401

7. CHANEL B 2 VICTORIA COLVIN KAREN LONG DWIGHT: 0/4/40.018

8. HESTER LUCY DESLAURIERS LISA DESLAURIERS: 0/4/42.168

9. ORBETELLO CHRIS EWANOUSKI HAMPTON FARMS LLC: 0/4/42.235

10. UGAF JACKSON BRITTAN SILVER OAK FARMS LLC: 0/8/45.577

11. WRIOMF CHRIS SORENSEN JOLLY GROUP: 0/12/43.290

12. ALFI CARLOS QUINONES MICHELLE NAVARRO-GRAU: 1/96.918

© Press release from Equestrian Sport Productions