“I’m very lucky. I have a great team of staff to help get the horses ready, so it makes my life a lot easier,” he said. “It’s always nice to have lots of horses to show because you don’t have to jump them too much or overuse them. You can just show them when you need to, and obviously with the schedule at WEF, it’s always good to have a lot of horses because you have a lot of great classes every single week with a lot of good prize money.”
Over the course designed by Peter Grant (CAN) and Joey Rycroft (CAN), Maher and Jane Forbes Clark’s 10-year-old mare Ginger-Blue also put forth a double clear effort, stopping the timers at 37.329 seconds to capture the win in Section B.
“It’s hard to build for these types of classes when there are over 100 riders in them, so I thought it was a good course,” said Maher, currently ranked sixth in the world rankings. “Personally, I use those classes to help produce the horses that aren’t quite ready to go to the FEI classes, so it was enough course, technical enough, but at the same time, they didn’t get too many clear rounds.”Like Kenny, Maher will be campaigning multiple horses this week and is coming off an exciting victory in Sunday’s $137,000 Restylane Grand Prix CSI3*. As a true horseman, Maher has adjusted his plan for WEF with the talented mare by Plot Blue x Royal Bravour, noting that her long-term development is his top priority.
“I think she has a huge heart, and she’s very, very careful,” he said. “My initial plan setting out for WEF was to probably have her already jumping in one or two of the bigger FEI classes like the CSI3* Grand Prix classes, but I just feel that she needs a little bit more time to develop. I think I only competed on her twice the whole of last year, and I just feel like she’s lacking a little bit of experience. I want to take just a bit more time to produce her in the right way, so that when I’m ready to go for the bigger classes, that she’s been well enough educated and I don’t push her before she’s ready.”
Source: Press Release