“He’s so quick across the ground and it was a great jump-off for that,” said Nassar of the talented gelding. “It really only had one rollback to slow you down. For a little horse, he covers so much ground, so I was able to leave the strides out. I just got on a roll and stay like that the whole way through. He felt unbelievable.”
“It was a pretty big jump-off,” Nassar continued. “It’s great to have Rob Hoekstra here on the ground helping me these couple of weeks, so he went up and watched Kristen [Vanderveen] go. He noticed she did seven strides up the first line pretty easily so that was the one place we changed our plan. After that, it was just a matter of sticking to the numbers.”It was a tight battle to the finish as Ireland’s Daniel Coyle came close aboard Legacy, owned by Ariel Grange. He and the 11-year-old Zangersheide mare by Chippendale Z x Bon Ami also finished the day fault-free, stopping the clock in 39.40 seconds to land in second place.
Once again it would be three different nations represented on the podium as Emily Moffitt (GBR) piloted Tipsy Du Terral, owned by Poden Farms, to a third-place finish. The 23-year-old rider partnered with the 14-year-old Selle Français mare by Toulon x Quat’sous for a fault-free effort in a time of 39.46 seconds.Nassar had the chance to compete throughout the winter circuit in Wellington, FL, and has three horses jumping in this week’s three-star classes at Equestrian Village. At this point in the season, the rider ranked 39th in the world feels as though all aspects of his program are coming together nicely.
