Katie Dinan (USA) had a difficult task ahead of her in Sunday’s $145,100 CSI3* Grand Prix to close the Traverse City Spring Horse Shows, presented by Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel. Not only were the six jump-off contenders ahead of her extremely fast, she also had a surprise rainstorm show up right when it was her turn to bring it home as the last to go.
At the time, Hallie Grimes (USA) led with Chaccato PS, owned by Can We Keep It? LLC, on a time of 39.91 seconds over Anderson Lima’s (BRA) short track. Dinan held second with Dijon Terdoorn Z, making for a repeat situation to the week prior, when she got her first major Sunday grand prix win.
“I thought, let’s just do this; it’s not going to get better,” Dinan explained of how she felt going in the ring. “We have to be really thankful for the amazing footing here. I wasn’t worried about that. It had just started raining and we have great ground here so I knew we’d be fine.”
Making neat turns and letting her 17-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Namelus R x Gerlinus) do his thing over the jumps, Dinan came home in 39.84 seconds. But she didn’t know that when she crossed the timers.
“It was exciting and suspenseful because I came out of the ring and had no idea what place I was in,” Dinan said of the brief loss of power right before her round as a storm moved in. “I was obviously really excited to find out I won. It was close; it was a really fast group of riders so to win against that caliber of rider means a lot to me.”
Taking the win with Brego R’N B and third place with Dijon Terdoorn Z, both owned by Grant Road Partners, LLC, echoed the result she had during Traverse City Spring II. Grimes claimed second with Chaccato PS.