Team East Village comprised of two Australian teammates, Ryan Wood and Dominic Schramm, made their way to the top of the leaderboard after completing two rounds of the track, which included both cross-country and show jumping elements and featured an iconic apple keyhole obstacle. Wood rode Alcatraz, while teammate Schramm piloted No Objection to the top of the podium.
“Our first round we wanted to chance it but not be reckless. We didn’t want to dance with the devil in the first round. After we went back to the stables, we decided to switch up the order. Mine was a bit quicker. He was a slow starter, like a diesel, once we got started he gets quicker,” said Schramm. “This is not what our sport looks like day in and day out, but rather than be negative about it, I like the fact that we get to come here and expose people to it. People get a bite of it, and then they’re hooked for life and that’s what we want.”
His teammate Wood added that the backdrop of the New York City skyline captured his attention as he entered the ring and motivated to impress the enthusiastic crowd that packed the stands. He elaborated, “There was a moment in the second round when the crowd was amping us up and then I looked up at the lights from the sky rise buildings and I thought, ‘Bloody hell. We are in the middle of New York City!’ It’s pretty awesome. It’s a long way from home!”
Second place saw the team effort of Holly Payne-Caravella (USA) and Boyd Martin (USA) for Team Times Square, as they were rewarded for their dual trips around the track and danced easily through the first round. The duo also produced a near foot-perfect second round only to be bested by Team East Village as the second to last team on course at the end of competition.
“I was over the moon when I saw that I was partnered with Holly, as Holly always has a crack at these things whenever she’s riding. I knew that it’d either go really well, or we’d bomb out,” laughed Martin. “We just decided to cruise around the first round and we came back and just really decided to have a crack. We had a bit of luck on our side in the second round, and it went very well.”
The class was formatted uniquely, as any faults on course were converted to add four seconds to an individual rider’s overall time, pushing an intense race against the clock and finishing with a show jumping oxer. Twelve teams contested the class, each named after notable New York neighborhoods, while the top six teams completing with the fastest overall cumulative time moved forward to the final phase of competition. The class featured numerous Olympians, accomplished CCI 4* competitors, and a plethora of national and international talents.
The only team to compete for Great Britain was comprised of two iconic British eventers, as the Rolex Central Park Horse Show welcomed William Fox-Pitt and Oliver Townend to New York City for the first time. Townend, the most recent winner of the Burghley Three Day Event CCI 4*, was partnered with the legendary Fox-Pitt for Team Chelsea piloting Indian Mill and Prince Renan, both borrowed mounts for the competition, and finished in third place.
“When Mark called us and asked if we would be interested in sponsoring the inaugural Arena Eventing here at the Central Park Horse Show, we were thrilled to tie the Palm Beach theme in with the New York theme. As we have expanded our business in Wellington, FL, we were very thankful to support Gladiator Polo™ and are thankful to continue to support all of these endeavors.”
Maintaining the safety of both horses and riders was of the utmost importance to the IEG team and Bellissimo elaborated on the group’s efforts to build a thrilling and technical course, while always keeping the well-being of competitors at the forefront of the competition objective.
“We started talking with Captain Mark Phillips and said, ‘First, let’s make it safe.’ Together with him and Michael [Stone], who always is the one who has to execute these things, we decided on a CCI 1*-like course and took it one step further by ensuring that every competitor be an FEI CCI 4* rider, aboard FEI CCI 2* qualified horses, except for Dom, who almost fell off, but what’s great is that we were able to create a very safe event that was still very exciting to watch,” smiled Bellissimo. “We were making adjustments to the course for safety all afternoon and we saw them pay off. I think the format of this event is very interesting, as well.”
