Florencio Hernandez of Mexico designed a course of 16 obstacles, and eight horse and rider combinations jumped clear first rounds. The weather wasn’t making the already difficult task any easier, as dust swept through the arena, and crews reset sandbags to tether the jumps from the high winds.
Half of the pairs posted double clears, with Lisa Carlsen and Parette kicking off the second round. Hasbrouck and Boukati B chased down Carlsen’s time, and shaved off only a little of it—coming in at 40.223 seconds. The crowd held their breath as Archer jumped through the short course, and cheered loudly when they put a new lead time on the board: 38.073 seconds.
Archer had to wait for four more entries to jump before she could celebrate her victory. Nathalie Manning and her own Con Spirit pulled a rail at A in the combination, and Jill Henselwood with John Madigan’s Farfleu Du Printemps were the fastest of the day with a round in 36.006 seconds, but they had the first of the combination down.
It looked like Archer might be beat by Duff and EH All or None, because they left all the rails up. However, Archer’s time was just slightly quicker!
Kristin Hardin and Firestone, owned by Nicole Teague, as well as Ashlee Bond and Agro Star, owned by Little Valley Farms, closed out the eight in the jump-off. They both had speedy rounds with unfortunate rails, and they placed out of the top five.