Canada’s ladies steal the limelight
Back to back triumphs for Canadian women saw victory for Tiffany Foster and Battlecry at ‘Saturday Night Lights’ followed by Amy Millar closing out week three of the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] with a victory in the FEI 4* 1m50 Classic aboard Christiano.
“Tiff and I are so excited,” said Amy. “It’s an Olympic year and we both have our eyes firmly planted on that so I hope the world starts noticing that the Canadian ladies are coming.”
Tiffany, who won the $215,000 CSI4* Grand Prix topping an opening field of 45 recognized the toughness of the competition this year at WEF.
“We’ve seen some pretty big guns winning here,” she said. “And I think that’s a testament to everybody getting ready for this Olympic year and coming knowing that this is the premier winter circuit in the world.”
Amy and Christiano, a 14-year old bay German Sport Horse gelding, faced stiff competition with 20 in the jump off, but, second to go, their time of 39.36 proved uncatchable. Things did not go to plan, the irony being, the new plan and the early slot in the running order may have given her the win. “It was a long way between those first two jumps,” she said.
She planned to leave out two strides and make the distance in nine. “I took off like that was the plan but it was not there, so I did a really fast ten and I think if I’d have time to watch other people I probably just would have planned on ten and that would have been way slower.”
Amy is also strategizing at WEF for her Olympic partnership with Truman. “He has lots of experience so I’m going to use him precisely and sparingly this winter.”
She will show the 15-year old bay Selle Francais gelding during week five when the course designer for the Paris Olympics, France’s Gregory Bodo, will be setting the tracks. “That same course designer shows up in Canada on the west coast so I will take him there,” she said, adding, “Canada really wants to go to Aachen if anyone at Aachen is listening. We really want to do that and that would get us ready.”
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