Maya Black Clinches CCI3* Victory at Plantation Field

Maya Black of Upperville, VA won the CCI3* at the Plantation Field International Horse Trials in Unionville, PA riding FE Black Ice on their dressage score of 25.20. Hannah Sue Burnett on Capital M finished in a close second on a score of 26.10 with Natalia Neneman and Electric Lux rounding out the top three on 28.80. Overnight leader Boyd Martin, who was placed first and second after dressage and show jumping, took the cross country slow as was his plan after returning to competition following rehab from an injury. He finished well down the leader board in 10th place riding Christine Turner’s On Cue and 15th with the syndicated Long Island T.

Black was full of praise for her horse, who had also had some time off. “He had done a few four-stars a couple of years ago and then had a year off due to injury,” said Black, who explained that her preparation for the event was minimal since so many competitions have been canceled due to the Covid-19 virus. “I did one prelim a minute too slow at Waredaca earlier this year and that’s all. He’s an extremely honest horse and easy to jump; I didn’t give him the prep I normally would but with the lack of events this year, I came into the weekend less prepared than usual. He was prepared fitness-wise obviously but has hasn’t been out that much for the past year and a half and isn’t used to being around other horses. He definitely rose to the occasion and did a really nice dressage test.”

She said, “He’s a pretty big, lanky horse and a lovely mover. As a ten-year-old he’s finally getting strong enough to hold his big movements together, so I was pleased with his score of 25. He jumped double clear in the show jumping and on cross country he came out like the horse I remember: he just galloped around and was so easy.”

Black has won the four-star a Plantation Field previously and placed second in the three-star last year on Miks Master C, the horse that she is now competing in the CCI4*-S. “I love putting in a good galloping round here and have a lot of fun doing it,” she said.

Meghan Donohue and Palm Crescent finished 13th overall to win the Valant Trophy for the highest-placing Thoroughbred in the CCI3-S. Donohue only recently acquired the horse from the Shipka family, and said that she did a steady round with him today in preparation for the CCI4-L at Tryon in November. “He’s 14 this year and has done quite a lot at the four-star level and hopefully with go to a five-star next year,” she said. The gelding previously raced at Charlestown, WV and was acquired by CANTER Mid-Atlantic before beginning his sport horse career.

In the CCI4*-S Liz Halliday-Sharp maintained her lead riding Deniro Z, owned by Ocala Horse Properties, with a clear show jumping round.
“He was awesome, he really tries now in that phase,” she said. “All the horses were a bit fresh and feral, but it’s the coldest day they’ve seen in a while, so fair enough. The course was very proper, he had .4 time faults but I think that was because I wasn’t very efficient. I thought it was a challenging course and the time was a real element, which is good for all of us. It rode well and rewarded us for putting the horse on the right line which is important.”

Halliday-Sharp has three horses competing in the four-star division “Flash Cooley is an unbelievable jumper,” she said. “I was a bit over on the time but he was quite spooky and looking around the turns – he’s a careful jumper I was very pleased with him. Cooley Quicksilver was good; it was probably not his best jumping round ever, but he jumped well. He had the rail in the middle of the treble, but I think the line I took at fence 10 didn’t set him up well.”

Of the cross country course, after her gallop around the three-star, she said, “I thought the footing rode well and the course looked great this evening when I walked the four-star. It’s pretty good considering the weather has been dry, and hopefully the horses will run well tomorrow.”

In the CCI4-S Phillip Dutton of West Grove, PA and Z are in second place with 27.30 and Will Faudree of Southern Pines, NC and Pfun are third with 30.20. The event concludes tomorrow with all three phases of the Preliminary horse trials, the CCI2-S show jumping and the CCI4*-S cross-country.