It seems that the leadership of new eventing Chef d’Equipe David O’Connor is starting to pay off for Team USA. This past weekend, a team of US riders competed at the Pau CCI**** event in France; a competition that pitted them against some of the best event riders in the world. Among the eventers riding for the USA was West Grove, PA resident Phillip Dutton who rides and trains right here in Eastern PA.
Phillip and his mount Mr. Medicott put in a lovely dressage test on the first day of competition to sit in 7th place - an excellent result that gave Phillip high hopes for the rest of the event.
On Saturday the pair cruised around the cross country course, clearing every jump with just 0.4 time penalties, and making it look easy. Both Phillip and Mr. Medicott are very experienced at the 4-star level, and their combined skill had them sitting pretty in 4th place after cross country day. Incredibly, British rider William Fox-Pitt held 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place rankings on the three horses he brought to Pau!
In the sport of eventing, it all comes down to the show jumping phase on the final day. Everything can change with just a few downed rails. William Fox-Pitt surprisingly had 7 fences down between his three mounts, but still managed to clinch first and third place. Phillip had two rails down, but it was good enough to hang onto fourth. Perhaps with more results like this, the USA will begin to work their way up to being an international powerhouse in eventing once more.
Congratulations, Phillip! It’s always exciting to see Pennsylvania represented on an international stage!
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