Madeline Backus and Lynn Roberts’ 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding Reflektion’s Rio (Reggasoni x L.A. Baltic Reflektion) led the Training Horse division wire-to-wire to take home the win on a score of 27.4, finishing the weekend four points ahead of the competition.
“He’s been stellar all week and he’s a bit hit-or-miss with show jumping – sometimes we’ll go in and he’ll be great others he pulls down a lot,” Backus explained. “We tried a new thing today and it worked and I’m really proud of him.”
“[We tried] very little warmup – like one fence,” she elaborated. “It was very nerve-wracking for me but he’s got like 15 good fences in him before he starts not caring. He got in the ring and I think the atmosphere helped. It’s so great to be able to bring younger horses into this arena. I think that atmosphere set him back a little and he was more careful – it was great, I was really proud of him.”
Backus will be giving Rio a little vacation before deciding what’s in store for the fall season. “He’s going to get a little break after this,” she said. “He’s one that we take our time with. He’s 12 this year but we just take it slow and go with what he needs. He’ll get a break and we’ll schedule our fall season after that.”
“I love the American Eventing Championships, I’ve been coming to them for so many years,” Backus said. “Being from Colorado we travel a lot so it’s nice that it’s in Kentukcy because I think it’s a little closer than some of the locations have been and it’s so fun to get out here and be competing next to big names and seeing everyone again. It’s amazing that we’ve had so many entries this show – it’s just really incredible. Thanks to all the sponsors for making it possible and all the volunteers because without them we wouldn’t be able to do it.”