Kristen Vanderveen & Bull Run’s Faustino De Tili. ph: Andrew Ryback Photography
On Thursday, August 17, 2017, USA’s Kristen Vanderveen and the 13-year-old Selle Francais gelding Bull Run’s Testify (Dollar Du Murier x Oberon Du Moulin) won the $34,900 KindredBio Welcome at the HITS Chicago Horse Show. Three days later, on Sunday, August 20, Vanderveen returned with the 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion Faustino de Tili (Berlin x Darco), piloting him to a 1st place finish in the $200,000 HITS Balmoral Grand Prix.
In the feature event of the inaugural CSI4* competition, 45 entries vied for a podium placing at the historic Balmoral Park in Chicago, USA. Ultimately, it would be Vanderveen who secured the win with the leading jump-off round.
Aboard “Frosty”, her partner of nearly three years, Vanderveen won her first CSI5* competition in the $380,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix at the Tryon International Equestrian Center on June 12, 2016. At the same venue in Tryon, North Carolina, the two most recently won the June 4, 2017, $130,000 Asheville/Greenville BMW Centers’ Grand Prix CSI3*.
USA’s Nicole Shahinian Simpson finished in 2nd place aboard the 9-year-old American Hanoverian mare Akuna Mattata (Quinar x Landwind II).
Coming off of his 1st place win in the August 18th, $52,500 SmartPak Classic, Mexico’s Santiago Lambre and the nine-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Dingeman (Ninteder x Darnels) finished in an eventual 3rd place. The duo most recently secured a 2nd place finish in the $50,000 Grand Traverse Grand Prix CSI2* in Traverse City, Michigan.
The full results can be viewed here.