Nineteen horse and rider combinations contested for the lump sum €100,000 in prize money in the Equita Masters, presented by Equitheme, on Saturday, November 4, 2017.
The event, hosted at the Equita Lyon CSI5*-W horse show in France, featured a 12-obstacle-course designed by Grégory Bodo. Of the entered pairings, ten returned for the jump off, with Belgium’s Pieter Devos and the 11-year-old BWP stallion Gin D (Clinton I x Skippy II) producing the winning time of 38.90s.
“I’m delighted. Last weekend in the FEI Longines World Cup in Verona, [Gin D] was faultless in the Grand Prix with a [time fault],” noted Devos. “I hesitated to take him to Lyon, thinking that it might still be a little too early.
“Yesterday, he [had zero jumping faults] with one [time fault]. Today, I’ve already been able to go faster. We have [made] the time allotted and now we won. It’s a little better each time.”
Lauren Hough of the United States and the 14-year-old KWPN gelding Waterford (Coolcorron Cool Diamond x Julio Mariner XX) rode to a speedy 39.22s for 2nd place.
Third place went to Alberto Zorzi of Italy and the 13-year-old OS mare Contanga (Catoki x Contango), who crossed the timers in 39.93s.
The best French performance of the night went to Pénélope Leprevost and Urano de Cartigny, the nine-year-old Selle Francais stallion (Diamant de Semilly x Double Espoir). They secured the 4th placing on four faults in 36.77s.
The full results can be viewed here.