NEWS
April 3, 2009
THE BEAT GOES ON FOR RUMBA AT HITS THERMAL
He and John French pull off a second consecutive hunter derby win.
Rumba and John French faced lofty expectations walking into the ring for the $10,000 ASG Software Solutions USHJA Hunter Derby  during the HITS Desert Circuit VIII. Despite partnering with two new riders, Rumba had already danced away with two series titles and tallied a win at the derby held during week 3 of HITS Thermal.
But Mountain Hill Stables’ Rumba saved his best performance for his last class of the circuit, scoring a decisive victory over Tonia Cook-Looker’s Forbes with Jenny Karazissis on March 22 in Thermal, Calif. A no-holds-barred handy round secured third for Keri Kampsen and On Top.
“I wasn’t sure we could do two in a row, but he pulled it off,” said French. “The derbies are really good for him because they keep him on his toes. After spending all winter in the same hunter rings you need to perk them up a little bit, and he was just stellar tonight.”
The 13 entries competed under lights on the spectator-lined grand prix field over John Manning’s courses. French and Rumba served as pathfinders and set the bar high with a flawless trip over the 4' options, earning 84 and 88, the two highest scores of the trip. While the atmosphere surrounding the course set many of the tenser horses on edge, Rumba barely batted an eye as he galloped around.
The handy round gave riders a chance to show off their well-schooled mounts with plenty of options for tight turns and a walk, trot, canter combination.
The boldest riders hopped over a row of decorative rocks or a liverpool. But bravado backfired time and time again, as several riders who attempted a tight rollback over a pair of delicate 4' split rail fences suffered rails. And a few riders who tried to incorporate the rocks into their course en route to a long five-stride line found the turn too awkward to showcase their horses’ handiness.
While professionals dominated the class, several junior riders took the opportunity to tune up their equitation mounts. Hap Hansen split the difference, tacking up 2007 USEF Talent Search Finals-West winner Y2K to show the field exactly how it should be done, but an unlucky rail marred their brazen trip. All three of Karazissis’ rides looked nearly undone by the atmosphere of the evening in the first round, but the veteran hunter rider didn’t let her mounts’ apprehension change her plan to go for broke. The careful Forbes secured the red ribbon with a ground-covering gallop and neat turns in the handy round.
When it came time for French to bring Rumba back, he’d already seen the perils of the course and opted for caution.
“I’d never done a walk, trot, canter combination before,” confessed French. “I was a little worried that he might knock down the walk jump; that’s pretty easy to do. We came in with a considerable lead so we could have jumped the rocks or the liverpool on the way to the next jump. It would have been pretty daring, but I figured, ‘Why take a chance?’ ”
His decision paid off as he secured the highest scores of the day, 90 and 88 with 4 bonus points from each set of judges, to notch a decisive victory. The win came on the heels of just five weeks of showing, which yielded circuit titles with Taylor Seibel in the large junior hunters, 16-17, and the second year green hunters with French.
“I have a lot of faith in Rumba, but I certainly didn’t go in the ring thinking that we would win two in a row,” said French. “This is an amazing horse who has gone so well with Taylor and me. He has the best attitude. We got him at the start of the year with the intention that he’ll be passed on to Taylor’s little sister when she’s ready. He’ll be a horse for them forever.”
Mollie Bailey
Reprinted with permission of The Chronicle of the Horse
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